Letter from The Rt. Rev. Matthew Cowden Bishop of West Virginia Regarding Vaccinations
November 13, 2025
Dear Friends in West Virginia,
Vaccination is one of the most effective tools we have to protect one another—especially the most vulnerable among us: our elderly, those with compromised immune systems, those in rural settings with limited access to health care, and, most especially, our children. When we choose to be vaccinated (or to support policies that help others be vaccinated), we not only protect ourselves: we protect our neighbors, our friends, our communities.
I recognize that this topic brings strong feelings and that many faithful West Virginians have questions, fears, or hesitations. There may be medical contraindications, past experiences of harm, or cultural and historical wounds that warrant attentive listening, compassion, and discernment. This is not about judgment; supporting vaccinations is about care, about community, about our faithful witness.
Today I am concerned that if West Virginia were to weaken or roll back our current laws that require or support vaccination and immunization, especially for our school children, we will put at risk those who depend on the community’s action for their safety. Undoing existing vaccine laws risks the resurgence of diseases that we have long kept at bay—measles, mumps, whooping cough, and others. These diseases once ravaged families, parishes, and communities. I fear our current shifting attitudes around vaccines may be due to having several generations without the specter of these once common diseases among us. We have forgotten the time before the current good communal health that we now enjoy, brought about in large part due to former generations of vaccinations.
In The Episcopal Church we hold that faith and reason go hand in hand, that scientific knowledge and medical evidence are gifts of God through human inquiry. For this reason, we urge all our members to adhere to science-based medical practices and to seek and follow the guidance of trained medical professionals. As such, we do not recognize a valid claim of theological or religious exemption from vaccination for our members.
In 2019, I served on our denomination’s Executive Council, which spoke to The Episcopal Church’s position regarding vaccines. Speaking for the Church, we said, “the proper and responsible use of vaccines is a duty not only to our own selves and families but to our communities. Choosing to not vaccinate, when it is medically safe, threatens the lives of others.” We also urged that Church members advocate “for stronger vaccination mandates informed by epidemiological evidence and scientific research.”
When we undermine scientifically informed public-health laws we erode trust in our institutions, in science, and in our communal responsibility to care for one another. Dismantling current laws around vaccinations risks the rupture of the fragile trust that undergirds public health, communal life and our shared witness as the Body of Christ.
I add my voice to other leaders in West Virginia, medical and religious, who urge all current immunization laws and policies to remain in place, especially for safeguarding our children and the most vulnerable among us (Matthew 25:40). We often like to quote that “Mountaineers are Always Free” and seek to promote our individual rights, yet we are strong and free because we are there for one another in times of trial and communal support, drawing on the best information for the care of the whole.
In Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Matthew Cowden Bishop of West Virginia
