The Coronavirus Pandemic

Every country in the world has been affected by coronavirus disease (COVID-19).  Some have suffered more than others, for reasons that scientists don’t altogether understand.  Most countries have introduced some kind of lockdown meaning that Orthodox Christians can't attend their parish church for worship. 

These extreme actions by governments have generated loads of conspiracy theories on the Internet. For example, some people say that the virus doesn’t exist – that the pandemic is a plot hatched by someone or other.  We know that this isn’t true, because members of our Church are working to save lives in hospitals in the UK and abroad. We know from their first-hand reports that COVID-19 is real and can kill people.

Others say that it’s a persecution of the Church. This conspiracy would make more sense if churches were shut and pubs, clubs and gyms were open. In the UK, every place where people gather is shut. The situation is very different to the persecution of Christians under Communism, for example, where churches were closed and turned into places of entertainment to mock the Christian faith. Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow (below) was blown up by the Communists and replaced by a swimming pool.

Most coronavirus conspiracy theories are spread by people whose beliefs are completely un-Orthodox. We mustn't read or spread these theories. We mustn't allow ourselves to become infected with the virus of false belief. A lot of ordinary people, too, have suddenly become ‘experts’ on viruses and pandemics. Most of these people mean well, but it’s a waste of time listening to them because they're just voicing opinions - they’re not able to interpret the scientific or medical data properly.

It’s also important to realise that the worship of the Orthodox Church is continuing all over the world in monasteries and convents. In the UK, people of the same household are allowed to worship together. We're still having services every day in our church here – but no visitors are allowed to come. As we worship here, Orthodox Christians are worshipping together with us in their family homes. The Orthodox Church is still One, even though we are temporarily separated. 

We should spend this time in lockdown profitably – by praying more, by reading Orthodox books, by saying the services. We can turn this lockdown into a  positive thing. This pandemic has brought out the best in most people. The non-Orthodox general public are looking after their neighbours just as Christ calls us to do when He says: ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’  
 
Although we reject conspiracy theories, we need to recognize the signs of the times. We said in our last Sunday School before the lockdown that if someone invented a cure for COVID-19, most people on earth would bow down and worship him if he asked them to. Our bishops have warned that there are greater troubles ahead. However, they also reassured us when they said:
Nothing should deprive us of the invincible joy of the Resurrection and the sure hope of victory. Let nothing impair our faith and patience, let nothing cause us to be despairing or downcast. If we rejoice in the hope of Divine help and consolation, then we will become like our heroic forebears and the Saints of our faith. But if we become fainthearted and lose our nerve, then we fall short of them and we urgently need to reinforce our faith and our spiritual struggle for repentance and for the healing of our souls.

We must reject conspiracy theories, but we must be spiritually watchful. We must listen to what our bishops say, and obey their instructions. If we do this faithfully, we will be spiritually protected by the Grace of the Holy Spirit. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Animals in Orthodox Icons

Image
Animals are often depicted together with saints in Orthodox iconography. These animals are either mentioned in the saint's life or, as in the case of St. George, refer to miraculous appearances of the saint. Saint Gerasimus ( right ) is often painted together with his lion ‘Jordan’, and St. Seraphim of Sarov, more rarely, with his bear ‘Misha’.  Below, Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsk is depicted next to a bear illustrating an actual event in his life. St. Peter was imprisoned and then exiled by the atheistic Communists for his refusal to compromise the Orthodox faith by submitting to the new ‘Soviet’ Church. He died in December 1936 after ten years of  persecution.   In the case of martyred soldier saints, animals often illustrate rank rather than a particular incident in the saint’s life. Saints Sergius and Bacchus, for example, are often depicted on horseback as a representation of their status in the army. All these representations of animals occur in tra...
Read more

What is a woman?

Answering the simple question ‘what is a woman?’ has proved difficult for some senior politicians in the UK. The scientific answer is clear. A woman is an adult human female. This answer is also completely Orthodox. It’s impossible for anyone to change sex. Every diploid cell in the human body has either ‘male' or ‘female' genetically stamped on it. Males have the XY sex chromosomes whilst females have XX chromosomes. (Some children are born with an intersex condition in which the external genitals do not match up with the internal reproductive organs or the sex chromosomes. When treating these rare conditions by surgery, doctors are not changing the sex of the child; instead, they are trying to conform the outward genitalia to the internal reproductive system.) Senior politicians who cannot answer this basic biology question say that sex is a different concept from gender. In other words, children are assigned male and female at birth, but they can later choose to reject this ...
Read more

How to make a prostration

The approach of Great Lent is a good time to make sure that we know how to make a full prostration properly. On most Sundays we make the Sign of the Cross and touch the ground – this is known as a 'small prostration'. A full prostration involves lowering our whole body to the ground so that our head almost touches the floor as demonstrated in the video below: We make full prostrations (both in church and in our private prayers) when the Prayer of Saint Ephraim is read during Great Lent; we also make them on the Sunday of the Cross (the Third Sunday of Great Lent). Making a full prostration is not physically that hard, but often people make it more difficult than it needs to be. There is no need to 'take a knee' when making a prostration. Going down in two stages by kneeling on one knee followed by the other actually makes a prostration more difficult. Those of us who wear long garments in church need to push our bottom up quickly when rising from the pr...
Read more