In the Orthodox Church, concelebrating hierarchy and clergy at the Divine Liturgy drink from the same Chalice. The laity are then communed from that Chalice with a single spoon placed into the mouth of each communicant, including newborn infants from the time they are baptized and chrismated.

The following pastoral message appeared on Basilica, the official news agency of the Patriarchate of Romania, on February 28, 2020. We share it with Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers for the purpose of information and fraternal discussion. It is the task of historians to examine the question of whether past epidemics and pandemics in Orthodox history have ever affected the manner in which we administer Holy Communion.

Patriarch Daniel of Romania

The Press office of the Romanian Patriarchate published a communiqué on February 27, 2020, in the context of excessive media coverage of the epidemic caused by Coronavirus (Covid–19) and following requests from some state institutions that the Church should take measures to prevent the spread of the virus and to reduce the population’s fear of this phenomenon.

For this reason, the communiqué addressed especially those who are too afraid of illness when they kiss the holy icons or when they take Communion from the same Holy Eucharistic Chalice, as the priest uses a collective spoon.

This attention given especially to those “whose faith is weak” (Romans 14: 1) has caused fear elsewhere, more precisely among clerics and believers who consider that an exceptional and temporary measure (economy) in favour of those more frightened and weaker in faith can be transformed into a new liturgical rule of receiving Holy Communion that applies to all believers.

In order to overcome polarization and polemics that weaken Orthodox unity, hasty judgments must be avoided, and we must firmly reaffirm the Orthodox belief that the Holy Eucharist is not and can never be a source of sickness and death, but a source of new life in Christ, of forgiveness of sins, for the healing of the soul and the body. Read More

The initiative of the Patriarch of Jerusalem to circumvent the primatial authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch was attended by only two other primates—the Patriarchs of Moscow and Serbia—and lower level delegates from only three other Churches: Romania, Poland, and the Czech Lands and Slovakia. The following press release appeared yesterday on the website of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

For context on the Ukrainian issue addressed by this gathering see the extensive Ukraine section in Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s Archives 2017-19 and Archives 2020.

Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem (centre)

On February 26, 2020, a meeting of Primates and representatives of Local Orthodox Churches was held in Amman, Jordan, with the primary view of unity and reconciliation within Holy Orthodoxy. The participants noted their understanding of the anguish of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem for the imminent danger of schism within our Orthodox Communion. Read More

The following apology by Bishop Stephen Andrews, principal of Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto, appeared earlier today in The Morning Star in response to our Anglicanism, Christian Unity, and Same-Sex Love: Responding to Catherine Sider Hamilton and Ephraim Radner.

The episcopate of the Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada would be well served to follow the example of Christian humility, sensitivity, and dialogue set by their brother bishop—especially as the countdown to the Sunday of Forgiveness and the beginning of Great Lent has begun.

Bishop Stephen Andrews, Principal, Wycliffe College

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Building Community

by Stephen Andrews

Dear Friends,

The last week in January an article appeared in the Morning Star which some found objectionable and others found personally hurtful. I want to apologise to our community. We should have been more careful in asking ourselves whether the community newsletter was the right place to publish something that had the potential of causing pain. We want to maintain an environment of charity and mutual respect at the College, and we regret that publishing the article in that format did not contribute to these ends. I would invite anyone who was hurt to speak to me personally, and I want our community to know that we are reviewing the mandate and the protocols of the Morning Star. Read More

In 1956, Professor George Forsyth, of the University of Michigan, invited Kurt Weitzmann, of Princeton University, to join him on an exploratory trip to Sinai. From 1958 to 1965, the University of Michigan, Princeton University, and the University of Alexandria carried out four research expeditions to the remote Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai—the oldest continuously inhabited Orthodox Christian monastery in the world, with a history that can be traced back over seventeen centuries. The documentation collected by the Michigan-Princeton-Alexandria Expeditions to Mountain Sinai, under the direction of Professor George Forsyth (below, right) and Professor Kurt Weitzmann (pictured below left), is a profoundly important resource for Byzantine studies. Read More