UOC hierarch: When storming, Church ship is the only place for salvation
Believers need to be a single team of the Church ship to overcome the storm with minimal losses, said Archbishop Theodosy (Snigirev).
During the storm, the Church ship is the only place where you can be saved, the UOC Information and Education Department cites the words of Archbishop Theodosy (Snigirev) of Boyarka, the vicar of Kyiv Metropolis.
Vladyka Theodosy said in an interview with Archpriest Alexander Klymenko how important it is for a believer to remain in the bosom of the Church, to resort to the saving Sacraments, to be obedient to the hierarchy and to study thoroughly the church canons.
"When a storm warning is announced, our main task is to stay on the ship, not to invent our own interpretations of the canons. The very first task of a sailor at sea during a storm is to stay on this ship. Some sailors used to tie themselves to the mast with ropes only not to be washed away by the wave," said the bishop.
According to him, the calm will surely come, and all those who stayed on the ship during the storm with a smile will remember how difficult it was for them.
"But the first rule must be observed - to stay on the ship by all means so as not to be washed away, either hiding in the hold or tying oneself with ropes,” Abp. Theodosy urges believers. “And the second rule – we must obey the captain and the crew. In the Church, the captain is the Primate of the Church, the team is the members of the Holy Synod, the bishops ... If we are a single team on the ship, we will certainly overcome this storm with minimal losses.
The UOC hierarch reminded us that in the days of the Great Lent the Lord calls on believers to make a great effort for salvation and goes towards all of us.
"The Lord responds, stretches out His hand to us and pulls us into heaven. He helps us pray more carefully, abstain more diligently, and gives us spiritual revelations that we do not receive at another time of year. This time can be slept through or not slept through. Those who sleep it through will feel very sad from this," concluded Archbishop Theodosy.
Previously, Abp. Theodosy said that God comes to rescue to a humble man.
