Head of the Church of Cyprus: We will no longer obey lockdowns
Lockdown will not work. If in 2020 many Christian churches around the world accepted with understanding the quarantine measures and the forced closure of churches that coincided with Easter, in 2021 the unanimity of secular and church authorities in the fight against coronavirus was shaken even where the government and the hierarchy usually showed unity.
In Cyprus on April 23, the government announced a new severe quarantine, which again coincides with Passionate and Light. One of the requirements: services must be held without parishioners, only on Easter night a maximum of 50 people can be present in the church. But this time the church turned out to be less obedient.
Archbishop Chrysostomos II appeared on the air of the RIK TV channel on the evening of April 23, stating that the hierarchs did not intend to obey the government. He said that the church will “call the believers to the temples”, people will just have to keep their distance and wear a mask. “Let the government leave the church alone. From the very beginning, we have been very strict [in taking preventive measures]. I declare bluntly: we will not obey,” the archbishop said.
This speech was published on the official website of the Church of Cyprus, it can be considered the official position of the church. We also know that some bishops of the Church of Cyprus have already allowed their priests to let parishioners into services, despite the lockdown.
Quarantine measures and news from the fronts of the pandemic have long been a part of everyday life in many countries. If in 2020 calls to rally the ranks in the fight against an invisible enemy could arouse sympathy, now, when people are accustomed to covid and deaths from covid, the belief in the need for strict measures has disappeared. In Russia, this is noticeable best of all, in law-abiding Europe so far not very much, but even there the fight against the pandemic is already perceived with a grain of skepticism.