Union Baptist’s Rev. Harrison: ‘God Is Still on Our Side’

Rev. Michael H. Harrison, Sr., pastor at Union Baptist Church in Youngstown, is coming back strong. You can read more about Union Baptist at its website.

What are some ways COVID-19 has affected your organization, and what are you doing to manage its impact?

We have been affected to the point that we no longer can worship in our sanctuary because of COVID guidelines. But we have managed to respond to the limitations in two ways. One, we stream on several platforms. With Facebook, our website and YouTube, or we have been extremely successful in maintaining congregational strength and commitment. Second, when the weather is warm enough, we have worship in the parking lots with the use of a public address system for outdoors, as well as an FM transmitter for those who cannot see because of the crowd but can hear through their radios. We also utilize Zoom for fellowship chats that keep the congregation members in visual touch with one another.

What has been the response of your congregation so far?

The congregation so far totally understands why we are where we are and because of deaths that have happened in the congregation due to COVID, safety is more important than anything else.

How has COVID affected your personal life, and how have you dealt with it?

The pandemic has affected me personally as well as my family with the inability to travel and enjoy life as we have become accustomed to. It denies us opportunity for family to fellowship together on holidays and to enjoy my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. It places myself and my wife in a position where have to be creative and overwhelmingly cautious in what we do, where we go and how long we go where we go. We have to plan ahead of time where we go and consistently sanitize our hands, consistently use levels of caution that we’ve never had to use before and make these a part of our everyday existence. Mentally, it’s stressful because there are so many components that pull on me from so many different directions. But faith in God — trusting Him — has brought us to this point and will take us through it. 

How do you feel about the recently approved COVID vaccines, and what are your plans regarding vaccination?

The vaccine is still an issue in our community because of a high level of mistrust from past practices of racist experimentation in our community as well as the mistrust of this present administration. We are urging our members to speak with their personal physicians for their recommendations and as soon as we have received the appropriate information we will proceed from there.

What advice or thoughts are you sharing with those you love? 

I’m sharing that we will get through this and God is still on our side no matter what the situation. This is not the first problem we have faced and it won’t be the last but we stand together strong in our faith and watch God do the rest.