Since ancient times, the lives of communities have been interwoven with various historical periods, rises and falls that have their beginnings, their everyday life and continuation. Some gather to form nations, confess various faiths, live according to different calendars and ways to denote the passing of the years and have different spiritual destinies. For some, life is wrapped up in ongoing activities and busy concerns, while others believe in the existence of other worlds and an other life. For some, the entire world that surrounds them is limited to the frame of life and death, while others contemplate the infinite nature of life and existence. In this realm marked by enormous diversity of people’s lives and their understanding of creation, we Christians are also included. We are few in relation to the total number of people on earth (especially if out of those who call themselves Christians you only consider the Orthodox who live by the “old” Julian calendar and the teachings of the holy forefathers), and Christianity itself no longer determines the trajectory of human development. There was a time when Christianity subdued and vanquished paganism, but now we live in an opposite time, when paganism in its many forms is foremost in people’s minds. We constantly see proof of more divergences from Christ, but these divergences are not the result of people acquiring new knowledge and are not characterized by a new, higher plane of spiritual development. Just the opposite, these divergences are proof of the loss of faith and the debasing of mankind to the level of being driven by its instincts.
The Most Reverend