by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
Recently, our parish’s own David Atala, a pilot for United Airlines, offered a keen illustration. For effect, I’ve embellished upon it here a bit, but, I’m grateful that he gave me the bones for it.
Imagine the scenario of a pilot in an emergency situation, trying to get all of his passengers safely to the ground. The cabin has begun filling with smoke and the plane is experiencing some serious mechanical difficulties. Normally, a pilot would instruct everyone to get to their seats as quickly as possible, fasten their seatbelts, put on their oxygen masks, make sure that children near them are properly secured and cared for, and to follow his and the crew’s instructions as precisely as possible.
Now imagine further that while this pilot was in the midst of this crisis, trying to get all of those aboard his plane safely back onto the ground, a few passengers and a couple of crew members become unruly, and leave their seats to enter the cockpit to express their dissatisfaction with the way he was handling the situation. Some don’t think he’s getting the plane down for a landing quickly enough. Then there are the people who’re angry that he let the situation happen at all. Some believe that regardless of the scenario, if they’d only trusted the back-up equipment built into the aircraft and continued on course, they would’ve arrived at their original destination just fine. Other crew members have close friends who are pilots, and based on what their friends have told them about what to do in emergency situations, they’re absolutely convinced that this pilot has left out a few steps in his emergency landing procedure.
When a pilot is suddenly thrown into a chaotic, confusing, multi-tasking crisis, he has to rely on those around him for their support. In fact, that support is critical to their being able to land everyone safely on the ground. But consider for a moment...what are the chances of his being able to get them back on the ground safely when all those people are critiquing the pilot from so many different directions?
The same is true for anyone else trying to manage a crisis situation; fire fighters, police, medical people, etc... even priests and bishops. So, here we all are in the midst of this pandemic. No one during our lifetime has ever seen anything like this. We’re all virtually quarantined, kept from work, school, travel, recreation etc. People are worried, stressed, losing sleep over their health, money, jobs, families, confused about all of the conflicting information being given to us about this virus and about the best strategies for dealing with it. The easiest thing for us to do, especially when we have so much quarantine time on our hands is to criticize. But right now, in this crisis situation, that’s not a good idea. And when Churches are not acting in unity together, it doesn’t offer the world a good Christian witness. Our Lord implied this when He prayed for His disciples, “I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me” (John 17:23). Saint Paul further reminds us, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13).
As the illustration goes, our pilot, amidst this particular pandemic, is our bishop, His Eminence, Metropolitan Gerasimos. He’s the one trying to get us all safely back onto the ground in this crisis situation. As a priest in his metropolis, I hold a vital role as a member of his crew, to make sure that our parish follows the spirit of his instructions. It’s immature and destructive for us to second-guess his every move in order to get our own way. Saint Paul reminds us, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you” (Hebrews 13:17). Each of us needs to realize the fact that His Eminence has to deal with a bigger picture than merely our own particular issue. He cares about your particular issue, but he also has to juggle dealing with several other issues at the same time, including ones of which, likely, none of us even have an inkling. So, he consults with other bishops and other clergy on these matters weighing everything in proper balance with the tradition of the Church. [By the way, anyone who claims that, historically, the Church has *never* closed its doors, or *never* changed its practice in distributing communion due to disease, is operating in a state of ignorance. The Orthodox Church has done both of those things in times of pandemic.] Our Metropolitan consults, as well, with people in various fields of expertise, including governmental recommendations and then he decides what’s best for us as a whole, based on all those consultations. He has a God-given role that would be impossible were it not for the grace of the Holy Spirit and our unity in following his leadership. He’s trying to hold in balance the Church’s need to meet together for worship (Hebrews 10:25), the biblical command for us to submit to governing authorities (Romans 13:1-5), our Lord’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39) and to put the interests of others ahead of our own (Philippians 2:3-4). His Eminence considers this biblical guidance as authoritative when he tells us to cooperate with our local public officials who are working to stop the spread of this virus to save lives, and he expects us to act accordingly...out of love. He’s trying to teach us to live that way—as Christians—as we are being tested in this crisis situation.
Last week, the San Francisco Metropolis published online, The Reopening of our Parishes Readiness Guide under the guidance of His Eminence. And last Tuesday night, our Saint Basil Parish Council met together to begin planning the process for opening as soon as possible. Taking into account the recent messaging of California Governor Newsom regarding phase 3 of the re-opening of California, and the trends of Santa Clara County following his announcements, our hopeful *guess* is that we should have all these measures in place for a possible re-opening of our parish on June 14th. His Eminence has provided us with this Readiness Guide, because he anticipates that the state and our county will require procedures and practices from us, with which we’ll need to comply and document, demonstrating that we’ve acted responsibly to prevent further spread of this virus.
Because the COVID-19 hotspots have been different in each area of our metropolis, then each state and county will have varying timelines and different requirements for when and how their parishes will reopen. We have to realize that future gatherings of people will require some significant changes from us in the way we do things. And we have to realize that the state and county may have additional requirements beyond what’s listed in our Reopening Guideline. But we do know that we’ll have restrictions on the size of gatherings, we’ll be wearing face masks, doing constant sanitizing, we’ll continue the practices of social distancing that you’ve already been utilizing in grocery stores, and we’ll continue to offer online services for members of our parish who are still at high risk for contracting the virus, and need to continue staying at home. Our parishioners will still need to continue exercising caution.
So, out of love for the other members of your Saint Basil family, we’ll need those of you who are able-bodied to pull together, taking up roles that help us in the re-opening process of our parish. Please follow the link to The Reopening of our Parishes Readiness Guide, consider ways that you can offer your help in this process, and contact me.