Over the past four years, The Rev. José Rodríguez and the Iglesia Episcopal Jesús de Nazaret in the Azalea Park neighborhood of Orlanod have stepped up to lead the community with voter drives and natural disaster relief. Now, the church is on the front lines of the effort to combat COVID-19, conducting a series of vaccination drives targeted to help marginalized Hispanic and Black communities.

“The pandemic popped up, and we sat down internally, and said, ‘This is no different than Hurricane Maria; this is no different than voter registration or registering for the census,’” Rodríguez said. “‘Our community is at the end of a disparity. So why don’t we use our community partnerships and our grassroots experience to go out and vaccinate?’”

Church members go into the community to register people for vaccination appointments, which are held at the church. During Jesús de Nazaret’s first event, more than 500 received shots, and the church then began referring people to similar events at other churches. When one church wasn’t able to host, Jesús de Nazaret held a spur-of-the-moment event, registering people who received their vaccinations the same day.

The church had a goal of six vaccination drives in honor of members lost to COVID-19. By the end of this week, Jesús de Nazaret will have conducted five, with two more planned.

“I don’t think there’s any church in Florida that has hosted five vaccinations,” Rev. Rodríguez said. “To think that there’s a little Hispanic church in the Diocese of Central Florida, in the middle of Orlando, that has been able to do five events, not because of Father José, not because of Father Charles [Meyers, rector, St. John the Baptist, Orlando] partnering with me, but because we have a team of dedicated laypeople.”

Rodríguez also credits an impressive team of partners for helping make the events happen, including the Hispanic Federation, SOS by Urbander, Alianza for Progress and Florida state Reps. Daisy Morales, Carlos Guillermo Smith, Anna Eskamani and state Sen. Victor Torres.

“We’ve been partnering grassroots, so we know how to reach the community at the restaurants, at the supermarkets, in the parking lots,” Rodríguez said. He said that even though Black and Hispanic communities account for 40% of Florida’s population, only 10-13% of COVID-19 vaccinations are going to those people groups. They are what has been termed “vaccine-resistant” communities, and some have erroneously placed the blame on those communities for their hesitancy. But Rodríguez believes the problem lies with communication and the efforts of the messengers.

“I’ve come to realize that when you meet people where they are, you can overcome obstacles that are keeping them from getting vaccinated,” he said. “Everything we do is for Jesus, right? So, when we have unreached people, oftentimes we instinctively blame the people. And in reality, we should look inward to the message – and I’m the messenger. For our vaccine event, the messengers took responsibility for getting the promotion out. We did it in a way that would reach the people, and we have succeeded.”

The church wants to get the message out, not to draw attention to itself and not only to serve the community, but also to inspire others to follow its lead and get on the frontlines of spreading hope to their communities.

“We are trying to shout the story from as many pulpits, as many platforms, as many newspapers as possible, not because we want people to sing our praises, but because we want people to replicate what we’re doing,” Rodríguez said. “If you say they’re vaccine resistant, you’re falling into a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if you look inward and say, ‘There’s something I need to do to get the job done, then you’ll find what the Lord wants for you to do to get the job done.’”