Shared communion of faithful, postponed until the finalization of consultations with other Orthodox Churches

The spokesman of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Vasile Banescu, has stated on Wednesday that the communion with a shared spoon (during the Liturgy) of the faithful is postponed for a short period, until the end of consultations with the other Orthodox Churches.

"There was a natural consultation of the members of the Holy Synod in regards to a short delay of shared communion, until the finalization of an inter-Orthodox consultation with the other Churches, themselves facing in the same liturgical register the challenge raised by the pandemic. At this moment some very important things are clear, even though with a temporary character: the services with the faithful will be officiated exclusively outside; churches will be reopened only for access for individual prayer of faithful, with some hygiene and protection rules upheld; the shared communion (during the Liturgy) is postponed for a short period, until the finalization of consultations with the other Orthodox Churches," said on Wednesday Banescu, for AGERPRES.

He mentioned that "there was before such a dramatic moment of postponing communion, for two months, actually, in 1829, and also for reasons relating to an epidemic."

"It's nothing new and nothing contrary to the liturgical theology of the Church, which has the purpose of guiding the faithful person through a real world, faced sometimes with grave crises, including medical ones. In some contexts we must overcome the challenge of Christian realism, which protects us from any form of magical approach of 'the holy' and of the placing in conflict of profound faith with practical reasoning. The authentic Christianity, fed by the fidelity towards the genuine tradition of the Gospel and towards the philokalic, patristic tradition, does not place in artificial conflict faith and reason, but nurtures them with the discernment stemming from the faith in Christ, not from that in ourselves," the BOR spokesman said.