Amid lingering pandemic concerns, the church is capping access to 50 people at a time and requires that they be free of fever and wear protective masks.
Archbishop Theodosy (Snigirev) of Boyarka
Probably the main conclusion that we can draw already today is that we have shown ourselves to be completely unprepared for such contemporary challenges. We are acutely in need of rethinking the external forms of the life of the Orthodox Church in force majeure situations.
Priest Valery Dukhanin
This is what Laurentian Chronicle (Codex) says: “A most curious wonder has manifested itself in Polotsk: The heavy stamping of feet was heard at night, something was moaning in the streets, demons that looked like people were rushing about. Whoever came out to see what's going on would get imperceptibly stricken with the plague by the demons, and would die from this, so no one ventured out of their dwellings.”
Pandemics have shown how weak and feeble man is. But they have also revealed that there is no sense in living for the earth alone.
Anna Berseneva-Shankevich
We suggested giving it a try without promising anything—we would deliver our dairy products to their hospital, leave it at the entrance, and the staff would take it in themselves.