Abbess Seraphima: We are thankful to medical workers for halting COVID-19

Head of the Synodal Department of the UOC “Church and Culture”, Abbess Seraphim (Shevchik). Photo: screenshot of the video on the DumskayaTV Studio YouTube channel

Seraphima (Shevchik), Head of the Synodal Department of the UOC “Church and Culture” and Abbess of the Holy Archangel Michael Monastery in Odessa, thanked the doctors for their heroic work and told how they quarantined and celebrated Pentecost in her monastery.

“We give a lot of thanks to our President, our government and all of our doctors, first of all. Because the heroic efforts of these people, I believe, managed to stop the disease, and everything is under control now. For believers, as well as for all citizens of Ukraine, this is very important! We see that all these efforts come together in order to do good to people,” said Abbess Seraphim on the air of Dumskaya TV.

She said that the Church is intensely asking God to end the epidemic. The clergy and laity prayed fervently for this to the Holy Trinity. On this day, worshipers came to the temples with joy.

Mother Seraphim also noted that coronavirus prompted believers to be more careful and active.

According to the Abbess of the Holy Archangel Michael Monastery, during the quarantine period, video plots of the Odessa Eparchy were viewed on the Web by a huge audience, some videos have up to 10 million views.

“We appreciate that we can now take a more panoramic view of the world of Orthodoxy <...> however, we can’t receive the Holy Communion online,” she said.

Abbess Seraphim also emphasized that after quarantine easing, people are highly emotional and rush to the church for worship. However, even today in the temple they are trying to comply with sanitary requirements.

Previously, she spoke about the celebration of Easter in the lockdown conditions.

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