http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6424Moscow, September 9, Interfax – Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin considers “Holy Russia” an ideal the country should strive to achieve.
“I have the same attitude to “the Third Rome” and to “the Holy Russia.” It’s an appeal addressed to us. An appeal to people to take responsibility for the entire Christian history. For becoming a center of the Christian world,” the priest said in his interview to the Sotsialnoye Bogoslviye(Social Theology) website on Wednesday.
According to Fr. Vsevolod, “it’s not a mission of governing, not a mission of dominating, it’s a mission of working for Christian education of all nations and promoting God’s commandments in their life.”
“Our people have accomplished this mission more than once. If we live according to God’s commandments, we’ll be strong in prayer, we’ll be capable to convey God’s word to the whole world, and we’ll have a chance to fulfill this mission in the history some more times,” head of the Synodal Church and Society Department said.
According to the priest, “today the Holy Russia is a national mission, a national ideal. No doubt, it lives in souls of Russian people.” However, “the Holy Russia, national piety and national understanding of Russia’s Christian mission” have not been revived yet, Fr. Vsevolod believes.
“If it happens or not depends on our choice and our diligence. We’re standing at the crossroads. We can choose to revive this ideal as a norm of national life or to give it up. It will be settled in most recent years whether to go to the ideal or leave it,” the priest summed up.
