Between 27-28 August 2021 took place via the Zoom platform the Pastoral-Missionary Conference for the clergy of The Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas. On Friday, August 27, at 6.00 pm (EST), HE Metropolitan Nicolae began the event by the intonation of the Heavenly King prayer, after which he greeted all those present with a word of welcome, expressing his joy to be together once again, and recalling the brotherly atmosphere of the two previous similar encounters, in Chicago and Mississauga. Afterwards, His Eminence made a general presentation of the work agenda.
In turn, His Grace Ioan Casian, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada, greeted all the participants, saying that in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, virtual encounter remains the best option. His Grace expressed the hope that all conclusions which we would reach after this conference will be put into practice in order to accomplish a most fruitful and utmost efficient pastoral care.
HE Nicolae then presented the meditation The Priest’s Mission in a Complicated and Confused World. Taking as motto the words of the Savior addressed to the Hoy Apostles: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16), His Eminence said that these words are fitting and relevant for those who are serving the Church of our times. Following this, by arguing with ample quotations from the Holy Scripture, the speaker showed that God, the Supreme Wisdom, is the one who offers wisdom and guilelessness to the ones who serve Him, by harmonizing their will, through the fulfillment of the divine laws, with the cosmic plan of the Creator of all: “We can observe from what has been presented that wisdom has a path which does not depend on the rational order, but on the spiritual one. We are talking about a rationality, though not one of the mind, but rather one of the heart. Only through the heart can we understand why God, Who is the Good Shepherd and Who loves His sheep and gives His life for them (cf. John 10:11), can send them in the midst of the wolves. Only through the heart can this thing be understood, because it is only the heart which can truly understand the significance and the greatness of the sacrifice.”
Putting our mission of pastoral care in the context of the medical crisis (and not limited to that), His Eminence the Metropolitan concluded by urging us to maintain dignity and courage in the confrontation with the turbulent times in which we find ourselves living: “As we can see, the crisis, as well as social unrest, continue. The answer of the priest and of the Christian cannot be any other, generally, than the one of the Holy Scripture: that we preach the secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification (1 Cor. 2:7). And if this wisdom displeases, if it is not fitting for the times, if it does not align to the rules and recommendations, let us make the correct, Christian choice for this life, as well as for the eternal one.”
HE Nicolae then introduced Father Chad Hatfield, President of Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in the NY State, who presented on the topic What Future for the Orthodox Church on the American Continent?
Father Chad began by reminding everyone that in North America, culture is departing more and more from the Judeo-Christian tradition. “We are living times of realignment within Christianity. There exists a sort of false Christianity in this world, combined with the zeitgeist (spirit of the age),” he specified. Beginning with the year 2000, Orthodox Churches began to be more and more preoccupied with the defense of their own “territory” (“ethnic ghettos”), forgetting about their missionary calling. According to the statistics, the last year was the first time when the percentage of those who declared themselves Christians fell under 50%.
As he presented a few books, the speaker identified three currents within the Orthodox churches: the Benedict Option, which proposes a regrouping in order to initiate a counter-offensive; the Saint Constantine option, with its center in Texas, at the Saint Constantine School, emphasizing the role of religious schools (“faith-based schools”), which can allow us for a way better positioning in the confrontation with the anti-Christian culture; the Accommodationist Movement, which promotes the idea that Orthodoxy is way too stuck in the past and needs to be brought into the contemporary era (“get on with the program”), which would have a negative impact. An example of this is the Episcopalian Church, which was faced with a significant decline, as a result of introducing “modern” innovations in the church. The lecturer then talked about the trials faced in particular by the youth, but also the challenges resulting from the time of the pandemic, the most devastating being isolation and loneliness. Father Chad ended his presentation by recommending Father Alexander’s Schmemann book, “The Eucharist,” and who, many years ago, and somewhat prophetically, defined secularism as “the negation of worship.”
The talk was followed by questions and answers, after which the two hierarchs thanked Father Hatfield for the important and interesting exposition.
Saturday, August 28, at 12.00 pm (EST), the Pastoral-Missionary Conference was resumed, and following the usual prayer, participants listened to the video recording of Patriarch’s Daniel message, who said: “The Romanian Orthodox Church has shown a special care towards the Romanian Orthodox communities from outside the country’s borders, concretized through the founding of new parishes and new eparchies that would respond to the needs of the Romanian Orthodox living either temporarily or definitively outside of Romania, especially in the United States and Canada, for the maintaining of their religious, linguistic and cultural identity. With much fatherly love, we encourage the Romanian Orthodox living on the American continent to maintain permanent contact with the dear ones who have remained in the country. We especially express our gratitude and appreciation to His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae, and to His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian, to those who serve at the Holy Altars and to all the members of the Romanian Orthodox communities on the American continent, for their pastoral care and missionary work. We bless the proceedings of the Pastoral and Missionary Conference of the Clergymen from the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas, and we pray to the All-Holy Trinity to grant all of you light and peace, joy and much help in the pastoral and missionary work that you are undertaking!”
