Moscow, November 23, 2010
The Metropolitan addressed the congregation with the following pastoral instructions:
“Dear Brothers and Sisters, today the rite of your reuniting with the holy Orthodox faith has been administered to you. It consisted of two parts: first you renounced all the false teachings, schismatic and sectarian, to which you subscribed in the past, and then you made a vow to be faithful to Christ and His saving commandments. You have been reunited with the Holy Orthodox Church through the laying on of a bishop’s hands.
It is a great and important day for you, for each of you has been led by the Lord to the true Faith, and has been saved from delusion and deception. The Orthodox faith is salvific; the Orthodox Church possesses everything needed to grant people salvation and eternal life. And salvation awaits us not only in the afterlife but already here, on earth.
Many people today do not understand the very word ‘salvation’ in the context of Christian message. ‘Why and from what should we be saved?’ they ask. Now you know what you need to be saved from in this life. You know why the Orthodox faith is salvific—because the struggle for human souls ensues here on earth, and some come out winners, while others, losers. Losers are those who have failed to find the way to the true God, who have diverged onto a path of delusion, who have entrusted themselves to deceivers, schismatics, sectarians, false teachers, liars and other such people who temp human souls, depriving them of normal life here, on earth, and of eternal salvation in the future life.
You have reunited with the Church, and from now on all these delusions are left behind in your former life. Never remember them, do not try to analyze what false teachers told you. The Lord has delivered you from this evil. Keep as far away from it as possible. If you have relatives and friends in sectarian or schismatic communities, bring them to the true Faith, tell them calmly what the Orthodox Church lives by, do not condemn them, do not reproach them, do not be annoyed with them, but pray for these people and reveal to them the truth and beauty of the Orthodox faith through your own example, through your spiritual and church life.
Try to have confession and take Communion regularly, so that through the sacrament of repentance you may unite with the Lord and receive from Him the forgiveness of sins; and that through the sacrament of Communion you may unite with God with all your soul, body, spirit, and mind—so that, as the Apostle Paul said, Christ may live and work in you (cf. Gal. 2:20).
May God bless your path in the Church and your whole life. May He help you ever to avoid getting caught in the nets of deception and false teaching, to stand firmly in your Orthodox faith, and to bring others to the true Faith. May the Lord preserve you all.”
