Friday, March 6, 2020

Greek Archdiocesan directives on coronavirus

(GOARCH) - Directives to be followed by the Clergy dealing with Covid-19 (Coronavirus), until further notice, based on the instructions of the US Center for Disease Control (CDC)

1) All parishes will provide stations in the Narthex and/or Nave for the Faithful to disinfect their hands as they enter the Church.

2) Signs will be posted at the entrance that recommend sick persons not attend the Services, but participate via television or the Internet (URL should be posted as well).

3) The clergy will not offer their hands to be reverenced and will refrain from touching the faithful either through handshakes or an embrace.

4) Signs will be posted recommending that honor be shown to Icons and the blessing cross by only bowing.

5) No books – Liturgical or Scriptural, will be kept in the pews. Parishioners will be instructed to bring their own books from home. Wow.

6) The Faithful will not receive the Antidoron from the Clergy, but on their own as they leave the church. That would seem to mean every person is going to touch the same thing. Is this an improvement?

7) In the case of the use of flowers (Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, Palm Sunday, Holy Friday), the Faithful will take them on their own as they leave the church. On Holy Wednesday (Holy Unction), each priest will anoint each Faithful using separate cotton-tipped swabs.

8) The Eucharist will be distributed as per usual.

9) In concelebrations, the clerical “Kiss of Peace” will be through bowing to one another. In parishes where the laity exchange the “Kiss of Peace,” they will avoid contact through bowing to one another. How about just knock that off?

10) After every service, all liturgical objects and surfaces to be thoroughly cleaned.

11 comments:

  1. Again all this for a virus that is easier to avoid and far less deadly than the standard flu...if this is what they do for a virus with a 98% survival rate I assume churches will be closed indefinitely if anything remotely serious shows up...

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  3. Common flu has a case fatality rate of 0.1% and a person-to-person transmission rate of 1.2 people. Coronavirus appears to have a case fatality rate of about 2% - 20 times more than flu, and a person-to-person transmission rate of 2 (also more than flu). And, there are currently no vaccines or approved anti-virals (which both lessen the severity and duration of the flu) for this virus. Our elderly are particularly at risk. How is this far less deadly than the flu?

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    1. Last year over 60,000 people died from the standard flu. So far with a much larger number of people than that infected, a handful of people have died of COVID-19. 11 people have died in America and the media would have us believe its on the verge of apocalyptic proportions. Also the 2% fatality rate is based off of data from China where healthcare is atrocious and the average villager can’t afford a doctor, so I suspect its inflated, but that’s just opinion so I won’t base my argument off of it.

      COVID-19 also has a lipid based cellular structure, which means its outer most protective layer is made of fatty oils. I.E if you wash your hands you’ll kill the virus. It’s really not that dangerous unless you’re already near death and refuse to wash your hands. Also it has yet to affect children, with no reported cases or deaths in the extremely young. So that makes it even less dangerous than the standard flu.

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    3. I would take a look at Italy before you say it's no big deal.

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    4. I’m not trying to be callous about the very real tragedy of those affected by COVID-19 but I simply refuse to buy into the newspaper selling hysteria. Death is a constant and terrible factor, the only difference between people dying from COVID-19 and people dying of other yearly constants, is a significant difference in numbers (I.e COVID-19 is nowhere near its competitors) and media coverage. The following statistics are monstrous by comparison, but they don’t sell newspapers, so there is no panic. Again the standard flu killed 61,000 people last year alone, and it is consistent every year.

      ”According to the American Cancer Society, in the U.S., an estimated 606,520 people will die from cancer in 2020. This equates to 1,660 people dying of cancer each day in 2020.”

      “Nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day. An additional 20-50 million are injured or disabled.”

      “The FAO estimates that as many as 25,000 people lose their lives every day as a result of hunger. That adds up to roughly 9.1 million people who die of starvation each year.”






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  4. what about " only silver or brass" chalices, spoons, and blessings crosses will be used ,,,, these metals/alloys are natural bactericides, viralcides, fungicides,,,,,also that the priest actually washes his hands,, not symbolically washes his hands before he toiches the holy bread,,,, and what hygenic procedures will be in place in the cutting of the antidoroion --- i have seen sick altar boys coughing all ovdr it as they cut it up without even washing their hands ,,, we must be prudent ,,,God Has given us the knowlege and eduction to know what is prudent.

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  5. Where is faith faith in all of this?

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  6. I have faith in God,,,and the cognitive abilities he has bestowed upon me,,,,and the scientific knowledge he has enabled us to acquire,,,,therefore if the devil seeks to attack us with sickness and plagues we have both the mystical and physical powers to combat him,,,,our prayers need to be focused on beseeching God to give the knowledge, the tools, the mettle to face this threat head on,,,,,now as part of this our clergy need to own up to the task,,,using silver and brass liturgical items,,actually washing their hands,,,,using boiling water and sufficiently proof wine in the chalice,,,,they need to be historically faithful to the rubrics. As such we are a team armed with the spiritual and material tools to combat the challenge,,,,this is using the talents. And gifts that God has given us.

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