Restrictions because of CoronaVirus - REPLIES FROM ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS ONLY

We've not had any Presanctified Liturgies except the first week of Lent.

Bad news: All services are live stream. Only five people allowed in the church at a time during Holy Week and Pascha: Priest, altar server (guessing), chanter, and then we have the two people who do the videoing. So basically, around 97% of the laypeople are stuck at home.

No Holy Unction, palm crosses, red eggs for Holy Week and Pascha. Nothing.

The snarky, sometimes frustrated side of me says, the whole point of going to church is to unite with Christ in the Eucharist. Why bother watching or anything if you aren't able to be there? Hubby isn't happy about all of this.

The hopeful, more good side of this: We're learning how to survive (and it's really not that hard to survive through this--not like we're being hunted down and thrown in jail or shot) under oppressed conditions if it should happen in the future. We've worked to turn our home even more into a little church. During Holy Week, we'll be watching, reading along in our Holy Week books, and chanting/singing along. I ordered roses and basil leaves that we'll throw around our living room for Saturday morning's liturgy. The cats will have a ball with them, but at least they're not poisonous.

Hope our efforts make up for not being able to be in the church with our fellow parishioners during Holy Week and Pascha.

I understand your feelings well, Dorothea. In my diocese we have done everything we can to keep our churches open as long as possible, to keep the services as normal as possible, and to give the people access to the Holy Mysteries as much as possible. But it's a struggle to comply with the law which is solely concerned with the bodily health of our people and the great task given us to care for the immortal souls of our parishioners. As a priest, I serve about half the services in my own home at this point. I am one of two priests in the parish, and there is no point risking both of us getting sick. But I can't serve liturgy at home because we only have one antimins. Just taking my family to the Church with me puts us over the five people that we are legally allowed. But I also know that if one of us gets sick in this family we all will. I have a father, a wife, and a son in our house who are all vulnerable. I am not taking this lightly, but I also am not able to stop going to church or ministering to the faithful.

As weird as it is watching services on the computer, trust me when I say that it is just as weird serving in an empty church. At vigil for Annunciation there were three of us in the Church, and I missed the people terribly. Even when we have a very poorly attended vigil, it's better than three people. I have a hard time with the fact that in a little over a week we are going to be praising God for trampling down death by death while as a society we are cowering in our homes for fear of death. It's not that it's wrong to do what is in the best interest of the society as a whole, and stopping this disease from spreading would be a good thing; it's just that I worry that we are largely dealing with as a physical problem with a physical solution instead of a physical problem whose root is spiritual and needs to be attacked spiritually (even if also physically).

I think the reality is that we all need to abide by the restrictions placed on us, but we must never be complacent and thinking that we can get back to our spiritual lives when this is all over. We need to be working on our spiritual lives even harder to make up for the fact that we can't be in Church like usual, so that no matter how this ends for any one of us, we are more prepared for the kingdom and have shown others the love of God, and the need for repentance.

Thank you, nut roll (Father). I understand, as best as I can not being a priest or married to one, how difficult this must be for you, my priest/spiritual father, and all other clergy. I could feel it in the emails from my priest. I could see it in his face while talking to empty pews and occasionally looking toward the video camera, how much he is missing his flock being there with him and how uncomfortable he feels doing the services on a regular basis now without most of his flock. A part of me resents this because it feels like our priests are forced to be no more than preachers on display, forgive me, in a more Protestant manner, where we all know our priests are the "main attraction" and are there to lead their flocks, not perform or entertain them. And I'm guessing this probably bothers the clergy more than us laypeople.

I'm sorry to read you have three vulnerable family members. I know that must be so hard. I try and keep in touch with my mother, who lives by herself in Northern Louisiana. Since I last talked and texted with her, she was doing all right. I'll probably call her in the next hour to see how she's doing now.

I will keep you all in my prayers, and continue to for my own spiritual father, his family, and my parish. God bless.

Here in Finland the services have also been restricted to a skeleton crew. It is an abnormal and sad state of events, but almost everyone understands it is the only plausible way to go in the current situation. I am certain that once this problem is resolved (at the latest when a vaccine is out on a global scale), we all will have a new sense of gratitude for the liturgical life of the Church.

