The letter below was received from a Greek Orthodox Bishop in response to a letter (text is here) asking what conditions will be required to fully re-open Orthodox parishes. Fully re-opening means an end to masks, restoring fellowship, in-person classes, no more social distancing, etc. The goal is to understand the requirements for returning to normal. As you can see, the bishop does not address that topic. He mentions a vaccine and treatment. We have treatments for this virus. We do not have a vaccine, and we may never have one. So the question is raised – is a vaccine (that may never appear) the most important factor in getting back to a normal Orthodox Parish life?
None of us know, really. But shouldn’t the bishops? They are in charge, after all, and so unless we will be permanently wearing masks and doing virtual coffee hours, there must be some level of “safety” that we can reach in order to go back to normal. That is all we are trying to find out. The bishops at this point may actually not have any idea what is required. That is an acceptable answer, but getting that answer at least indicates the bishops are thinking about the question.
While the bishops ponder all this, it is important to realize that many sectors of our society are moving ahead. It is true that the number of “cases,” as diagnosed by a positive test, continue to increase. However, it must be noted that serious cases requiring hospitalizations are either flat or declining in states that are re-opened or which never locked down. Georgia, for example, actually has fewer people in the hospital today than six weeks ago. One of the contributors to this site said a few days ago, “It’s not the absolute number of cases detected, but rather the serious cases requiring hospitalization and potentially leading to death. Those numbers aren’t there and it’s almost as if our bishops are two months behind getting any information.”
For those who have regular contact with the Orthodox Bishops, please let them know that calls for patience would be much more effective if we had some idea what destination lies at the end of our current road.
See letter below and the response to it further down.
Letter From a Greek Orthodox Bishop: I read your email with much pain. If you think you are the only person who is in pain from this pandemic you are wrong. It pains his Eminence, me and all the clergy. You are telling me there is no problem and lets feel the churches, that’s not what the authorities and the CDC says! I Just hung of the phone with someone that knows a young black girl that participated in a demonstration in Athens Georgia that was diagnosed with the virus, the same person tells me the father of a classmate of their daughter in their neighborhood in Marietta GA just died from the virus without any serious illnesses in his 60s. We had 110.000 deaths and that because of the shut downs which the number could have been 100% more if we didn’t take any precautions. The priest from Miami told me few minutes ago that the new cases spiked from 1000 to 1300 in the last few days. Are we to dismiss the above and just go about our business and say God will take of us??? God gave us the mind so we can use it and avoid danger my friend. His Eminence has given guidelines as a first step in reopening our churches and at the same time adhering to the authorities National and Local and also CDC for our protection. If you don’t care about yourself think of others, and out of love for others do the extra thing that we need to do. I hope and pray that in few months a vaccine will be discovered and a treatment so that people don’t have to die from this dreadful pandemic but until then we have to be patient.God bless you and protect both you and your family.
Response to the Bishop: Your Grace –
Thank you for your blessings for my family and me. It is greatly appreciated. The point is not to argue what the bishops have already done or to examine the justifications for it. What has been done may very well have been necessary, but the future is what really matters.
Here is where we are. In our area, 100% of our restaurants are open and the bars are hopping. We spent the weekend at the beach in Daytona, where seating was 100% and no masks were required in any establishment. And, of course, there is the fact that many of the biggest champions of lockdowns are now urging people to go out in mass protests. The Archbishop attended one. He wore a mask, but there was no social distancing. Our parishes restrict attendance at funerals and the divine liturgy, but he marches with a large crowd? It looks bad to the average person.
By the way, my wife is an OR nurse educator at a local hospital, so we are on the inside of the health care establishment. Doctors and nurses with whom we are personally acquainted do not consider Covid to be of any real danger. 98.8 percent of those diagnosed at our local hospital are told to stay at home and recover like any other virus. So while the hierarchs of the United States might believe Covid to be a major crisis, the fact is that much public and professional perception is markedly on the opposite side of that question.
Georgia and Florida are essentially fully open for business. Most of the Protestant churches in the area are mask-optional and are less-than-serious about social distancing.
