ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
Communique
The
Holy and Great Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, convened under the
presidency of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and among
other issues, thoroughly deliberated upon the events of the COVID-19 (Corona)
virus and with a feeling of pastoral responsibility, points out the following:
1)
Despite the seriousness of the situation, prudence, patience, and the avoidance
of panic are advised.
2)
The Church has and continues to respect medical science. Thus, the Church
recommends that all the faithful adhere to the official directives of both the
World Health Organization and the pertinent pronouncements and legal
regulations issued by the civil authorities of their respective countries.
3)
The Ecumenical Patriarchate expresses its gratitude to all those working
self-sacrificially within all health, medical, nursing, and research fields in
order that this new pandemic be confronted and treated.
4)
The Mother Church of Constantinople knows empirically from its
two-thousand-year existence that Holy Communion is “the antidote to mortality”
and remains firm in its Orthodox teaching regarding the Holy Eucharist.
5)
It is considered self-evident that faith in God, as transcendence and not as
the abolition of human reason, along with prayer strengthen the spiritual
battle of every Christian. Therefore, the Mother Church of Constantinople urges
its spiritual children throughout the world to intensify their petitions so
that, strengthened and illumined by God, this contemporary tribulation may be
overcome.
11 March 2020
From the Chief Secretariat
of the Holy and Sacred Synod
