“You will not betray Christ if you do not come to the temple; you will betray Christ if someone gets sick because of you.” The Russian Orthodox Church allowed Easter services to be held without parishioners

Believers need to be prepared for the fact that Easter services this year will be held without parishioners. This was stated by the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), Interfax reports.

Hilarion noted that the services themselves would not be canceled, and the patriarchal service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior would be broadcast on central television channels.

The Metropolitan stressed that believers must comply with the instructions of the authorities on self-isolation. “You will not betray Christ if you do not come to the temple, you will betray Christ if someone gets sick because of you,” he explained.

• Easter will be celebrated on April 19th.
• Visiting churches by parishioners is not provided for by the regime of self-isolation, which has been introduced in most regions of Russia since the end of March. At the same time, the services themselves continue to be held - they can be attended by priests and church workers.