After a two-and-a-half-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jehovah’s Witnesses have resumed their door-to-door ministry, reviving a religious practice that the faith regards as vital and cherished.
For the first time since March 2020, members of the Christian denomination spread out in metropolitan areas and towns across the country on Thursday to share literature and talk about God.
In the early days of the pandemic’s beginnings in the United States, Jehovah’s Witnesses postponed door-knocking, as did much of the rest of society. The organization also suspended all public meetings at its 13,000 congregations across the country and canceled 5,600 annual gatherings around the world, an unparalleled step that was not taken even during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people worldwide.
Witnesses decided to continue their ministry by sending letters and making calls, but it wasn’t the same because it completely lacks a personal touch, according to Robert Hendriks, the denomination’s national spokesperson.
“To us, going door to door is an expression of our God’s impartiality,” he said. “We go to everyone and let them choose whether they want to hear us or not.”
