AMEN!!!!
Our Priests are the most active people I know in urging us to get vaccinated. That is because they want to get us back to normal Church life, which we are rapidly doing!!!!
However, they do not REQUIRE us to get vaccinated—with one exception. My OCA Priest requires one to be vaccinated if one sings in the choir. They also urge unvaccinated people to continue to mask up.
The anticipated return of after-Liturgy lunches and the Serbian festival this fall in our Serbian parish may persuade the remaining holdouts to get vaccinated. I pray that the Delta variant doesn’t ruin our plans!!
As for the Communion spoon, that goes with the more normal administration of Communion which we already have as of the beginning of June. We all worship Christ in the Sacrament, not the spoon. I don’t know if ANY Orthodox worships the spoon—that’s just nonsense!!!!
I’m a Roman in Canada, and feel blessed inasmuch as our Priest has been supportive of those of us who receive on the tongue, and the Bishop backed him up in a show down with the health authorities.
Having lived through the 70’s and 80’s this is something to be thankful for.
Sorry that y’all on the other side of the Bosporus have largely the same problems we have. Chrysostom says the majority of Bishops go to Hell, and it that phenomena may not be unique to his era.