A Response to “On administering Holy Communion in a Time of a Plague”
This was sent to me and deserves a read. You can read the Calivas article here . We can all agree that we are living in unusual times. However, the nature and extent of the illness that we face, and the proper response of the Church, is a matter of much disagreement. We have seen various responses to the COVID-19 epidemic: calls to close our Churches as infectious vectors, and demands to open them as places of spiritual healing. Directives a) ordering the cessation of sacramental life as part of an effort to “flatten the curve,” and cries for access to the divine grace that flows forth from those very mysteries; b) calling for the restriction of “at-risk persons,” and serious questions about the validity of such controls, c) instructions to liturgists to wear personal protective equipment during the celebration of the divine services and the distribution of the holy Mysteries, and uncertainty about the fitness of such practices. Who has been championing what and on behalf of whom? The ...
Does the Patriarchate perform Paschal Liturgy beginning at sunrise instead of midnight?
ReplyDeleteIt appears that way. My own parish does everything at 8:00 AM Sunday morning. I still maintain that is better than splitting up the service,Matins at Midnight, and then coming back for liturgy at 9 or 10 AM, like most Serbs do. I find it even worse that some ACROD and OCA parishes do Paschal Matins as early as 6:00 PM Saturday evening. I know starting from midnight and going through until the end of liturgy is ideal. It is what our parish used to do. Any aging church membership made the change necessary.
ReplyDeleteDoing this in the morning is now common in the Middle East, mainly for security reasons, as the streets are much safer in daylight.
ReplyDeleteIs this a criminal-thug problem, or a religious militant problem? I ask because I may be going to the Middle East, and I'm being told by a number of Middle Easterners what a hospitable place it is. (But, as I'm polite enough not to say, you're here and not there.)
DeleteAnyway, it seems sensible for a lot of reasons for Pascha to commence around sunrise. Our parish starts the Rush service at 11 p.m. and it is getting to be quite a slog.
I think this practice goes back to the Lebanese War, at least. Whatever security issues are involved are compounded by the lack of public transport in Lebanon. Don't doubt that it's a hospitable place and Uber works in Beirut, but the whole country is a mess logistically in the big picture and there's no sense in testing it by having everyone out in the wee hours if they don't have to be.
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