Communal spoon still used in Greek communion

A Greek church and its followers insist that no disease can be transmitted through Holy Communion, including the new coronavirus.

The coronavirus pandemic has overturned some of the oldest religious rituals across the world, including going to church.

Lined up one-by-one, Christians wait to receive the Holy Communion while maintaining the required social distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Holy Communion is a centuries-old ritual that sees priests dipping a spoon into a chalice and into the mouth of the worshippers.

But in a Thessaloniki church, a priest does something that would make epidemiologists shudder - once he gives the communion to one person, he dips the same spoon back into the chalice and into the next person's mouth.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists have said that the virus can spread through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks, or by a person contaminating their hands and then touching their face.

But Father Georgios Milkas, a theologist and priest in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, said there was no danger of transmitting the virus by using the same spoon for many people.

"In the holy chalice there aren't bread and wine. There are the body and blood of Christ,'' Milkas said.

The Holy Synod, the church's governing body, said that suggesting illness or disease could be transmitted by the Holy Communion constituted blasphemy.

When Greece imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, churches were forced to close and Christians couldn't go to mass for nearly two months.

When the ban on religious services was lifted on May 17, thousands of people flocked to churches across the country.

After ordering churches to close, the government has been more circumspect during the lockdown easing and has avoided commenting on the sensitive issue of communion.

In the scientific community, concern is tempered by the knowledge that going directly against the powerful Orthodox Church into which an overwhelming majority of the country's population is baptized, could be counter-productive.

Symeon Metallidis, associate professor of pathology and infectious diseases at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, who treated the country's first known case of COVID-19, said people can't be stopped.

"Is there a danger of transmission through communion? My scientific view is 'yes.' If someone believes because of their faith that they can take communion, they will. You can't stop anyone," he said.