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His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, following the wish
of the Mother Church of Constantinople to have coordination and, as far
as possible, uniformity between the local Orthodox Churches on
the extremely important question of the Divine Eucharist and of the way
of distributing it to the faithful, sent the following letter on 17 May
2020 to all his brothers their Beatitudes the Primates of the local
Orthodox Churches:
“Your Beatitude, Christ is risen!
We have painfully experienced the circumstances that have arisen
in the life of the Church due to the serious pandemic of the new
coronavirus, and from everywhere we have received new local data and
various developments, in letters or in the form of questions and
concerns. We, animated by a spirit of solidarity and cooperation, in
order to protect the health of the faithful and the common good, have
accepted the celebration of the liturgical services for a certain time
without the presence of the faithful in the churches, but with the
primary concern, however, of preserving the faith of our Fathers, which
always illuminates the universe.
Since, nevertheless, after the praiseworthy interest of the
authorities and the priceless prevention of the leaders during the
COVID-19 pandemic, certain unseemly points of view have been heard on
how to approach the immaculate mysteries, it is impossible for us to
remain silent and foreign to such an ambiguous situation, and inactive
in the face of development and related government regulations and
prohibitions.
We have obeyed the exhortations of the health and political
authorities, and as is natural, we obey, to the point, however, where
the essence and the center of our faith is not touched. The
condescension of the Church goes to the cross, but nevertheless it
refuses to descend from it by obeying the magistrates and authorities of
this world when the mystery of the mysteries of her life, the divine
Eucharist, is being questioned.
In the life of the Church, it is known to all that the
interpreter of the evangelical and apostolic exhortations and concepts,
but nevertheless also of the spirit and the letter of the divine and
holy canons, is the holy tradition, woven indissolubly with daily
ecclesial practice and kenotic experience. Using this consecrated
practice of the Church, we see and we discern in truth that it lives in
the world by Divine Eucharist and in Divine Eucharist, or, in another
way, that Divine Eucharist is the revelation and the experience of the
divine-human mystery of the Church. The Lord himself, who “dwells
invisibly with us”, who “offers, is offered and is distributed”, gives
us in the Eucharist His immaculate body and His precious blood, making
us the “fullness of the kingdom of heaven”.
In this spirit and in this feeling, we communicate with Your
Beatitude, much loved by us, declaring in all conscience that we have no
intention of renouncing what was bequeathed to all of us by our blessed
Fathers. In the light of the circumstances that have arisen, we wish to
listen to Your fraternal opinion and Your thoughts so that we may
commonly walk in the pastoral approach to controversies over the
established mode of the distribution of divine communion. That have been
said, we embrace with love in Christ and with a holy kiss Your beloved
Beatitude, remaining his dear brother, his concelebrant and partaking in
the one and common chalice, to which, by drinking it, we will never
thirst in the ages. Amen.”
