Beating a hasty retreat to an online presence, the clergy of New York City left a littered trail of causalities to the enemy virus. Hundreds have “Moved to Heaven.”
With the help of local religious leaders, A Journey through NYC religions has been keeping a list of the clergy and ministry leaders who were stricken down by the virus. So far, we have a list of almost two hundred and fifty names, though we are still in the process of verifying the information. As we report on the details of their lives, we will publish as many “Moved to Heaven” notices as we can afford to do. (We need your donations to do this.) The clergy include scores of pastors, priests, and as well as imams and those clergy from other faiths.
Most were 55 years of age, and many had pre-existing conditions. The clergy came into contact with the virus mainly in interactions in which they were comforting congregants and strangers stricken by their own tragedies. Some were taken by the virus while they were themselves patients in a hospital.
Fernando Caberera, City Council member, thought in early March that their churches were going to be vulnerable to the plague. “There are two dynamics that make us vulnerable. First, churches are families, and so, there are a lot of interactions and closeness. Pastors are counseling, families are gathering. So, pastors are exposed to many families.”
The passing of so many religious leaders means a large “coronavirus gap” in the supply of congregational and non-profit leadership. Cabrera, who is also pastor of New Life Bronx in Kingsbridge Heights, says that the high number of deaths in such a short period of time has never been experienced before. “The tragedy is that we will have a leadership vacuum in the city.” Scores of food pantries and other ministries are also affected, many shutting down because the pastors who lead them have died.
For smaller churches, the pastor and spouse relied on the church for their retirement and apartment. Now, widows and widowers are facing disaster. Congregations are stunned and bewildered about what to do.
The plague has also killed many bishops, which means that mentors are now lacking for younger pastors. Cabrera recalls one bishop who died had turned over the church to his mentee who then died a week later.
The death of younger leaders who were beginning to take on additional responsibility also means that plans for growing the congregations and rising up experienced leaders are being torn up. In several cases, death tragically struck bi-vocational pastors who had waited their whole lives to move into full-time ministry after their children could support themselves.
Luis Miguel Thomas moved to Heaven
One such victim was Luis Miguel Thomas, age 54, who went to heaven on April 6 at 8:18 pm just days before he was to defend his dissertation for the doctorate in ministry.
Thomas was a man who could fill the room. When he was excited about helping someone at his Methodist church, his voice would resonate through the air. Friends and family remember this vocal presence as one of his characteristics. “He spoke very loud, everything he did was very loud. He was one of those people where you always know they’re there and when he talks to you, you know he meant what he was saying,” said one church member.
He was excited to go back to school to earn his bachelors, masters and doctorate. From his job as a groundskeeper at a hospital in New Jersey, he fed his kids, paid for shelter, and with his wife raised them to do better in the world.
Born in Salcedo, the capital of the Mirabel region in the Dominican Republic, he brought some of its tradition of standing up for the rights of people. He wanted to get ahead in life and came to New York City when he was 18. He and his wife Marina then raised their three children Luis, Liz, and Licelot to value education.
It was not easy as an immigrant. He went through many trials and struggles but when Thomas started going to school, he grew in his vision of helping people. His eldest son Luis recalls, “After all of the struggles and the trials which he had been through, he was filled with love all of a sudden and with the purpose [of] wanting to make the world a better place. So, he started working on himself and really believing in God and believing that everything was going to be okay.”
For years, Thomas shared his family’s resources for people in need. College and seminary gave him a deeper understanding of how his personal compassion fit within God’s plan. Luis says that the family found out that his father “was sending money to people that weren’t even part of his family — his friends, strangers that maybe knew somebody from the family…there was a gentleman who didn’t have a job,” who thought he could find work if he had a camera. “My father bought him a camera, sent it over, and now the man is working as a photographer.”
Luis remembers how hard he worked while also studying full-time to get a Bachelor’s degree from Monroe College. Thomas told him, “I’m not just telling you to go to school; I’m going to do it too.” As the children left the house, the father seemed to anticipate expanding his responsibilities in his church. “And all of the things he taught us,” his son recalls, he was determined to teach others.”
The father entered a master of divinity program and had finished his doctoral dissertation at New York Theological Seminary. This institution is particularly known for educating a rich spectrum of immigrants and ethnicities from the working classes. Thomas was intense about learning how he could take the lessons of theology back into his community in practical ways that would increase its flourishing.
His advisor Efrain Agosto, theology professor and author of the well-regarded Servant Leadership: Jesus and Paul, was struck by how engaged his student was with using his education to help the Hispanic community to flourish. “He loved to engage in the difficult theological discussions around God, the Bible, and what it all means for his community.” Thomas was not shy about being an advocate for change at his seminary. “At a meeting of Latinx students that I once organized, “Agosto says, “I remember he insisted that New York Theological Seminary should do more for Latino and Latina students in all the programs at the school.”
Thomas wanted to dig deeper so he could translate the Christian theology into Spanish life. Agosto was not surprised that after taking a masters, Thomas came back a few years later to complete a Doctor of Ministry. “This time in the Spanish language that he so loved, so he could improve even more in his service to his community.”
A couple of weeks before Thomas died, Thomas had a heart-to-heart talk with his son Luis. He expressed his satisfaction that he had lived to see his spiritual, emotional and intellectual investments into his children worked out so well. His benediction was, “My job here is done.”
New York Theological Seminary granted posthumously a doctorate to Thomas. In the words of his theology professor, Agosto, “Rest in Peace and Power, Reverend Doctor Luis Thomas.”
Please take a moment to reflect on our ongoing series “Moved to Heaven” about clergy-members in New York City who have passed away from the coronavirus.
If you are a person who prays or meditates, here are some things to keep in mind and to bring to your congregation:
- Help and comfort for the families of those affected by the coronavirus.
- Strength and safety for the ministers who continue to risk their lives during the pandemic.
- Help the congregations and faith communities to remain strong, intact and outgoing with compassion in the face of the pandemic.
If you want to help with this memorial project on the New York City area clergy and religious leaders, please send us names and information on them who were slain by the virus:
If you can’t help us with the information, you may help us with donations so that we can cover the costs of assembling the “Moved to Heaven” pieces. Journey has commited our spare funds to the effort, but they are not nearly enough.
