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Since Monday November
16 thousands of members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in South Korea
have been arriving at the Indoor Athletics Stadium in Daegu City to
participate in donating much needed blood plasma.
This will be the
third drive in which members of the church who fully recovered from COVID-19
participate to help others fight the virus with plasma treatment. The
donation drive will continue for the next three weeks and about 4,000 members
of the church are expected to participate.
Shincheonji, an
international church group with more than 200,000 members worldwide, was
severely hit in February this year with thousands of its members being
infected by COVID-19 and lead to great distress, with infections rising in
South Korea.
Mr Man Hee Lee, the
chairman of Shincheonji Church said in a statement that, “Too many people are
suffering because of COVID-19, especially with those who were infected in
church last February that cause distress to the members and the citizens (of
South Korea).” He urged members of the church to help in the fight against
COVID-19 by donating their blood plasma.
In some countries
blood plasma treatment yielded great success with the Korean Disease Control
and Prevention Agency (KDCA) stating, “It is necessary to quickly develop
plasma treatment through group plasma donations, in the current absence of an
effective treatment in the midst of the continuous occurrence of COVID-19 at
home and abroad.”
“We are grateful for
the active participation of Shincheonji, and for the cooperation of the City
of Daegu,” Mr Kwon Joon-wook deputy director of the Central Disaster and
Safety Countermeasure Headquarters in South Korea said in a press statement.
Meanwhile Mr Lee
acknowledged that millions of people worldwide are suffering physically but
also financially as a result of coronavirus and called for this past weekend
to pray for our global society affected by the ongoing pandemic. A Global
Interfaith Prayer Event was held simultaneously around the world with more
than 200,000 in attendance from 73 countries, including hundreds from
southern Africa.
“We should actively
put in our effort and pray to God for the people, and for the pandemic to
end,” Mr Lee said while urging all people of faith to gather to pray for an
effective vaccine to be made available worldwide as soon as possible.
Many religious
leaders from southern Africa answered this call for prayer and joined with
the global faith community on Sunday 15 November by participating in this
online interfaith event which was live-streamed on YouTube.
“The
significance of praying together as religious leaders, it’s incomparable.
It’s high time that we unite in prayer and when we unite in prayer, miracles
begin to happen,” Rev Phumzile Stofile, Vice Chairperson of the ANC
Chaplaincy in South Africa said after the prayer event.
According to the
founder of Shincheonji the Global Prayer Event is especially meaningful in
that it transcends different Christian denominations and religions to take
charge in overcoming this crisis.
With thousands of
people of faith having participated in the global prayer event, one such
participant said, “I have realized that the power to overcome COVID-19 is
tolerance, love and unity. We will put in our utmost effort to overcome
COVID-19.”
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