Press - Service of the Head of the Government of the Republic of Karelia
Archbishop of Karelia and Petrozavodsk Manuil Says, "Measure of Good should be Increased"
We met with Archbishop of Karelia and Petrozavodsk Manuil on the eve of Christmas holiday, and, naturally, we started talking about the meaning of the great Christian holiday.
"Chrismas-2001 is spiritually special for our republic," the sovereign said. "This year we have celebrated Christmas in the cathedral of the righteous Alexander Nevsky. The cathedral was restored and sanctified in June, 2000."
"Last year a lot of orthodox newly built temples were sanctified in the Republic of Karelia. At present, nearly all the districts of the republic have orthodox churches, fellowships, clergymen. I believe, it's very important to strengthen the orthodox church and orthodox faith. For a long time there were no orthodox temples at all. This year we are to sanctify the newly built church in Kestenga; hopefully, the church will be built in the settlement of Borovoye and the altar in the village of Yushkosero.
Corr: "Reverend, what do you think about the modern society?"
" I see both positive and negative changes. The past ten years showed that a person is not able yet to
use the freedom for his own good. I guess, we could define this decade as ten years of chaos, when the law didn't rule, and a person got crazy having breathed a long- waited gulp of freedom and has made a lot of mistakes. The great mistake is made when a person forgets that he has to work - not making fast money but really working. Works are blessed by God himself. The fruit of the human works contributes to the society building. A human being is weak; he is attracted to the sweetness of the prohibited sin. When he has a feeling that everything is allowed, sometimes he begins drowning to the bottom of life. Most important, the law should be treated with respect in the XXI century."
"We have to strive to spiritual revival. It's not an easy process."
Corr. "But the process does exist, doesn't it?"
" Yes, but the speed of the process is very slow. It's easier to destroy than to restore or create. It was easy to destroy the faith in God, morality, and spirituality. It takes much more efforts to restore them. Apostle Paul says, 'All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.' And this the essence of the issue; people have to learn that all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable."
" We start revising a lot of concepts. Spirituality is a religious category. A mortal person is trying to reach God, the Creator."
"Under the communist system, the category of spirituality did exist, too. But the content was totally
different!..."
"Sometimes even scholars confuse the two concepts- spirituality and soulness or kindness. Some people say - spirituality is a wider concept than faith. It is not true! Spirituality means faith. All the rest of our soul condition is kindness. A kind song, a kind person, a kind attitude. These are the relationships between mortal men, the condition of the soul. Should you not confuse these concepts."
"Yes, we have to revive spirituality. But we can't count on all people to be converted into faith. The re is no such historical example when all members of the society would be believers. The strengthening of faith is a very complicated process. The number of churches doesn't correlate directly with the number of believers. It is said in the Scripture that faith is God's gift. And this gift is not given to every person."
"All people have to strive to be kind. I would like to highlight it - strive to be kind. We are in lack of kindness in our modern society. We are embittered, jealous, ready to hate each other. Try to be kind and considerate, then you'll be ready for next step - morality. The communist ideologists spoke about communist moral. It was supposed to be useful for the victory of communism. But healthy moral is Christian moral based on God's commandments which are now moral principles for mankind. Do not murder, do not steal, do not give a false evidence, etc. These are commandments given by God. They are the basis for ordinary human life. Moral is incompatible with lust, alcoholism, with the social problems humanity faces in the modern world. We have to strengthen our moral."
"The highest manifestation of kindness and moral is spirituality. It means that a person wants to know more about the meaning of life, about God, about his personal relationship with Creator."
"Again I quote from the Scripture, ' I give you life and death, choose life.' The freedom of choice. A person is free to go by the way of good or evil."
Corr: "You mean we are balancing between good and evil, aren't we?"
