Flattening the Curve: reflections on faith, challenge and opportunity for Orthodox Christians

In the ninth hour of the Church we pray, "For better is one day in Thy courts, than thousands elsewhere." (Psalm 84, verse 11).  With Christians prevented from attending church, in the Covid-19 pandemic,  a renewed appreciation of the temple of Christ has occurred, for many Orthodox believers.

 Loss of employment, the closure of schools and businesses, the cessation of tourism and travel have compounded fears of pandemic sickness and death.  Covid-19 has challenged the world-view and philosophical beliefs of believers and non-believers alike.  

The Church has emphasised that we can connect to God and His grace in prayer, such as in the streamed liturgy, that for a time has replaced collective temple worship.  Fr Lev Gillett (1893-1980) wrote: “There is a eucharistic grace that transcends the visible sacrament, which the soul that longs for its Saviour can receive at all times."1.

 With public health concerns about the eucharistic chalice and spoon transmitting disease, fuelling restrictions preventing many from communing, the Church has emphasised that the eucharist cannot make us sick. Paul Evdokimov wrote: For “the eyes of faith after the epiclesis, quite simply there is nothing else on the diskos and in the chalice, except the body and blood of Christ." 2.

There is real opportunity to connect with and reclaim Orthodox people.  Through technology, catechesis, choir practice and parish meetings continue, albeit via a new medium. 

None of this is to deny the spiritual austerity of the present moment. Months without a eucharist challenges Christians, and for many, the isolation and disconnection cannot be easily bridged via the internet.  It has been a great joy to have believers share with me that they are praying the hours and typika at home.

For me there has been personal growth and a sense of responsibility to do my best in the absence of priestly ministry in  our cut-off parish. The liturgical hours on Sundays and feast days continues. Now as restrictions begin to use, we have the shared joy of people entering the house of God, the courts of the Lord again.  St Paisius proclaimed, “Nowhere it is written that those who hoped in God were abandoned…” 3.

Footnotes: 

1   A Monk of the Eastern Church (1990) Our Life in the Liturgy: Be My Priest, Crestwood, SVS Press), 1990) 102.
2  P Evdokimov, In the World, of the Church: A Paul Evdokimov Reader, (Crestwood, SVS Press, 2001), 254.
3  St Paisius,  Little Russian Philokalia, Vol IV: St Paisius Velichkovsky,  (New Valaam, St Herman Press, 1994), 90.