Latino Faith Leaders Hold Teleconference on Coronavirus

The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) conducted a bilingual, virtual national town hall Wednesday evening to address concerns and provide guidance to their network of 45,000 churches on how to best respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

Conference president Rev. Samuel Rodriguez moderated the event and was joined by Rev. Tony Suarez, NHCLC executive vice president, Dr. Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors, and Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders.

Clinton and Moore have also been working with the Trump administration to coordinate the faith community’s engagement with the federal coronavirus response.

Rodriguez acknowledged that “These are difficult times indeed,” but added that difficult times are when people of faith turn to their religious leaders.

“I am prayerfully hopeful, and I actually believe it’s not a coincidence that this generation in the church is alive for such a time as this during the course of this pandemic,” Rodriguez said. “This very well may be a pivotal time for the church.”

Moore challenged faith leaders to see the opportunity for the church that the difficult times present.

“This is an unbelievable moment for the church. This is a time when we step in and do more than we have ever done before,” Moore said.

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