During this unusual Lenten period, as we protect ourselves and one another from the Covid-19 outbreak through measures recommended by government health authorities, such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), our Churches have adopted similar measures to protect the most vulnerable as well as the healthy.
The work of the clergy – just as the work of health-care professionals, first-responders, store clerks, truck drivers and other occupations that have been identified as essential – continues. Priests are still serving liturgies (behind closed doors), funerals, and sacraments of confession and communion for the ill and infirm, and even baptism if necessary. Sunday divine liturgies remain “in behalf of all, and for all” despite the pews remaining empty.
As the Paschal season approaches, it is the churches that have become vulnerable from the lack of regular donations being collected during services, especially the major feasts of Palm Sunday and Pascha. The hierarchs of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., as well as the respective parish boards of individual churches, continue to deliberate how to financially support their clergy, caretakers and other paid positions without regular streams of revenue coming in.
A tele- and video-conference, held online via Zoom and telephone on April 1, and hosted by the UOC-U.S.A., focused on guidance from the Council of Bishops of the Church (Metropolitan Antony and Archbishop Daniel) about the ongoing pandemic and how it impacts the ministry of the Church.
Those deliberations included questions about blessed pussy willows for Palm Sunday as well as the blessing of baskets of Paschal food items. A detailed letter is being prepared by the bishops to be mailed out within the week, and will inform the faithful of the interim measures adopted and to be put in place for the foreseeable future.
A similar memorandum was issued on April 1 by the Bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S.A. regarding Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter. The bishops have urged the faithful to participate as fully as possible in Holy Week and Pascha services via radio, television and live-streamed broadcasts, stressing the importance of the domestic church in compliance with civil regulations. For specific recommendations, please see the letter posted by the Philadelphia Archeparchy on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/archeparchyphilly/posts/2835682363151812?__tn__=K-R).
The annual St. Thomas Sunday pilgrimage at the Metropolia Center of the UOC-U.S.A. in South Bound Brook, N.J., scheduled for April 25-26 is another example of an event that has been postponed due to the pandemic. This event typically attracts thousands of individuals who come to celebrate the Resurrection, to commemorate those buried at the cemetery, and to pray that the reposed may enter into new life eternal. No new date has been announced, but it will be when such events are allowable. (See www.uocofusa.org for more information.)
The Lenten season is meant to be a struggle, both physically and spiritually. But perhaps the real test is our willingness to deny ourselves in service to our neighbor. It may be the toughest test of all.