St. Katharine church to stop using shared spoon: Hirji
Priest told followers divine powers would prevent the coronavirus spread
Niagara’s top public health official said a St. Catharines church has agreed to stop using a shared spoon during religious services following a visit by health inspectors.
Dr. Musfata Hirji, the region’s acting medical officer of health, said Wednesday the leaders of St. Katharine Greek Orthodox Church will adopt one of two options offered by the health department in lieu of using the same spoon to serve sacramental wine during communion.
“They can either use single-use spoons, which will be thrown away after one use. Or they can use a spoon multiple times, but it can only be used by one person, and then put aside to be cleaned and sanitized before it can be used again,” Hirji said.
Health inspectors visited the church this week after a video of a Sunday service at St. Katharine was posted to Facebook.
In the video, Rev. Stavros Chatzis said the “health ministry of Niagara” gave the church permission to use one spoon to serve communion to parishioners.
Hirji said the health department did advise the church on safe practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and
that it is possible Chatzis misunderstood the advice. He said public health never sanctioned the use of a shared spoon because it poses a risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus.
In the video, which shows several elderly parishioners taken communion with the shared utensil, Chatzis falsely claimed sharing the spoon posed no risk of spreading the novel coronavirus. He said the church patriarch had decreed that “no invading pathogens or disease that comes from them can be transmitted via holy communion to those who receive it with faith, with love and with peace in their hearts.”
He also made inaccurate claims about the medical science pertaining to COVID-19, stating that while the church’s traditions have not changed in more than a thousand years, in the case of the pandemic “the scientific method has wavered.”
While scientific understanding of the virus has evolved over time, Chatzis falsely said the scientific community touted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as an effective COVID-19 treatment, only to then reject it. In fact, there was never a scientific consensus on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the infection but was aggressively promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump
Scientific studies have shown the drug is ineffective against COVID-19.
Hirji said religious groups have reached out to the public health department for advice throughout the pandemic, but he has not encountered an issue such as the one at St. Katharine before.
Most of the questions from churches, temples and mosques have been about the number of people who are allowed to attend services.
According to provincial COVID-19 regulations, 50 people are allowed in a religious service indoors, or 100 outdoors. If the services is in a private residence the limits are 10 indoors or 25 outdoors. In every case, parishioners are to be at least two metres apart.
So far, no COVID-19 cases have been linked to St. Katherine’s church.
Hirji said there is little the health department can to to monitor a hypothetical exposure to the virus, but said members of the church should monitor themselves and get tested if they show even mild symptoms of COVID-19.
There were 10 new cases in Niagara confirmed Wednesday, the third straight day of doubledigit increases after several days of less than 10 cases daily.
“Ten cases is still in line with what we have seen recently,” he said. “So that, on its own does not cause me alarm right now.”