Speaking to reporters during a discussion on the coronavirus pandemic, Metropolitan Symeon of Fthiotida said:
“If I knew that the previous believer had been infected by coronavirus, I would immediately receive Holy Communion after him. Remember that we priests lick the Holy Communion from the floor if it falls down. Holy Communion is not a multivitamin that will make you a Superman. Christ is the Holy Communion. It’s not something magic that will make you not to get sick or die. But it does not transmit the virus itself. After all, no one can ever substantiate that a virus has been transmitted through the Holy Eucharist. Whoever claims this, should also justify it. On the contrary, there are testimonies and experiences from the life of our Church that prove the opposite to be true.”
Metropolitan Makarios of Nairobi, who has been a missionary in Africa for 43 years, was also asked by a reporter about receiving Holy Communion in a time of a pandemic such as we are in with the coronavirus:
"Although the Kenyan government has taken steps like all other countries, the liturgies and Holy Communion have not stopped. The people of the various tribes want to be united with God, and this is the miracle - that we have never had any disease transmitted through Divine Communion. I received communion in Africa as a layman before I became Bishop, I was always the last to receive after the sick, and thank God I did not suffer anything. After I became a Bishop, I ended up consuming the remaining portions countless times. Christ is in the Holy Chalice and it is blasphemous and insulting what is being done in Greece to challenge Holy Communion. We condemn God himself and the history of the Church so we must be very careful with what we say."