So here we are. What my family wants to know, along with a lot of other Orthodox Christians, is what now? What is the criteria to re-open fully and go back to full Orthodox life? You did not answer that question, which is really the only one that matters. Will this state of affairs persist until a vaccine is found? And if that vaccine is never found, as there is no guarantee? Are there other criteria that would allow us to go back to regular life? The okay from the CDC? What about a limitation of liability so that the Church cannot be sued? That is a legislative remedy, would that change things? Should we lobby for that?
The fear is that this state of affairs is permanent. You and the hierarchs could go a long way to dispelling that fear by being honest about the requirements to open back up without all these restrictions. That is the leadership that is needed. The same kind of leadership provided by governors and the president. We need the bishops to do the same.
Update: Please note that the Bishop was kind enough to email me back. The second email and the reply is below:
Second Letter from a Greek Bishop: Your email puzzles me. On one hand you say you don’t want to argue what the bishops already decided and then you continue to argue your point of view. Your statement that Florida open 100% is inaccurate. There is no local or national regulations that do not advocate social distancing, by citing Protestant groups or demonstrations that don’t practice social distancing doesn’t make it right. You ask for leadership by the bishops but at the same time you don’t want to abide by it. To my knowledge your priest posted the guidelines of our Metropolis on your parish website and explained them to you but you refuse to accept them. Yes all of us want to go back to the way we were but we are not there yet. We have to listen to the Federal and local government, the CDC and give guidance to our people so that we don’t endanger their lives, you want to call it legal, I call it Christian Love. Our Metropolis has sent guidelines on re-opening our churches on May13 and May 22 and today another letter is going out by his Eminence. The situation is monitored and reviewed by his Eminence and a team of Clergy and Laity and revision are made accordingly. I hope this final communication by me will put you at peace, your priest is also available to speak to you. God bless you.
Second Response:
Your Grace –
Why is something along these lines so difficult to write –
“We appreciate your concern. The Greek Archdiocese is constantly reviewing the situation. We are aware that things are changing. We are aware, for example, that some states like Florida have already committed to fully opening schools in August. If children can attend school, then we will closely evaluate restarting catechism classes and children’s activities. As the situation changes, so will the guidelines to our parishes. The GOA is committed to returning to full parish life as soon as possible, given relevant state and local guidelines. The loss of many aspects of Orthodox parish life is painful for all of us. Please rest assured that by God’s grace we will weather this temporary crisis.”
A statement like that, Your Grace, puts everyone’s minds at ease. I have been Orthodox for over 20 years, and am friends with many, many priests. My parish priest, a fine and upstanding individual, can explain to me the current directives. What he can’t do is commit to what I just wrote in the above paragraph. That is not his place. Nor mine. The bishops run the church, and that is as it should be. So we are all following the policies as set forth by the bishops, which is exactly what we should be doing. For many of us, the numbers on Covid-19 are no worse than a bad seasonal flu. We did not lock down the churches or change our parish practices based on H1N1 or SARS or MERS or for a very bad flu season. This is an unprecedented situation, so I don’t believe it is out-of-line for the Faithful to ask for reassurance from our shepherds.
When we, the Faithful, get told by the bishops that the highest priority is safety, a natural concern is that it will never be 100% safe to go to church. Never has been. Never will be. So we want to know that absolute safety is not the criterion, as it is unreachable. Your Grace, please remember that there is a group of people who believe that this is a serious crisis, and they will probably be wearing masks and social distancing for a long while, yet. These individuals are likely to complain about relaxation of rules, even if you continue them for another year or two.
At the same time, there is another group of people (many are medical professionals) who don’t think this is a major health crisis, are not social distancing, and are not wearing masks.
I may be wrong, but I believe the bishops should speak to both groups. The first needs reassurance that things are safe, the second needs reassurance that things will eventually be normal. And that means the “real” normal and not the “new” normal.
I pray that this is clear to you. Thank you for your responses. The GOA is blessed to have kind and loving bishops like yourself.
