The Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece convened on Monday, with sessions to continue until Wednesday, amid growing concerns in the country over coronavirus infections, and stepped up public health measures to prevent an outbreak on the scale witnessed in northern Italy. Currently, some 73 cases of coronavirus have been officially reported in the east Mediterranean country, but, thankfully, no related fatalities.
The Church of Greece has already called on the faithful to diligently follow health precautions cited by experts, while calling on people in at-risk group to avoid leaving their residences for all but absolutely necessary reasons.
The Church has also warned people with Covid-19 symptoms not to assemble in areas with crowds.
At the same time, a later announcement by the Holy Synod underlined that partaking in the Holy Communion “… most assuredly cannot serve as a cause of disease transmission”. The Holy Synod also said that Church services will continue normally.
The three-day Holy Synod sessions also come in the wake of last week’s visit by the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos, to the Evros border region, at a time of high alert by Greek authorities and security forces to guard the frontier with Turkey against the illegal entry of thousands of third country nationals.