UOC Chancellor: Everything must be done not to deprive people of Sacraments
People are the soul of the Church, its pulse, and the goal of the life of every Christian is unity with God, Metropolitan Anthony emphasized.
Even in the most difficult life circumstances, everything must be done so that people are not deprived of unity with Christ through the Sacraments, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich), the UOC Chancellor, explained on the air of the YouTube channel “Stained Glass: On Faith in Colours”.
“The main task of the Church is to take people to God. Communion with God, union with God is the main goal of the life of a Christian. Everything else – with apparent importance – is secondary,” the bishop emphasized.
He explained that all Sacraments, rituals and prayers lead the hearts of people away from worldly fuss and dispose them to communion with God and union with the Creator.
The hierarch of the UOC noted that the Church is always close to its people. From birth to death, She serves every minute to console, help, and inspire the man in grief and joy.
“The Church with the healthy and the ill, the Church with the rejoicing and the mourning, the Church with the born and the dying. The Church cannot exist without people. They are Her soul, Her pulse. But Christians cannot exist without the Church, outside the Church, without the Sacraments and worship – in the broadest sense of the word,” said Metropolitan Anthony.
The Lord created the Church for people and will never leave It, it was He who invisibly performs all the Sacraments and blesses everyone who enters the temple, the bishop stressed and reminded the flock that the Church is the body of Christ, and we all are His members.