“This time last year, we couldn’t come to the shrine,” he preached to his congregation at the Greater New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit. “This time last year we had to deal with coronavirus in the initial phase. Last year this time I had to have Easter all alone in my basement.”
Flowers themselves had Covid-19. His wife, Terri Flowers, was also in hospital with the virus at the time. But this resurrection Sunday, about a year later, was different – in part because Flowers told his congregation to get vaccinated against the virus.
“If God can use doctors for cardiology, if God can use doctors for oncology and cancer, then certainly God can use doctors for Covid-19,” Flowers told CNN. It doesn’t mean you don’t have faith. You have to have your faith, but you also have to use the doctors to get the vaccination. “
Some political leaders – including President Joe Biden, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan – have called on religious leaders, especially in communities of color such as Flowers’, to urge their congregations to get vaccinated .
Terri Flowers said she and her husband tell churchgoers that getting the vaccine is “painless.”
“Covid isn’t painless, however,” she told CNN. “And now that I’ve been in the hospital myself … more than nine days in the same time last year, I can only tell those who haven’t been vaccinated that it’s okay to get vaccinated.”
The state added 8,400 new cases in one day over the holiday weekend – the most since December, according to data from Michigan’s health department. State health officials are calling it a “third wave” of the virus, with Michigan also fighting a host of cases of coronavirus variants.
It has not been easy for some members of the flower congregation to come up with the idea of taking the photo.
Deacon Harry Mont said he was initially skeptical of the vaccine.
“I used to be a little hesitant, but I had to look around to understand that people are coming to get vaccinated,” he told CNN.
“I hear things about the after effects and what have you got, but I had to look further and say what am I going to do instead of protecting those around me?”
Mont, who has now received both doses of a vaccine, said he is slowly seeing more confidence in his fellow churchgoers.
He said the shift in community attitudes could be due to the church having its own vaccination clinic in mid-March.
According to Flowers, the church has vaccinated more than 200 people in its clinic. The second doses will be administered in mid-April.
Flowers described several congregants who cited his guidance as the main reason they were vaccinated – including an 85-year-old woman who told him she had no intention of getting the vaccine until they heard a recent sermon from him.
“The message is correct,” said Flowers. “There have been people who told me I wouldn’t do it, Pastor, but after hearing from you, I decided to go ahead and get vaccinated, so I praise God for that.”
Some members of the community said they believe progress has been made in vaccinating people and wearing masks to help combat Covid.
“I think we’re making progress in this area in communities of color,” said congregation member Sandra Sloan, who said she has encouraged her family members to also get the vaccine.
The Sunday resurrection service had a smaller in-person audience this year as many congregants have continued to view the Church’s services online, Flowers said.
But the Flowers’ message to both personal and virtual churchgoers remained clear.
“There will always be someone who has doubts,” said Terri Flowers. And for them we can only pray for them. We can only keep encouraging them and just be there for them. But luckily on the other hand, all I can say is just do it. ‘