With a timely address delivered as early as Sunday afternoon, on the Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, His Eminence Seraphim, Metropolitan of Kythira and Antikythira, took a harsh stance against the government's demand that they take place Checks to verify that worshippers have a rapid test result or a vaccination certificate before entering churches.
«The Temple of God is our home. It is our spiritual joy. It is where the Sacraments of our Church are celebrated and where we commune with God through the Holy Sacraments. It is a sacred, unblemished, and holy place. For those who have known and been raised from a young age to appreciate the house of God, Do you realize how great the deprivation is when the houses of God are closed, when barriers are put up? and when we, the priests and church commissioners, are called upon to train law enforcement officers »and to bar from the church those who wish to enter their home, their spiritual clinic, their place of healing," His Eminence said, among other things.
«I say these things with a heavy heart,» concluded the Metropolitan of Kythira. «»Things are happening that sadden us deeply,", he noted with regret and added: «The Holy Synod, in the circular it issued, granted the faithful this freedom regarding these matters, for people to choose freely, rather than under duress and the head of state of our country took this text from the Holy Synod, which does not say these things and now states, there is a barrier at the entrance for worshippers, with testing and all sorts of other things. These things never happened, my dear brothers. These goes against twenty centuries of tradition, the tradition of our Church's life. They didn't happen even under totalitarian regimes. And under occupiers, they never happened either. ”which are taking place now.".
