The Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece will reportedly receive Greek health minister Vassilis Kikilias and top epidemiologist Sotiris Tsiodras next Tuesday, in order for the two to brief members of the permanent Holy Synod on the issue of Covid-19 vaccinations as well as the Church’s possible contribution towards persuading the faithful, and clerics, to get inoculated.
The minister himself made the announcement on Thursday, during a television appearance.
In a related development, the president of the Union of Clerical Associations of the Church of Crete, Fr. Zaharias Adamakis, speaking on the same program with Kikilias, expressed the Church of Crete’s position in favor of the vaccinations.
At the same time, the Metropolitan of Nea Ionia and Nea Philadelphia, His Eminence Gabriel, touched on several recent statements by high-ranking Orthodox hierarchs around the world regarding the vaccinations for the pandemic, saying characteristically that it is “…far-fetched to say that not getting vaccinated is a sin.”