I agree, brother.

This pandemic is from Satan, but God permits it. God can only intend things for good. Perhaps the world will spend more time together in families and less time apart afterward after reconnecting. The US is different from Europe. Less togetherness, less celebration and closeness. Europeans eat lunch with a glass of wine outside in cafes laughing and savoring the day. Americans eat burgers from a greasy drive-through alone in the car driving. Our youth daydreams on phones, our population divorced and never living in the moment of life....always trying to be elsewhere.

Our families need to be stuck in the house alone a bit. We need to learn more sanitary shopping and self-care. I’m seeing families on bike rides, families playing on the lawn, dad throwing the baseball with his boy, girls writing with chalk on sidewalks. Perhaps this is God’s way of flying families back and getting them away from iPhones and Fortnite....

whatever His reason, may the world receive grace from this and come to Christ and one another with love. IF this happens then missing Lent and Holy Week was worth it from Gods perspective...

tapi said:

Here in Finland the services have also been restricted to a skeleton crew. It is an abnormal and sad state of events, but almost everyone understands it is the only plausible way to go in the current situation. I am certain that once this problem is resolved (at the latest when a vaccine is out on a global scale), we all will have a new sense of gratitude for the liturgical life of the Church.

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Some positives that have come out of the pandemic.
Abortions have been restricted if not altogether stopped in some areas.
The sex industry has been severely restricted if not completely stopped.

prodromos said:

Some positives that have come out of the pandemic.
Abortions have been restricted if not altogether stopped in some areas.
The sex industry has been severely restricted if not completely stopped.

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Though the term “sex industry” is so full of falsehood one hardly knows where to begin...

No kidding. And I keep reading these lame headlines saying the tough times "sex workers" are having with COVID-19 impeding their business.

Well, shucks....a shortage of adulterers and philandering. What's a culture to do!?

rusmeister said:

Though the term “sex industry” is so full of falsehood one hardly knows where to begin...

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gurneyhalleck1 said:

Well, shucks....a shortage of adulterers and philandering. What's a culture to do!?

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I know I shouldn't laugh at this because of the serious nature of the post, and the topic at hand, but this cracked me up.

If you really think about it, much of this stuff is utterly hilarious if it weren’t so sinful.

guys wearing mascara and eye liner in dresses taking estrogen

two women in tuxedos getting “married”

Prostitutes looked at like union workers in a steel mill out of work

people claiming to believe in science yet looking at their genitalia and refuting their gender

people preferring Phil Collins Genesis over Peter Gabriel’s.....

the world has gone to pot!

Phronema said:

I know I shouldn't laugh at this because of the serious nature of the post, and the topic at hand, but this cracked me up.

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gurneyhalleck1 said:

people preferring Phil Collins Genesis over Peter Gabriel’s.....

the world has gone to pot!

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You're killing me lol , though you're not wrong about any of that!


Jokes aside you're really right. I guess this stuff was always going on, and just much of it was behind closed doors, but it sure feels like much of society has gone off the deep end in the last 15-20 years.

gurneyhalleck1 said:

people preferring Phil Collins Genesis over Peter Gabriel’s.....

the world has gone to pot!

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It's a land of confusion!
But this is the world we live in...

Make it stop!!!

The scattered pages of a book by the sea
Held by the sand, washed by the waves
A shadow forms cast by a cloud
Skimming by as eyes of the past
But the rising tide absorbs them, effortlessly claiming

They told of one who tired of all
Singing "Praise him, praise him"
"We heed not flatterers," he cried
"By our command, waters retreat
Show my power, halt at my feet"
But the cause was lost, now cold winds blow....

Now those were lyrics....

rusmeister said:

It's a land of confusion!
But this is the world we live in...

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Steve Hackett left Genesis two albums later after Gabriel left. When they were headed in a pop bubble gum direction, he had had enough. So, he wasn't there for the 'glory' of the 80's pop era of the band. He now tours with an amazing band playing all the old 70's progressive Genesis stuff that was done while he was in the band....

This 10-second clip was pure gold!

rusmeister said:

It's a land of confusion!
But this is the world we live in...

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