A patient receiving a flu shot during a clinic at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, located at 410 N. Main St., Jamestown. St. Luke's will be hosting a celebration of health care workers during a special service Sunday, Oct.. 17. Submitted photo

To ensure that people will continue to appreciate the role health care workers are playing during the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown will be hosting a celebration for medical personnel.

The special service will take place at 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 17.

“At St. Luke’s we are committed to loving our neighbors by protecting our public health,” said the Rev. Luke Fodor. “In partnership with Rite Aid, we recently hosted a free Flu Clinic right during our Sunday morning services. Since St. Luke is the patron saint of healing and physicians, we decided to host a special Service for Healthcare Workers on this year’s feast day of St. Luke, which the church celebrates on Oct. 18 each year.”

Nurse practitioner Elizabeth Gattman will be the guest preacher during the celebration, offering prayers for community health care workers.

“I think now everyone is tired, jaded and a bit demoralized,” Gattman said. “As new data came in and recommendations changed based on this, the changes were seen as weaknesses or lack of knowledge, rather than evidence-based practice. Then comes people’s own experiences or anecdotal evidence, which seems to contradict what the science is saying. All of this is combined in the general community with a ‘lack of faith’ in medical/science community. Suddenly even though I’ve gone to seven years of college to study this, and the who people come to me, trusting me with their health, struggle to trust or believe what I say about epidemiology, covid or vaccines.”

Community members are welcome to submit the names of health care workers they would like to have prayed for by name. To have yourself or a loved one included on this list, contact the church office at 483-6405 or stlukes@stlukesjamestown.org.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is located at 410 N. Main St., on the corner of Fourth and Main streets in Jamestown.