Church is not a place of self-promotion, but a place of worshipping the Triune God
On Sunday afternoon, May 20, 2018, his Eminence, the Bishop of Corfu, Paxoi and Diapontian Islands, Mr. Nektarios did Panegyrical Episcopal Vesper in the celebrating church of Saint Konstantinos and Eleni in Koulines.
In his speech to the believers, his Eminence, taking the occasion of the biblical reading of the Kingdoms, noted that Constantine the Great was like Solomon the King of Israel, the son of Prophet David. Constantine the Great was the first Orthodox Christian emperor, opening the way to the Church of Christ, persecuted for centuries.
He gave to the world as a gift the respect for God. With the Edict of Milan in 313, he provides the people of the Eastern Roman Empire with religious tolerance. Christian Faith develops and creates art and culture. However, the differences between the East and the West are slowly becoming apparent. In the East, the priority of freedom in Christ is observed, with the study of ancient Greek philosophy, whereas in the West the emergence of individualism, the introduction of forensic terminology even in theology and rationality.
Also the mother of Great Constantine, Saint Helen also commands our Lord. She raised the pilgrimages to Jerusalem, she built the sanctuary of the Resurrection, she found the Holy Cross of the Savior Christ. That is why our Holy Church, both Grand Constantine and Saint Helen, honors them as equal Apostles.
Moreover, the Bishop of Corfu noted that if we compare the era of the East Roman Empire to the present, the reality looks bleak. Observing faces and events, one finds out that the devil activates various centers abroad in order to hit the Orthodox Faith of the Greeks. The prisoners, in the course of time, shatter anything that our people are going through, by voting laws, where Sodom and Gomorra are lusting in front of them, causing a mess in our homeland. Even the attendance of the keepers in the temples is not done in order to participate in the ecclesiastical event, but for self-promotion and for the cast of votes. On the contrary, the Church is not a place of self-promotion, but a place of worship of the Triune God.
In closing, Mr. Nektarios asked the faithful to imitate the Saints of Our Faith, straddling resistance to all these reluctant criticisms of globalization.
At the end of the Vesper, his Eminence appointed as Reader Mr. Vasileios Bathavas having previously explained to the faithful the difference of appointment from ordination. The first takes place outside the Sacred Place, where ordination takes place in the Sacred Place where the three axioms are given, namely the Deacon, the Presbyter and the High Priest.
The Hierarchs also respond to the requests of the Priest or the Bishop on behalf of the faithful, because in the temple, the Clergy and the people cooperate.
