CNN: Georgia's defiant Orthodox church will host Easter worshipers despite lockdown

18-04-2020, 18:10

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At first glance, the republic of Georgia has been a success story in the fight against the novel coronavirus: the outbreak in the small Caucasus nation has remained limited, with just 370 official cases as of Friday morning.

But Georgia now faces a serious test. Easter will be celebrated this Sunday on the Eastern Christian calendar, and the powerful Georgian Orthodox Church is planning major celebrations that public health officials say could prove deadly.

Georgian authorities moved early to respond to the coronavirus. The government closed schools on February 29, when the country had just three confirmed cases. Health experts have credited the swift response with containing the virus early through social distancing and other measures. On Friday, a five-day nationwide ban on private car travel went into effect.

The Georgian Orthodox church, however, has largely refused to heed the pleas of public health officials, who have urged people to stay home. Churches across Georgia have remained open and continued to hold ceremonies, a move that experts say could prove disastrous.

This past Sunday, thousands gathered in churches across the country to mark Palm Sunday on the Orthodox calendar. The services were an explicit breach of the lockdown decreed by authorities on March 30, which included a ban on gatherings of more than three people.

The tradition-bound church has so far refused to adapt communion rites to counter epidemiological concerns. Worshippers line up at the end of each service to receive the sacrament of communion from the same communal spoon, Reuters reported Thursday.

"The spoon is often not even washed" between uses, Salome Kandelaki, a project coordinator at the Georgian Institute of Politics who researches religion in Georgia, told CNN.

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister and the church struck a last-minute deal to allow Easter services to be held, but with some precautions to safeguard parishioners from Covid-19. Those measures include social distancing, a police presence, and the scaling back of traditional cemetery visit festivities.

But the government, which said the country is entering a peak phase for transmission of the virus, has continued to call on worshipers to stay home regardless.

"In large churches, during the service, a distance of two meters must be maintained, and in small churches only clergy will serve. Each church will have mobilized patrol police crews to monitor curfew and social distance," said Irakli Chikovani, the spokesman for Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, reported Tbilisi Week. "Citizens must comply with curfew conditions, otherwise measures will be taken."

Analysts say the government led by the Georgian Dream party, which has aided the church's push for a conservative, family values-oriented society, has been reluctant to enforce anti-coronavirus measures when it comes to the church.

"I am still surprised that [the church] does not think ahead," said Tamuna Khoshtaria, senior researcher at the Caucasus Research Resource Center Georgia, a leading independent, non-profit research and survey group. "But I am more surprised that the government lets them do it, because they have put so much effort into containing the virus. Now it all seems in vain.

Observers say that both church and state are imperiling public health. The Georgian health ministry and prime minister's office have not yet responded to a CNN request for comment.

Paata Imnadze, deputy head of the National Center for Disease Control, implored citizens to observe social distancing measures, warning that "if we don't stay at home ... the death rate will be staggering."

The Georgian church's insistence is all the more remarkable for the measures other Eastern Orthodox churches have taken. The Russian Orthodox Church has officially urged worshipers to stay at home, although some churches continue to hold services. The Church of Greece decided to suspend mass as of March 16.

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