Bethany Slavic Missionary Church, which few months ago came to the attention of Sacramento County’s Department of Health Services due to large coronavirus outbreak among its members or people, associated with the congregation, received federal hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Slavic Sacramento has found out at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, that the Slavic Missionary Church, registered at 9880 Jackson Rd, Sacramento, Ca, received from $ 150,000 to $ 350,000 as an interest-free loan from taxpayers’ pockets (loan will be forgiven if it is dedicated to keep business workers on the payroll). Noteworthy, the religious organization received a loan via the Ukrainian Federal Credit Union.
As it was previously claimed by the Sacramento health officials, the Bethany Church had become one of the largest COVID-19 outbreak clusters in the country with at least 71 infected church members or people, associated with them. Church leaders then reported at least one death, senior pastor Adam Bondaruk got to the hospital bed.
According to the head of Sacramento Department of Health Services, Peter L. Bailenson, the church leaders told to leave them alone, they tried to hide the dangerous outbreak, preventing the authorities from investigating the situation. And only after The Sacramento Bee published the information from the health officials and revealed the name of the religious organization, which resulted in massive pressure of the community and the media, the church leaders made up their mind to cooperate with the authorities.
