So short thing before hand, I am Coptic Orthodox we have priests (who are married) and we see them for lots of things Confession, advice, help, all sorts of problems we also attend something called Divine Liturgy which is about 3 hours long (Mantis and then the service itself). So I went to see him today and one of the things I asked him is if I had to wear a mask at Liturgy (we are in orange county florida and there is still a mask mandate for us) some how this conversation turned into a discussion about the vaccine. And even he isn't going to be taking it he said it has nothing to do with religious reasons just he hasn't seen good things from it. Meaning lots of side effects from people (bad ones).
I spoke to one of my friends who is also Coptic and he said at his own parish that a lot of people especially the elderly will wear a mask just to enter the church but eventually during the service they will take it off and put it to the side. I think this really goes to show that a lot of people are completely fed up with the masks, my friend said the only people who believe in the mask is the government.
As for at my parish unfortunately I still have to wear it because Abouna (this is what we call our priests) said he can't make special exceptions because then everyone will want to take it off. I tried to tell him how a big part of the Liturgy in the incense it kind of mentally draws you in and how difficult it is to smell it, to which he said he could smell it just fine I said that is because he is the one censing the Church!
Yeah that's the thing, he is in a very difficult position but one thing about Copts is they have endured so much persecution by the Muslims that this is probably a welcomed sort of persecution, usually they are being killed and their churches are being burned to the ground. I have even seen Muslims throwing stones from the rooftops in Egypt at them!
Another thing is, I do believe he is following what our bishop has said to do, which our bishop is following what our Pope has said to do (the irony of that is all decisions by the Pope come from the Holy Synod which is just all the bishops together) I still think a lot of this comes down to their fear of being deported from the country and back to Egypt.