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Dear Parishioners

 
As you see, many organizations have suspended public gatherings due to the spread of the Corona Virus. With the blessing of our bishop I have posted some basic guidelines on
approaching this illness.

We are not suspending or canceling any Church services. We do advise those whose immune systems are weak
to follow advice of CDC.

About the spread and presence
of the corona virus


There are certain demographic groups for whom this virus poses a greater risk than for others. We ask all our faithful to read about the virus and its spread on the websites of the federal
Center for Disease Control 
cdc.gov 

If you think that you will be exposed to too great of a risk, please avoid public gatherings according to the advice of
the Center for Disease Control.


Otherwise, liturgical life in our Diocese proceeds as normal, including the common Lenten services  scheduled.

With the blessing of His Grace our Bishop Longin, we publish the article below about Holy Communion which briefly but concisely explains how it is impossible to become infected with anything by partaking of the Holy Communion.

My dear brethren,
 
Our Church has transmitted the Grace of her Holy Mysteries for the past two millennia through a well-known, very humane and at the same time blessed way, all unto the “healing of soul and body”.

The Church was never troubled or compromised by the modern logic of belittling. Every day she lives by the reality of a confirmed miracle. Is it possible for the Holy Communion to be the cause of even the slightest harm? Is it possible for the Body and Blood of our Lord to infect our body and blood? Is it possible for the two millennia long experience to fold under rationale and cold shallowness of the modern era?

The faithful have partaken of Communion for centuries, the healthy and the sick, from the same Holy Chalice and with the same spoon which are never disinfected, and never has an illness appeared from them.

Hospital priests, even those working in clinics and departments for infectious diseases, give Communion to the faithful and afterwards piously use up the remainder of the Holy Communion and despite all that they live a very long life.

Holy Communion is the holiest things that the Church and her people have. It is the greatest cure for soul and body. This is the teaching and the experience of our Church.

Those who do not believe in the Lord’s Resurrection, who mock His nativity from the Virgin Mary, who deny the fragrance of the holy relics, who despise holiness and piety, who murmur against our Church, who wish to erase every last trace of faith from our souls, naturally want to use this opportunity to attack and offend the Holy Mystery of Divine Eucharist.

The fact the Anglicans and Catholics have decided, out of precaution, not to give their faithful both means of divine gifts (bread and wine), does not show, as some claim, their prudence, care and freedom, but rather their distance from our Holy Church which is eucharistic both in her Theology and her life. It manifests the separation of other Christian “churches” from our Church which lives, believes and preaches the Mystery of Communion. These communities indirectly confess the absence of God’s Grace and Gods manifestations in their so-called sacraments, as well as their loss of an Ecclesiastical identity. Life without the Holy Mystery of Communion seems like a serious illness without a cure.

Unfortunately, the problem is not the pandemic of the flu virus, as the mass media declare, nor is it the global pandemic of panic, as medical associations say, but rather the virus of belittling and the microbe of faithlessness.

The best vaccine for all this is our frequent participation in the Divine Holy Mysteries with “a conscience pure” and “uncondemned”. Our response to this ungodly challenge of our days are our very lives.

It is good for our insightful spiritual leaders, if they find believers to be living without spiritual obstacles, to encourage them to frequently approach the Immortal Mysteries in these hard times, and to advise those who are not blessed to approach the life-giving Chalice frequently to approach with “fear of God, much faith and sincere love” when they do.
 
Let us pray to God that he strengthen our faith so we may be worthy of our calling through this trial and through many other, greater ones which we will inevitably face.
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