Moscow, April 2, 2018
Photo: mospat.ru On March 31, the feast of Lazarus Saturday, 77 pagans, sectarians, and schismatics who had fallen away from the true Church were reunited to Christ in His holy Orthodox Church in Moscow, reports the site of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The service of reunification was celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk in the Church of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.” His Eminence celebrates the service of reunification in this church several times a year.
“I would like to wish you to never again bend your ears to the preaching of false teachers. If someone tells you that the Orthodox Church is untrue or imperfect, that there are higher teachings, do not believe these false teachers,” the metropolitan admonished those newly-returned to the Church.
At the same time, His Eminence recognized that the Orthodox Church is made up of people who have their own shortcomings, and that there can be problems in Church life.
“I think if the Lord wanted to create His Church so that it would have no problems and no shortcomings, He would have created it out of angels, not out of men. Because the Church is made up of men, it is holy, and the people in it are sinners, but these people who have embarked upon the path of amendment and repentance have seen before them the ideal of holiness in the faces of the saints, shining in the Church for many centuries,” Vladyka stated.
That those who repented might not take up their former ways of life, Met. Hilarion recommended them to read the Gospel daily, and other books of the Bible as often as possible, as well as to read the commentaries of the Holy Fathers and other Orthodox literature. He further advised them to never read the works of heretics, sectarians, and schismatics, as they can seduce a man and indoctrinate him with misconceptions about the Church and the world.
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Work with people who have fallen away from Orthodoxy is carried out in the Moscow Church of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” by the Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Non-Traditional Religions in memory of A. S. Khomiakov. Currently the center is led by the church’s cleric Fr. Eugene Tremaskin. Preparatory talks are conducted for a few months before celebrating the rite of uniting to the Orthodox Church of sectarians and schismatics desiring to return to the true faith.
