@@Jeremiah-pu5vp Same. It’s how I ended up at the parish I’m at. My atheist roommate at the time just came to Christ and called around to see which Orthodox Church wasn’t requiring masks in our city. My priest held two separate liturgies-the one on Sunday did not require masks or any kind of sign up sheet for attendance. You worshipped as you wanted. He held another “mask only” liturgy for those who were fearful and wouldn’t attend otherwise, caring for his whole flock, he made it so everyone could attend. Turns out, no one really attended the “mask only” liturgy. Our parish has strong faith, and those who had fear at these such parishes often went to attend other parishes, while those at “mask only” and “sign up sheet” parishes came to attend ours. I was very grateful for how my priest handled it, he saw through the evil of it, though he gave everyone an option to worship for wherever they were at spiritually. I do believe that, as Fr. Turbo and some others have said, there should be repentance and discussion over how Covid was handled by many parishes/priests/bishops/parishioners.
Thank you this is EXCELLENT .. "A Theology of Fear" (On Mandatory Masking). God Bless You for sharing this.
great article
Fully agree!
@@Jeremiah-pu5vp Same. It’s how I ended up at the parish I’m at. My atheist roommate at the time just came to Christ and called around to see which Orthodox Church wasn’t requiring masks in our city. My priest held two separate liturgies-the one on Sunday did not require masks or any kind of sign up sheet for attendance. You worshipped as you wanted. He held another “mask only” liturgy for those who were fearful and wouldn’t attend otherwise, caring for his whole flock, he made it so everyone could attend. Turns out, no one really attended the “mask only” liturgy. Our parish has strong faith, and those who had fear at these such parishes often went to attend other parishes, while those at “mask only” and “sign up sheet” parishes came to attend ours. I was very grateful for how my priest handled it, he saw through the evil of it, though he gave everyone an option to worship for wherever they were at spiritually. I do believe that, as Fr. Turbo and some others have said, there should be repentance and discussion over how Covid was handled by many parishes/priests/bishops/parishioners.
Seeing it at an orthodox church to this day strikes me as sacrilege. Disappointing to say the least.