LAST UPDATE: 22:50
The Church of Greece requests to perform the services of the Holy Week even behind closed doors.
Following the completion of the video conference of the Standing Holy Synod, it was decided to submit the above request to the Government.
It also asks the faithful to discipline in the instructions of the State and stay in their homes, praying from there.
It also clarifies that this temporary abidance of the Christians in home prayer and in their “home-churches” does not imply any doubt nor call into question the mystery of the Holy Communion.
“Any suggestion that such diseases can be transmitted by the Holy Communion, or by the way the Holy Communion is received, offends the dogmatic Truth of the Church, is not accepted and is condemnable,” it characteristically points out.
It also announced that the Church of Greece is immediately offering the sum of 150,000 euros to the country’s health institutions at a central level too, while calling on the members of the Standing Holy Synod to deposit a salary into a special account to fight the coronavirus and urges the other archpriests to do the same.
Also, it publicly thanked the Ecumenical Patriarch for offering the Greek government 50,000 euros from the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
It further clarified that it does not allow any hierarch to make public statements or appearances in the media, while designated the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos as the only person to be addressed by the media for receiving answers on ecclesiastical matters.
It is also emphasized that on the night of May 26th to May 27th, the last day of chanting “Christos Anesti” (Christ is Risen), conditions permitting, the Greeks will gather in the churches to chant the hymns that celebrate the resurrection and to live what they will miss in the coming Easter, when churches would celebrate the services behind closed doors, as long as the government finally permits this.
It should be emphasized that the Holy Synod is not moving Easter to another date, but its celebration.
Read also: Archbishop Ieronymos: Open the churches during the Holy Week even just for the priests
