It will be sad and mournful if the Christmas celebrations find the faithful locked in their homes, said Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol to CNA, who called on everyone to be patient and pray to overcome the trials of the pandemic as soon as possible.
Asked to comment on the new measures and the prohibition of the presence of believers in the churches of the Limassol – Paphos Districts, the Metropolitan of Limassol said that “this is a difficult period for our churches due to the fact that they have to close again for the faithful and our people are experiencing this incident with much pain and sadness”.
“Nevertheless, we and our people urge our brothers, with patience, prayer and meekness, to face this new difficulty, aiming at the common good,” he added.
Then the Metropolitan wished that “May Τhe Holy God helps to eradicate the virus from our city, from our Cyprus and from all over the world, so that these difficult measures are not needed, which certainly do not satisfy those who decide, nor us that we have tο apply them”.
Metropolitan Athanasios said as well that it does not matter if he disagrees or agrees with the measure of not allowing believers in the churches and that “it is a matter of scientific treatment”.
Since the specialists say this and the State accepts it, he said, “we as law-abiding citizens do what the State says, as long as it does not contradict the Law of God.”
In case the measures continue during the Christmas holidays, the Metropolitan of Limassol stated that he would prefer “to have a hard time these days so that on Christmas our churches can be open for the people to go and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ”.
“I do not want to think that the big Christmas holidays will find us locked in our homes. It will be very sad and very mournful and I hope that it will not happen”, he said and called on everyone to pray “for this difficulty to pass”.