The Joint Ministerial Decision of the Ministers of Education and Health, which provides all the details for the operation of the churches during Holy Week, was published by the Greek Government Gazette in the early hours of Tuesday.
There are special regulations that specify the measures in the cases of parish and metropolitan churches as well as a limit to the presence of monks within the katholikon of the holy monasteries where the services will also be held behind closed doors.
In particular, only four people will be able to be present in each temple, while in cases where an archpriest is present, a total of six persons will be permitted, including the archpriest.
The doors remain closed, and religious ministers are responsible for taking the necessary measures to ensure that no one enters the place of worship during the ceremony.
Also, “the use of loudspeakers or any other medium for external transmission is expressly prohibited.”
In the temples from which television, radio or internet broadcasting will take place, the technical staff that may be present cannot be more than four people.
That is, in a temple with an archpriest and a television broadcast, the maximum number of physically present people is ten. Six clergymen and four technicians.
This number is considered crucial by the scientists who advise the government as they consider up to ten people in the same space to be a tolerable secure number.
In addition, in the monasteries where services are permitted behind closed doors, no more than ten monks can be present inside the temple where the service will be held.
It is clarified that the travel bans and all the necessary precautionary measures concerning the Holy Monasteries of the Athonite State, are decided by the Civil Governor of Mount Athos, after prior notification of the Holy Community.
It is characteristic that there is no provision for the so-called “individual prayer”. This means that someone can enter a church to light a candle on his/her way to work or if he/she has left his/her house for reasons justified by the measures; however, in no case will queues and overcrowding be allowed.
