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 ...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt is Cypriot people that convince me that this is a waste of time. I heard several years ago about Cypriot boy scouts at a world jamboree. An OCA priest was doing a liturgy as one of the chaplains and he announced beforehand he didn't know any language but English. He said the Cypriot boys were delighted. They said they knew English but DID NOT know the Greek they heard regularly back home. Another time I read a woman from Cyprus in comments on a blog, asking if anyone knew where she could obtain an English liturgy book so she would have some chance of following the all Greek liturgy. Greeks don't know Greek. Not even in Greece. Certainly nowhere else. This narrator talking about how "essential" it is to know Greek is less than useless.
ReplyDelete