While the divine services in Limassol and Paphos are held without the presence of the faithful due to the COVID-19 restrictive measures, the churches remain open in the other cities and districts and regularly perform the Sunday Divine Liturgy and other services.
The faithful that go to the churches that remain open observe all the precautionary measures such as social distancing and the maximum number of believers within the church as reported by philenews.com. However, due to the reduced number of believers allowed to be present in the churches, at the suggestion of the church council, many people who go to church later enter the churches only to light their candle and then go out to the courtyard. They attend the service in the courtyard and enter the church again only for the Holy Communion and during the memorial service provided that it is their relative.
It is noteworthy, however, that while the number of believers attending churches has decreased in general due to the COVID-19 restrictions, there is an increase in the number of believers receiving the Holy Communion. A typical example: yesterday about 100 people attended the Divine Liturgy in a church in Nicosia, while under normal conditions more than 200 believers went to the specific church every Sunday.
Out of the approximately 100 people who were in the service yesterday, more than 70 people, young, old, children and even infants, received the Holy Communion.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the priest himself did not distribute the antidoron, as usual, announcing that such a thing is forbidden by the Archdiocese in an attempt to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread.