April 8, 2020

To our Saint Nektarios family, local and universal;

I pray that you are all Corona-free and that you remain that way.

During these confusing and unpredictable times, my love and appreciation for all of you has grown and continues to grow. I want you to know how much I love you and miss you. I look forward with great relish to the day when we will be able to gather together as one celebrating the divine Eucharist, an embrace of love and a kiss of peace. Separation from the body and blood of our Lord, and each other, will require patience and understanding. Throughout this time we are given instructions from the government and from the hierarchs of the Church which direct our actions. I hope this correspondence clarifies these instructions.

When a man is ordained to the priesthood, the “amnos” (that is the sanctified body of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ) is placed in his hands and he proceeds to the back of the altar. Here he is instructed to contemplate the awesomeness of the responsibility of the priest to be the distributer of the Holy Eucharist. This was a life changing moment for me and has become the source of great conflict during this COVID-19 event.

The priesthood is a continuation of apostolic tradition and precedence. In our Church today, the successors of the Apostles are our bishops. The priest can only function under their authority. This means that a priest cannot do anything in the church without the blessing of the hierarchs.

As the local government began issuing regulations on gatherings and limiting the number of people that could gather, the hierarchs responsibly followed suit. Due to the fact that all local government recommendations were not the same, some were stricter than others, a confusion arose amongst some of the priests. I was one of them. The instructions given from the government (Mecklenburg County) limited gatherings to ten. The instructions from the Church was to also limit gatherings to ten.

While we here at Saint Nektarios tried to design our activities and services to adhere strictly to the letter of both governmental and ecclesiastical instructions, these instructions were misunderstood by me. I ask you all for forgiveness of any further misunderstanding or confusion that I may have caused.

I pledged to all of you that I would (as long as I was allowed) do my best to offer the Eucharist to anyone who wished to come and receive. I’m no longer able to do this, with the exception of going to individual homes of the sick and shut-ins. Again, I ask for your forgiveness. The following are the instructions that we will be following until otherwise instructed:

1.        The only people allowed to physically be present at services are those that are essential to the service itself - Priest, chanter, altar server, audio/video technician and person on duty. The total must be under ten.

2.        Everyone is requested to stay home and watch services online.

3.        No one else will be allowed into the sanctuary. Please do not ask for any exceptions.

4.        The Eucharist will not be made available. All drop-in times have been canceled.

5.        The Eucharist and Holy Unction may be made available by appointment when specifically requested by the sick or shut-ins, where permitted by law. Protective mask and gloves will be worn by the priest during these visits.

6.        There will be no palms distributed on Palm Sunday. They will be blessed and stored to be distributed at a later date.

7.        Anointing with Holy Unction will be available at a later date.

8.        There will be no light of the Resurrection offered. No candles will be distributed. We will preserve the Light if you would like to take it home at a later date.

9.        There will be no red eggs blessed or distributed.

10.     The blessing of the Pascha baskets will not take place.

11.     Resurrection Orthros will be at midnight Holy Saturday.

12.     Divine Liturgy of the Resurrection will be held at 10:00 A.M. Pascha morning, followed immediately by the Agape Vespers.

Click here to see the updated Holy Week schedule of services and plan to participate by watching online. 

Fr. Steve Dalber

Protopresbyter