A Christian Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
contributed by Lee Soo Ann, 17 June 2020
I am writing in a personal capacity about the response of a local Christian congregation and an inter-denominational Christian organization called the Bible Society of Singapore (新加坡圣经公会). To many Christians, their response was to meet new needs of the community generated by the pandemic.
Christians have always been in the forefront of social services such as in education, health and care for pre-school children, after-school child care and the elderly. I am familiar with three major Christian social service organisations such as the Anglican Welfare Services, Methodist Welfare Services and the Presbyterian Community Services (of which I am currently an hon. Adviser). The pandemic brought to light new community needs. As a result, new initiatives have been started, providing home and courage.
The plight of the homeless was one such need: under a circuit breaker advisory, all persons in Singapore were to stay at home. But where was home to the homeless? Throughout and after the circuit breaker period, the Bible Society opened its 2nd floor covered car park to 10 homeless by setting up cardboard partitions which separated portable light-weight beds. The building in 7 Armenian Street had toilets on the 4th floor. The persons invited to sleep there were identified with the help of another Christian organization, the Catholic Welfare Services which was a pioneer in providing accommodation to these “rough sleepers” as they were called, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Family Services and Youth (MFS).
Catholic churches had for some time been providing a home to the homeless as some space in the churches was available 24 hours a day. One of my former graduate students working in MFS alerted me to the plight of the homeless which recently came to the attention of the MFS.
Charitable services initiated by the Bible Society of Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic (Source: The Monthly Newsletter of the Bible Society of Singapore, Word at Work (A Covid-19 Special Edition) June 2020)
The local church I knew also increased its capacity to house the homeless from 3 to 6. It had previously set up an “Oasis” in the conversion of a room in that church to a shelter for 3 adults. It now set up another room which could house 3 more rough sleepers. Many local churches could have done so were it not for the fact that their rooms had equipment and could not be isolated for housing homeless people. This is not so for Catholic churches which therefore could provide for the homeless much earlier.
As for the Bible Society of Singapore, it went further in meeting some needs of the foreign migrant workers ‘community which were hard hit by the COVD19 pandemic. It collaborated with an alliance of Christian groups concerned with such a community in providing meals to those who had to go for testing and treatment. Many other foreign workers were told not to go to work but they were not provided with food which they had to purchase with their own money. Several thousand foreign workers were helped in this way.
Providentially the Bible Society had set up a charity arm prior to the pandemic and this arm managed to raise funds for this purpose. The mission of the Bible Society is to provide bibles and other scripture resources and also do translation of the bible into the hundreds of languages in which it is not available yet. The care of the homeless and migrant workers left without food provisions was new to its mission but the opportunity to care for the vulnerable sections of the society affected by the pandemic gave substance to its ultimate goal of providing for all persons in mind, body and spirit.
Lee Soo Ann is an Emeritus Professor at the Department of Economics, National University of Singapore. He is currently active as president of the Bible Society of Singapore, after having been its general secretary in 1990-2003. He is an elder of the Presbyterian Church of Singapore. He graduated with his Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore and also with a master’s in Christian studies from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the blog editorial team or the Asia Research Institute.
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