In connection with the autumn increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, urged believers to strengthen their prayers for doctors and to follow their recommendations.
“I urge everyone to pay close attention to the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, to observe quarantine standards, not to ignore personal protective equipment, and to observe social distance and disinfection regime,” the Ukrainian Primate noted in his address on October 20, 2020.
His Beatitude Onuphry emphasized that in the current situation “entrance sanitary control should be carried out in churches and on church premises”.
The archpastor specifically pointed out the danger of coronavirus for the elderly, and therefore asked them “not to put themselves in danger, avoid places with a large crowd of people and not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.”
Regarding medical workers, Metropolitan Onuphry urged believers “to strengthen … church and home prayers, including for doctors who continue to fight the pandemic at the cost of their own lives and health.”
Reminding that everything in life happens according to the will of God, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church expressed the hope that the current situation with the coronavirus “may not be a reason for despair or despondency, but be perceived as a test of our love, humility and patience.”
Also recalling that, according to the holy fathers, “diseases are given for spiritual cleansing and the salvation of the soul,” Metropolitan Onuphry pointed out that today the “blessed duty” of all believers is “to change their sinful life for the better and grow spiritually in Christian virtues”.
