Orthodox Reflections

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

One of you, who is a mother, just sent me this message:

I spoke to the Toronto Public Health today, and it is stated from a Toronto Public Health official that “it is not illegal for the church to give Holy Communion and no fine will be given”. How can we change what has been said ? I can write so much, but my heart is hurting with this.  I’m a mom, and someone who doesn’t want to see this change happen for my children to take Holy Communion this way, with multiple spoons.  There is NO justification for this at all.

Many of us feel this way. There is no justification at all. So why is it happening? Was it all a big misunderstanding between the Greek Community of Toronto and the Archdiocese? Did the Greek Community of Toronto want to get back at the Archdiocese and so they snitched to Public Health about the common spoon? Is the Archdiocese using Covid 19 public health guidelines (and they are not law, just guidelines) as a pretext for introducing multiple communion spoons? If yes, why? What is so special to the Archdiocese about multiple communion spoons? Is it a sneaky Ecumenical movement that will help the hierarchs advance to the shared chalice?

We all have our personal beliefs or at the very least our suspicions about what is going on. One thing is for certain. Covid-19 is revealing the hearts of many and uncovering many truths. While the rest of the world may be scrutinizing what was at the bottom of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Orthodox Christians of our region are determined to find out what or who was at the bottom of the common spoons.

To that end, and as you are already aware, many of us will be paying a visit to our Archdiocese this coming Sunday. People will be arriving any time after 9:30 am to hear liturgy inside the small church (30% capacity) or pray outside the doors and the surrounding vicinity. We are going there to confess our faith in Christ and our support of the ONE SPOON – μια λαβιδα – through which we confess our belief that the Body and Blood of our Lord, the Supreme Sacrifice, is All Holy and incorruptible, and was, is and always shall be.

Even before our arrival, his Eminence, in his encyclical is anticipating an angry and unruly mob. How little he knows or understands his own flock. His characterization of us as “a group of extremists” or “followers of monasteries and the late Fr. Ephraim” (as if the dead holy man is giving us instructions) show how little he knows us. He expresses his sadness for the assumption that we are self-destructive, willing to inflict harm on each other; and he wants to meet with the organizers ahead of time to talk things over “like a family” I feel a great deal of sadness myself being characterized as an extremist because I believe in the same things his Eminence says he believes in. I will have a great deal to say about this in a different post because a true shepherd KNOWS his sheep.

For now, let me just say that we are not the enemies of our Archdiocese or our Archbishop. We are peace-loving Christians who will not accept any more compromises to our faith. We have questions and we want answers. This is not a protest, it is not a rally, it is not even a gathering. This is a “Q&A tour” and a confession of our faith. This is  an opportunity to stand for and with Christ who said in Mark 8:38, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

It is also the beginning of our Q&A tour. If we can’t learn from our Archdiocese exactly why the multiple spoons suddenly appeared last Sunday, we will then proceed to Queen’s Park and afterwards even City Hall. This will not all happen on the same day, of course, but we will not stop searching for the truth until we find it, for Christ promised, in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find…” this is a promise and God always keeps his promises.

Right now, his Eminence is telling us the government made him introduce the multiple spoons so that the churches do not close. The government is telling us they had nothing to do with it. Something does not match up. Therefore, we will visit our Holy Archdiocese first, and we will knock to see if it shall be opened unto us.

This coming Sunday, as we arrive to our Holy Archdiocese, there will be masks and social distancing. There will be hymns and prayers. There will be respect and consideration. There will not be any microphones, or any stones. There will not be any screaming or yelling. His Eminence invited us to meet with him as one Christian family. And as one Christian family we will go in the hopes that His Eminence, our spiritual father in Canada, will come outside and, like a father, speak to us, listen to us, comfort us, pastor us, laugh and cry with us one person at a time, one family at time, and not from a distance on high or just through an encyclical.

I pray that our “Q&A tour” will only take us as far as the doors of our Archdiocese. Otherwise, we will continue to search until the truth is found. I am confident that if Covid-19 does not uncover this truth, God certainly will.

Be of good courage my brothers and sisters and do not be afraid to stand for Christ this Sunday. God is always faithful to us and there is nothing and no one else worth standing for.

May God bless you and bring comfort and peace to your souls,

Irene

Irene Polidoulis MD CCFP FCFP

Assistant Professor, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto