Archbishop Elpidophoros of America published a video on Facebook on Monday to explain his position on Holy Communion in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The archbishop’s video comes in response to debates that have ensued within the Orthodox community after he approved the use of single-use spoons to distribute communion.
The pandemic has created a complex problem for Orthodox Christian Churches which serve their most important sacrament from a common spoon and cup.
In the Facebook video, Archbishop Elpidophoros responded to the following question:
“Parishioners are concerned about how Holy Communion is distributed with a common spoon. Is that something that will change even if it’s temporarily?”
“This is really a very difficult, but at the same time, very important discussion,” the archbishop said. “I am sure you all know that I already opened this issue of the one Common Spoon for consideration and I asked a very simple question, ‘What is more important for all of us, the Communion, the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ, or the way we receive the Body and Blood?'”
The answer, Elpidophoros said, is easy. “It’s not the way [in which we receive], it’s the Communion itself that saves us and gives us eternal life. So anything else, like the Common Spoon, or whatever the Church has been practicing, even in the last 1000 years, everything else can change, even temporarily or not temporarily.”
He then said that the common spoon tradition is not a matter which is decided by an Ecumenical Council or Orthodox Synod but rather a practice which became widespread without any imposition due to its “effective” and “practical” nature.
Listen to Archbishop Elpidophoros’ full response
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3 comments
I wish to make a general coment on this business of the Holy Communion: a few years ago a bishop in our area paid an early visit to a Sunday morning church, before the priest had arrived, to inspect condition in the Altar,h aving received reports that the priest was not careful in his duties. He smelled something was not right and opened the Communion Chalice and found the priest had not consummed the remaining sacrament after the previous Sunday’s Liturgy and it was spoiled. He ordered evrything to be burned and the Chalice to be regolded!
What do you make of this?
Timothy Nicholas
2
That’s actually a specific comment you made, not a general one, but it sounds like there is now one less priest in the ranks…typically the expectation is they would get defrocked after an incident like that…that was intentional, not accidental.
The answer you are looking for is actually simple…if a priest abandons the contents of the chalice after liturgy, how difficult is it for God to abandon as well, and “exit” the scene/chalice, resulting in the situation that you describe? There have been past accounts of people who were “allowed” to see a flash of light leaving the lavida (“spoon”) when someone who was not Orthodox went to receive Communion without the priest being aware (I don’t have the actual book reference right now, sorry, but it’s a quick reminder that God does not have boundaries on what He can / cannot allow).
The God-given manna of the desert is an example of a miracle that would spoil like clockwork when the time to consume it elapsed as well…God made that happen on purpose, because the deadline to harvest the manna was His rule to begin with. Likewise, there is a Canon / rule that every trace of Holy Communion MUST be consumed at the end of each Liturgy. Holy Communion that is set aside for the sick, or for Presanctified liturgy is done so in a specific manner (no preservatives of course), and there is never any trouble with it when the rules are followed…
Get ready for the faithful to leave in mass over this worldly view. You’ll have to cave to the LGBT community next because they will be the only ones going to this new worldly church. He should be defrocked and parishioners unwilling to accept the common spoon should be excommunicated.