Seminar of young clergy of the Holy Metropolis of Corfu
A seminar on the clergy who have been ordained in recent years was held on Thursday, May 10, 2018, at the Spiritual Center of the Holy Metropolis of Corfu. At the seminar the main speaker was the most prominent father Charalambos Papadopoulos, known from the internet as ” father Libyos “, a priest of the Holy Metropolis of Gortynis and Arcadia, Crete.
The speaker, in an excellent presentation, pointed out that the clergy are in agony to answer on behalf of God to all people’s questions about the meaning and causes of any suffering, whether health, accident, mourning or crisis. But this does not help the clergy to trust God and His will, which is revealed at one time gradually and in time and certainly not punitive, and even the inexperienced people can function by surrendering themselves to God’s love. There is a rationalization or a search for answers to the empirical or biblical tradition of the Church, but this mentality cannot be applied individually. Priests are not the representatives of God to the people, but they who embrace those who are tried, likes their beloved and cross, helps them to express themselves, to ask, to cry, to be relieved. The need for certainty is an element of Western theology and tradition and often leads to misconceptions of what God is.
Three parts are the elements that lead us to an erroneous pastoral: “so God wanted,” “do not cry because you are disturbing the soul of the one who is tested or gone”, “I am a failed priest if I have no answers for everything.” The right thing is to look at the life and the person of another through the love and the way of the Church, so that there is proper understanding, but also the laying down of the passage of our life Christ Jesus of God.
The speaker answered many questions from the clergy and made reference to his own personal experience from the Internet, for which he stressed that he wanted to use it, as well as the awareness that if the priest does not function pastorally but for self-promotion, there is damage to both the priest’s face and the people.
The speaker was addressed by the Chancellor of the Holy Metropolis of Corfu, father Ioustinos Konstantas, who conveyed the paternal wishes of the Bishop Mr. Nektarios, being absent for the meetings of the Permanent Holy Synod.
