Churches will be open on Easter Sunday, with mandatory self-test for priests, cantors, and nuns, while the liturgy on the night of Resurrection will be performed earlier, between 9 and 10 pm, and the procession of the Epitaph on Good Friday will take place around the temples, according to the plan agreed upon between the clergy and the state.
All sanitary safety measures will be observed during Holy Week, as the Archbishop of Greece Ieronymos II said common grounds were reached during the meeting with PMMitsotakis. “We have found a solution to make a net off so as not to upset things,” said Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens.
The agreement between the Church and the State was sealed at yesterday’s meeting of Archbishop Ieronymos with the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, while today and tomorrow the Permanent Holy Synod is set to convene in an effort to present the manner in which Easter will be celebrated, and is expected to send a letter laying out its proposals to the Ministry of Education regarding the people allowed inside the large temples to be 100 people, as well as to apply the ratio of one believer per 15 sq.m. indoors. The Synod also calls for the “utilisation” of the temple courtyards to be allowed, so that there is no overcrowding.
The details of the operation of the temples will be discussed in the coming days in the Committee of Infectious Diseases, which will propose to the government the issuance of the relevant JMC that will provide the specific number of people who can attend the temples.
Mr. Mitsotakis and the Archbishop met yesterday in a very amicable atmosphere, on the sidelines of the opening of the anniversary exhibition of the Parliament for the 200 years since the Revolution of 1821, about the operation of the Holy Temples and their outdoor spaces, during the Easter period, in compliance with all sanitary measures.
After the event and responding to reporters about the content of the conversation he had with the Prime Minister about the operation of the churches during the Easter period, the Archbishop said: “We have found a solution to avoid rocking the boat and reached a compromise. With more freedom. But we do not believe that we will be able to go to our villages” while for Good Friday and the procession of the Epitaph he said that it will take place around the Holy Temples.