This was followed by the meditation of His Grace Ioan Casian: Mission and Christian purpose in contemporaneity – to love and to be love. His Grace began by bringing to the attention of all the Christian imperatives in our missioned, specified by HB Patriarch Daniel in the message regarding the Romanian migrants: “The intensification of the pastoral and missionary work, of keeping and cultivating the Orthodox Christian faith, of the Romanian spiritual and cultural values; of maintaining religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural identity; of treasuring the family – constituted from man, woman and children – because it is blessed by God; educating the young generation in the spirit of loving God, Church and nation and of cultivating the essential Christian virtues: faith, hope and love of God and neighbors.”
The Most Reverend Father then referenced the book of Archimandrite Vasile Vasilachi of blessed memory: “The Threefold Love to God, Church and nation,” in which “is contained the sublime ideal of life of the entire humanity and of each human being in part.” HG Ioan Casian then asked the question: “Us, as Church, as ministers of the holy altars, what can we do in this whirling ocean of the waves of our human history, of conflicts, doubts and ideologies of every kind and manner, which have appeared everywhere?” The answer, - said the speaker –, can be found only if we keep ourselves within the Church’s boundaries, which “has always been the ship in which all who were and are seeking God eventually found shelter and refuge.” His Grace then enumerated a number of priorities which those who serve at the Holy Altars need to keep sight of: evangelization in the new millennium; new biological and ethical tendencies; freedom in a world that is not free; charity and the care for the needy; sexual ethic and pastoral care; religious pluralism in a globalized world. For the addressing and the solving of these issues, which have deep moral implications, His Grace Ioan Casian proposes the assuming with all seriousness and responsibility the Christian mandate: “The Orthodox Church, as communion whose fundament is love, has as its mission to invite the entire humanity to put into practice divine love and peace, reminding each person of the dignity that it has as bearer of God’s image and the invitation which we have received to become sons and daughters of the Father. In order to fulfill the mission and our goal, one thing is necessary from which all the others flow – to love and to be love.”
After this, HG Ioan Casian introduced the second speaker, Father Ioan Teșu, Professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology “Dumitru Stăniloae” from Jassy, who held the talk: “The Contemporary Family – between Ideal and Crisis.” The conference of Father Professor Teșu was a true lesson that penetrated the hearts and the souls of all the participants. Not only through its rich content, as his talk generally have the reputation, but also through the spiritual and collegial manner in which the content was shared. The best commentary to this talk cannot be any other than under the guise of an advice to listen and re-listen to it. As such, I prefer to rouse the interest of the ones desiring a family founded on solid moral and spiritual values by highlighting the main ideas of the conference:
- The family is a fundamental reality of which we should take notice. We human beings have been created for communion. The great French theologian Paul Evdokimov was right when he was saying that loneliness is the biggest suffering precisely because we human beings have not been created for loneliness, but for communion and in order to share love.
- Saint John Chrysostom says that a good friend is a second I. The wife is a port or haven for her husband, and a medicine of joy and peace, while the husband is the anchor of his wife.
- Orthodox spirituality teaches us that in the life of a pious man, the wife or the chosen one of his heart represents the greatest blessing that God could bestow on him.
- The family is the sacrificial altar of our egoism.
Wounds and sufferings, not just trials or challenges for the contemporary family:
- Having intimate relationships way before marriage. It can be observed that it becomes harder to establish families, as a result of various reasons.
- Birth control through contraceptive methods leads to the aging of the nations; Europe is an aged continent, finding itself in a real demographical winter.
- Physical or emotional violence, the ever-increasing cases of infidelity, which lead to an apocalypse of communication or of solitude in two.
- Abortion, which has reached some alarming statistics.
- Divorce has implications not only for the two partners, but especially on the children, who are suffering the most;
- Deviant practices, sexual behaviors and minority groups that are becoming more and more vocal.
Spiritual Remedies:
- Love and treasuring of the other, which helps maintain peace and stability in the family.
- Empathic or assertive communication, countering each heated discussion with five appreciative discussions (the Gottman method).
- Quality time, time actually spent together with the loved one, sharing together joys and hardships.
Referring to yet another American writer, the Reverend lecturer recommended three principles which can contribute to the family’s cohesion:
- There is no plan B, meaning to concentrate on what is currently happening, without contemplating other possibilities or situations.
- The power of three words: What God says.
- Thinking about the end of the marriage, meaning the retrospective analysis that we will be making in the final moments of our lives in regards to our family.
- Setting at the foundation of our lives the Christian values: a most authentic and profound Christian life, that involves a constant schedule of prayer, starting from the depth of our soul.
Father Ioan gave us a final piece of advice: “What we do, let us do out of love.”
After the thanks addressed by our hierarchs, there followed a segment of questions and answers. As it had been the case in the previous evening’s meeting, the participants were divided into four groups, in which discussions were held, and the conclusions of which were then presented in plenary.
The Pastoral-Missionary Conference ended with a prayer addressed to the Mother of God and with the hope of being reunited in-person as soon as possible, resuming our brotherly communion that is so necessary.
Submitted by
Fr. George Bazgan