Orthodox believers of Southern Russia celebrate second amid-pandemic Easter

On Sunday (May 2), solemn services in Orthodox churches in the regions of the Southern Federal District (SFD) and the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) in honour of the Easter were held with believers present. The services were held in compliance with the sanitary and epidemiological requirements due to the coronavirus, the Dioceses have informed. The pandemic have strengthened religiosity of 8% of Russians, sociologists have found out.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that last year in the NCFD regions, due to the pandemic, the religious ceremonies was limited. Orthodox believers of Chechnya accepted the appeal of the Diocese with understanding.

The Russians' religiosity fluctuates within 60-70%; and the pandemic has not greatly affected the church attendance, said Natalia Zorkaya, the head of the Levada Centre's socio-political research division.

About 8% of the respondents, when asked how the pandemic had affected their religiosity, answered that their faith had grown stronger; for 88% of the respondents, the situation did not affect their faith in any way. The rise in the proportion of religious people during the pandemic can be explained by the search for ways to overcome anxiety in a crisis situation. Residents of Russia, in whose lives religion plays a very important role, more often noted that due to the epidemic their faith grew stronger (27%), which is also typical for other countries that took part in the Pew Research Centre's survey.

In Russia, the share of those who believe that the epidemic has affected the faith of the country's population as a whole is greater than those who stated such an impact on their own religiosity (60%). However, according to 11% of respondents, this is not about strengthening, but about weakening the faith of others. Perhaps this is due to the perception of restrictions, including those related to religious life (for example, the temporary closure of churches for parishioners).