The Reverend Susan Salt, a deacon in the Church of England, could claim, like some of her oilier and less reputable colleagues, that as a member of the clergy, she’s a first responder too.

But Salt went the other way. Though she’s aware that, in the current corona-crisis, spiritual needs have risen along with physical ones, it was clear to her which one to prioritize, at least in the short run.

A deacon who left medicine to join the church has gone back to the NHS frontline to help fight coronavirus because there was “a need and an ask.” The Reverend Dr. Susan Salt spent more than 30 years as a physician before joining Blackburn Diocese in 2019. She decided to rejoin Blackpool Victoria Hospital,

… where she had previously worked in palliative care.

Even her boss in the church, the Bishop of Burnley, Philip North, seems to have no qualms about Salt easily picking medicine over religion in times of exigency, saying

“I enormously admire her obedience to God’s call in choosing to return to the medical frontline.”

I don’t know about “God’s call,” but what matters is that Dr. Salt is doing something useful and life-saving now that people with an awful illness need her skills again.

She’s the kind of Christian it’s easy to love.

(Image via Shutterstock)

