Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Lord bless you!

At St Herman’s, we will continue to do the services.  However, we will have to limit the attendance at the service itself to ten people. The priest/bishop, deacon and reader, plus hopefully a singer or two, will serve the Liturgy with a couple of people present.

Those who wish to receive the Holy Mysteries are asked to come about the time of communion and must sign up in advance so that we do not violate the Governor of Virginia’s mandate that assemblies cannot be larger than ten people. We had someone call the police on us on Wednesday, but the officer understood that we are following the limits.  

You may sign up at this link (https://sugeni.us/ctvM ) to attend services or just receive communion.

7 People may attend the service and we can have 3 groups of eight that will come into the church hall at the appointed times (in the sign up). If you arrive before your timeslot, you must remain in your car until the reader calls your group into the hall.

For services:

Presanctified Liturgies begin at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday Vespers begins at 6:00 p.m.

Sunday Matins and Liturgy begins at 8:45 a.m.

For communion only:

For evening Liturgies of the Presanctified Gifts, the times to sign up for will be 7:20, 7:25 and 7:30 PM.

For Sunday Divine Liturgy, the times will be 11:10, 11:15, and 11:20. 

These times may be adjusted slightly in subsequent weeks as we adjust to this new paradigm.

At the appointed time, the Reader will come out and read Typica for the first group in the hall, and for each subsequent group after them.  Then each group will enter the temple, recite the prayers before Communion, and receive the Holy Mysteries. We need you to leave the temple after communion and zapivka.

While we are urging families with small children not to bring the whole crew to the service—and thereby exclude adults from participating—we encourage you to bring the kids to receive the Holy Mysteries before the services on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, or at the end of Liturgy using the signup sheet.

As a reminder, we bless those who wish pray at home, and have provided the Typica text.  We will send out the Vespers text as well for Wednesday and Friday nights. Additionally, St. John’s Cathedral is broadcasting their services on YouTube and Holy Cross Monastery is broadcasting their services on Facebook.  St John’s Cathedral has the services in both English and Slavonic; Holy Cross is all in English, and it is the full daily cycle. 

Again, I hate to have to do this, but we are in extraordinary times.  We are very sorry not to be able to open the Liturgy to all; however, all who wish to commune are able. 

For those high risk people who are remaining at home and for whom it is unwise to come out, Communion can be brought to you.  Please let us know and we will make an arrangement.  Also, you may come and commune at 5pm on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, before the services.

Please continue to pray for all those who are suffering from this horrific virus, all those ministering to them—the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals—and all who are in fear, grief or anxiety over this. 

With love in Christ,

+Metropolitan Jonah