April 10, 2020

Quarantined?

More

COVID-19, the severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by the coronavirus, does not have a particularly high mortality rate. But it is highly contagious. Thus, while the mortality among those infected with the virus has been estimated at around 2 to 3 percent, the absolute number is growing fast. Of course, no one can predict the course of this pandemic. By the time this column goes to print, it may be receding. Or not.

The spread of the coronavirus is replete with ironies. In an age of globalization, it is a global disease. In the midst of a communications revolution, this is a most communicable disease. In a time when society has begun to question hyper-individualism and seeks to reassert communitarian values, the coronavirus sends us back into isolation.

During an election campaign when whole segments of the electorate live in echo-chambers and cannot even agree on fundamental facts, political fanatics on both sides – and in an epoch where politics has supplanted religion as the passion of the populace, this is the fanaticism we need to worry about – concoct conspiracy theories about how the other side is shamefully exploiting the pandemic for political or economic advantage.

Religion is affected too. In mid-March, I was watching the divine liturgy celebrated in Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kyiv, courtesy of Zhyve Telebachennia. The congregation was sparse, the faces gloomy and stressed. It was, after all, cold, and the country was at war. And no, watching the liturgy on a laptop was not “just like being there.” It just made me want to be there.

The video transmission showed some coronavirus no-nos, like people touching their faces. But the children receiving Communion followed the health instructions meticulously, not letting the spoon used to impart the Eucharist (“cochlear,” Greek kochliarion, Slavonic lzhitsa) touch their mouths. Meanwhile, the Orthodox world was divided between what one might call cochleophiles and cochleophobes. The Russian, Georgian, Greek, Bulgarian and Romanian Churches tended to favor retaining the spoon, though some Church leaders suggested the faithful could bring their own spoons or receive Communion in paper cups. (“Coronavirus vs. the Church,” RFE/RL, March 17). Metropolitan Kirill of Moscow decreed that the spoon should be wiped with ethanol and rinsed in water between communicants (Interfax – Religion, March 17). Others have suggested distributing Communion without using a spoon at all.

In any event, as one Ukrainian Orthodox priest has pointed out, the cochlear controversy should not be allowed to degenerate into a pointless and misconceived argument between “science and religion” the (Rev. Anthony Perkins, “Evangelism, the coronavirus and Communion,” OrthoAnaly­tika, March 18, 2020). Faith in the healing powers of the Eucharist is perfectly consistent with understanding that the spoon used to distribute it could carry the virus.

Such issues do not even arise if one stays at home. In mid-March, Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Patriarch Sviatoslav decreed that public health regulations must be obeyed. The faithful were asked not to congregate or to engage in other practices that might spread the virus. He encouraged attendance by live streaming. On March 25, Patriarch Sviatoslav announced that Easter observances would be accordingly limited. Here in the U.S., the Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitanate of Philadelphia suspended regular public services on March 18. Roman Catholics have developed innovative ways to cope with the need to maintain social distance, including drive-through confessionals, eucharistic adoration in a parking lot and a virtual congregation composed of selfies (Life Site News, March 17). In Russia, after some hesitation, on March 29 Patriarch Kirill of Moscow finally decreed that the faithful may stay at home, following the example of the penitent hermit St. Mary of Egypt as well as the directives of the state authorities.

Is private worship at home a harbinger of the future? There may be more pandemics. Like 9/11, coronavirus may have changed our way of life forever. Even when the coronavirus recedes, the trend toward social distancing and isolation may continue for other reasons, as our diaspora communities, and hence our parishes, scatter. More and more of us are moving away from the old immigrant centers and into the suburbs, often in states where our churches have a limited presence. Old churches may have to be closed, while pastors to serve new ones may be lacking. Ukraine, after all, needs its clergy for work in the east and south. And vocations there are declining. Here, the elderly among us may not be able to travel the long distance to the nearest active church. Thus, “attending” a liturgy through the computer screen may be the most we can do.

This is unsatisfactory for a religion that – unlike Buddhism, for example – is intensely social, emphasizing relationships among people as well as between people and God. It is unsatisfactory for a rite that is emphatically sensory and physical, involving (in addition to the visual and aural aspects that video translation can convey) kissing icons and crosses, smelling the incense and tasting the Eucharist. Will changing the “medium” by which the faith is transmitted affect the “message”? Certainly not the core Christian message. But over time, the way that the message is experienced and understood may be affected by the technology that conveys it.

Even if gatherings become possible again, our physical dispersion will likely continue. Before the coronavirus pandemic, news circulated about a group in Oregon that gets together for prayer in a private home but hopes for a regularly visiting priest. This sounds like the catacomb Church of Soviet times, minus the fear. If there is a visiting priest but no consecrated space, could Catholics and Orthodox share churches?

One Sunday as I was live streaming the liturgy from my parish, I noticed that I had never met many of the people whose names were popping up in the Comments window. It seemed that a virtual community was springing up. Someone even wrote in from Brazil. Perhaps our global response to a global crisis will help build a global community after all.

Andrew Sorokowski can be reached at [email protected].

Comments are closed.