On the occasion of the second lockdown imposed by the Belgian National Commission for Coordination due to the pandemic of Covid-19, Metropolitan Athenagoras of Belgium informed the faithful about the changes in the liturgical life.
In particular, the ministerial decision dated 1 November 2020 stated:
Services and religious ceremonies are prohibited except for the following:
- Weddings, in the presence only of the spouses, their witnesses and the priest and funerals, only in the presence of a maximum of 15 people, children up to 12 years old are allowed to attend funerals, without the possibility of the body appearing.
- The Services (…), in order to be broadcasted from the available channels and with the presence of a maximum of 10 people, including the broadcasting techniques, with a distance between the people of 1.5 m, and as long as the place of worship remains closed to the public throughout the broadcast. Priests wishing to do a live broadcast from their Parish should submit a written request to the Holy Diocese and send the necessary information about this broadcast (dates, times, URL, post link, etc.). There is no need to broadcast the Divine Liturgy from all the temples.
- The Holy Temples remain open only for a short individual prayer with absolute respect and implementation of the following measures:
- Distance of 1.5 meters between the entrants.
- Face mask and use of any other means of personal protection.
- Overcrowding inside the church should be avoided (ie. 4 people at most).
- Sanitary protection products should be available to the priest and the faithful.
- Use of antiseptic measures for frequent disinfection of the seats.
- Good ventilation of the space.
Closing, the Metropolitan of Belgium asked the faithful to be careful and follow all the imposed measures.
