Metropolitan Isaiah of Tamasos and Oreini spoke on Sigma TV station about the issue of Holy Communion during the coronavirus pandemic, emphasizing that the churches normally operate while observing all the necessary health and social distancing measures.
He called on vulnerable groups to be especially vigilant and said that the clergy had been given instructions according to which the antidoron will be given in a bag by the parish members who will be wearing masks.
He said that the use of a plastic spoon in Holy Communion was unacceptable and absurd. The Metropolitan said that the Holy Communion transmitted no virus and this position had been scientifically proven. He cited as an example that for the past two thousand years patients with infectious diseases have been receiving the Holy Communion and then the clergyman has been consuming its remnants, but no one has ever infected.
The Metropolitan also cited the first COVID-19 case as an example; the doctor who was one of the first two cases reported in Cyprus who, according to what became known, said the Metropolitan, the first thing he did as soon as he returned to Cyprus (he had traveled to England) was to go to confession and receive the Holy Communion.
“The contact tracing revealed that the first thing he did was to receive the Holy Communion and go to confession. Authorities quarantined dozens of people and no one was found to be infected,” said the Metropolitan.
He added that he saw the scientists being questioned about the event at the regular briefing of the journalists and they replied that they could not explain this fact and maybe something went wrong. “The examination was repeated. He was indeed infected, but did not transmit the virus,” he said.
