Patriarch Bartholomew of the Eastern Orthodox Church Halts Services for a Month

The spiritual leader of some 300 million Orthodox Christians globally has ordered churches to cease services and rites until the end of March. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople has asked worshippers to stay home ‘for their own safety and the safety of others.’

"This trial, too, shall pass, […] The clouds will clear, and the Sun of Righteousness will eliminate the deadly effect of the virus. But our lives will have changed forever," the Patriarch said in a televized statement.

Churches will stay open for private prayers and the monasteries are permitted to keep holding services for monks, but religious guests won't be allowed entrance. The standstill of church services comes during the buildup to Eastern Orthodox Easter on April 19, the most significant celebration for the Orthodox Christian church.

“Epidemiologists raised the alarm about church rituals such as communion, in which a church priest dips a shared spoon into a chalice of blessed wine and gives it to parishioners. COVID-19 can spread through saliva. Church faithful tend to be elderly and they're also the most vulnerable,” reads the statement by the World Health Organization.

In Greece, as it is in Georgia, where the Church is particularly powerful politically, the church council maintained that "faithful of all ages know that coming to receive the holy communion, even in the middle of a pandemic, is... a potent manifestation of love."

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave a broadcasted speech on March 11, telling Greeks to "listen to scientists." The administration has since barred services in all churches of any denomination in the country.

By B.Alexishvili