" Exactly, because we all have sinful nature. But I believe that the measure of good should be increase. A human's heart is the arena of invisible fighting between good and evil. It's hard for a human being to overcome the results of falling of Adam and Eve. The devil had tempted them in Paradise. He forced them to try the fruit of good and evil and promised that having done so they will be like God. They were tempted and wished to know good and evil. What came out of it? Nothing but sufferings, misfortunes, grieves. Being alienated from God, a human being didn't become like God. Judging from the history, a person permanently tries to create idols: we try to ascribe divine charachterics to a person, and by that, again, we break God's laws. A man is terribly weak without God.
Atheists used to say: faith is an instrument for a weak person, who can't count on his own power. It is just the other way round. A believer becomes a very strong person because he is being strengthened by God's
mercy, and God helps a person make good works."
"If a person believes in God, he is focused on God's laws in his life -private, public, family, professional. What could be stronger?"
"If a person doesn't believe, it leads to nihilism and indifference, and in the end, to chaos. We have been already going this way for nearly the whole century."
Corr: "When a person starts thinking about all these things, when he begins to recognize what you are saying about- sometimes it's a very sad experience."
"When a new year and a new century are coming, I wish we could learn the lessons from the previous century. I am a church historian, a theologian, and I consider it important to compare the life of people of different times - not to repeat the mistakes. As a believer, I hope for God's mercy, and I think we will revive and build a fair society in the coming century. We have rich spiritual potentials."
Corr. "Are you being an optimist?"
"Looking at the human works, sometimes I feel pessimistic. But I am being optimistic because God is with us. If we built temples, prayed - and people still strive to live spiritual life - then we would reach spiritual life. And if the number of people striving to live spiritual life will increase, then we can count that a new century will be better."
Corr: "Hopefully. But it's a tremendous work."
We have to strengthen family ties because a family is background of a society. Society is strong when a family is strong. But it leaves much to be desired. We have a great number of divorces, a lot of homeless children when their parents are alive! The state should defend a family. In this case, I speak as a citizen, not only as a clergyman.
Corr. "In this respect what could you say about the relations of the Government and the Karelian eparchy?"
"Traditionally, we have very good relations - both in the republic and in the capital. The Government
understands the needs of moral revival of the society. We always ready to help our Government. The Government should take care of outside life of people - it should take care of their work, shelter, pensions. The church should take care of spiritual and moral health of the people. We could work joining our efforts. But we shouldn't change our functions. The church shouldn't affect governmental affairs, and the state shouldn't interfere with church affairs."
Corr:" Reverend, please, tell us a few words about the clergymen working in districts."
"Farthers who work in the districts of our republic try their best. Most of them don't have special theological education, but they try to selfstudy through acquiring the experience. Our eparchy is only ten years old. Their life is a hard round of responsibilities - they do not just preach, make services, but they also have to do secular works - repair old churches and build new ones. I'd like the district power bodies to help our clergymen in their hard work."
Corr. "What do you think about awarding you with the title "A Person of the Year Of the Republic of Karelia - 2000"?
"I was happy to receive it, and I am certainly honored. Apostle Paul says, ' We do what God sent us to do.' I do what my conscience tells me to do. I am a clergyman of our Russian Orthodox Church, the Archbishop in the Republic of Karelia, where I have lived for twenty years. And my goal is to strengthen the Karelian and Petrozavodsk eparchy, to help people grow spiritually. I view the award as a recognition of my humble works. It calls me to work even more in the future."
"During the last ten years we grew quantatively - we built churches, opened new parishes. Now comes
the time to take care of the qualitative growth of our parish. We need educated clergymen and growing parishioners."
Corr: " The Head of the Government RK Sergey Katanandov constantly speaks about improvement our society.".
"We meet with Sergey Katanandov on a regular basis and discuss issues of joint interest. I am encouraged by the fact that the Head of the republic understands that we can't increase the economics of the republic without moral and spiritual growth. We see eye to eye with him. And it works.
Corr: "Thank you for the interview. Hopefully, we will be able to take in your words as moral truth
to use in our everyday life."
Natalya Volkova
Last updated: 22 January 2001
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