According to the chancellor of the UOC, Metropolitan Anthony, while the question of vaccination is not a religious issue,the Church has the following principles regarding it:

First, any vaccination – against coronavirus or other diseases – must be voluntary. A person has the right to refuse it, and Ukrainian legislation law provides for such a possibility, but at the same time everyone “must realize their responsibility for the state of their health and the health of their family.”

Sickness, like all other tribulations, even if it is caused by demons, Lord permits as a call for our repentance and change. But this does not mean that we should not take reasonable precautions and treat viral and other diseases.

However, it should be noted that antiviral vaccines are still being tested and monitored. From a medical point of view, each vaccine must go through a trial period during which possible side effects are revealed. This principle is currently not observed.

Therefore, if there is no urgent need, it is better to wait until the issue is clarified.

This does not apply to those vaccines that include abortion material – they are totally unacceptable.

Archim. Raphael Karelin

Both joy and sorrow are in your tear,
just as all secrets are gathered in it,
countless sighs, but also hope fervent,
as Christ has conquered death.

And again, my beloved, the great feast of St. Nicholas has emerged. What shall we say? Should we honor his virtues?

Should we praise his abstinence? As his Apolytikion says, he was the “teacher of abstinence”. For not only when he was older, but also when he was a child in the arms of his mother, he fasted from milk and did not nurse [on Wednesdays and Fridays].

Should we praise his meekness, for his Apolytikion says that he was the “icon of meekness”? Amidst insults and slanders and schemes of his enemies, he responded with great meekness. He teaches us, that we ourselves, no matter how many times we are insulted and slandered in this world, we must remain meek. There is no greater power than meekness, through which the demons of hell are conquered.

Or should we speak of his almsgiving, his great almsgiving? He would go at night to the homes of the poor, and to distribute gold coins, and he saved from filth and corruption.
  

On this day, the first missionaries were ordained by the Holy Spirit—the apostles, from whom we, your priests, have received the grace of ordination in succession. On this day the saving Sacraments, celebrated to this day in the Church through your priests, became efficacious. The apostles and other believers were given the gift of word and wisdom for preaching the Gospel to all people, and the abundant gift of miracles by which they, then and thereafter, attracted many human souls to faith in Christ and saved them.

The Holy Spirit was abundantly poured out upon the apostles, but other members of the Orthodox Church are given the Holy Spirit through repentance, Baptism, and the other Sacraments. The event of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles is very important for the Orthodox Church. This day is the day of the true foundation of the Orthodox Church, or the Christian society of those saved in Christ.

Through these two brothers – Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, Christ, our God, has given us great mercy.

After His glorious resurrection, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples to strengthen their faith. And He said to them: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. (Matt. 28:19-20)

When reading the Gospel, do not seek pleasure, do not seek exalted states, and do not seek brilliant thoughts—seek to see the unadulterated, holy truth.

Do not be satisfied with a mere fruitless reading of the Gospel; strive to fulfill its commandments, and read it with your deeds. This is the book of life, and you have to read it with your life.

Having entered the fourth week of quarantine, and in view of the coming of the Holy days of Pascha, being pressured by the stress and fear that is being imposed on us; with the pressure developing