A different joy of Christmas was experienced in Antakya district of Hatay. The Christmas mass, which members of the Orthodox Church community could not attend due to Covid-19 measures, was broadcast live on social media.
The administration of St. Petrus and Paul Greek Orthodox Church of Antakya broadcast live the whole “Holy Christmas Mass” held on the evening of December 24, using the social media account of the church. The live mass was watched with interest by the Antakya community.
Due to the coronavirus restrictions, without the members of the community, only with the participation of Church Fathers Can Dellüler and Dimitri Doğum, the Choir Members and the sacristans, hymns were sung and verses from the Bible were read.
Father Dimitri Birth, who also gave a sermon on the Christmas Day, emphasized that they realized the Holy Christmas Mass this year as in all churches of the world; “Unfortunately, this year we had to conduct a mass closed to our community. We have not been able to open churches to our community for about a month because of the weekend restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus that ravaged the world, and we could not open it on this holiday. But we believe that wherever we gather in Jesus Christ’s name, it is a small church.
Jesus Christ was born in a manger and has always lived in humility. We must thoroughly understand the teachings of Christ Jesus, whose birth we celebrate today, and we must live a humble life like him. On behalf of our church fathers and administration, I wholeheartedly congratulate our entire community on the Christmas Day ”.
Father Dimitri Doğum, also drew attention to the increase in deaths and diseases and made warnings to the members of the community to comply with Coronavirus measures and to pay attention to the specified rules. (SAT-7 Türk/İlyas Edip TERBİYELİ-İskenderun)
