With the U.S. festival coordinators meetings approaching, I am reminded of a subject that we need to mention from time to time throughout the year. Each year, shortly before the Feast of Tabernacles, we remind the brethren that anyone who has a communicable illness should not attend the festival. However, we need to keep the same principle in mind year-round with regard to Sabbath services and church activities.
If a person is ill with a cold, flu, cough, or other illness that can be spread to others, he or she should not come to services or church activities. If a child has a contagious illness, he or she should not be brought to services. Parents should learn the symptoms of childhood illnesses and be concerned about the welfare of others so that no one is needlessly exposed. If there is any doubt about whether to come to services when ill, or whether to bring a sick child, members should call a minister. Ministers, of course, are not doctors, and should not advise as if they were doctors. They should advise anyone whose symptoms seem to indicate a communicable disease to stay home until he is well, or until a medical doctor diagnoses him as not being contagious.
Occasionally a baby will have symptoms from teething that resemble a cold but are not — such as a runny nose, slight fever, or diarrhea. Parents in God's Church should not assume their baby is only teething and therefore allow other children to be exposed to him at services or church activities. Babies exhibiting such symptoms should be kept at home if for no other reason than to avoid setting a wrong example for others who may not realize the baby is only teething. It is not wise or right in God's sight to take chances with the health and well-being of others.
As Mr. Armstrong has explained (see PASTOR GENERAL’S REPORT' August 17 1984), if a person who has a contagious illness is anointed, he should wait until all symptoms are gone, and he is totally well before coming back to services. Let him be healed on the strength of his faith, but he should not return to services and possibly expose others until every physical symptom is gone, and the healing is complete.
God's Law is a law of love. It is based upon true concern for the good and well-being of others. God Himself authored the laws of quarantine in the ancient nation of Israel. Those laws are based on love for fellowman. As God's spiritual Israelites today, we do not want to become inconsiderate or selfish by attending services or activities when we have illnesses that can be spread to others.
I'd like to ask your prayers for the upcoming festival coordinators meetings, to be held February 22nd and 24th. Coordinators representing each of the 24 U.S. Feast sites (including China and Jerusalem) as well as representatives from the Canadian, Spanish, French and Italian Feast sites will be attending.
Ordinations
At Sabbath services in Trinidad on August 18, 1984, Mr. Mikey Mungal was ordained a local church elder. Hands were laid on him by evangelist Mr. Gerald Waterhouse and Caribbean Regional Director Mr. Stan Bass. Also ordained a local church elder was Mr. Robert Thompson, who serves in the Auckland, New Zealand congregation. Evangelist Mr. Raymond McNair and New Zealand Regional Director Peter Nathan performed the ceremony October 10, 1984 at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles.
FROM MINISTERIAL SERVICES
Worldwide Church of God