The goal of every person's earthly life is the salvation of his soul in eternity. The Orthodox faith and the Orthodox Church contain all that is necessary to achieve this salvation. Bishop Theophanes, the famous Vyshinsky recluse, writes the following: "Believe in everything in which the Holy Orthodox Church commands us to believe, and receiving the grace-filled powers through the Sacraments and kindling them through participation in all the Divine services and through the fulfillment of all the other decrees of the Holy Church, walk unswervingly along the path of the commandments prescribed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of lawful pastors, and you will be saved."

The Church has a double meaning: on the one hand, it is "a society of people established by God, united by the Orthodox faith, the Law of God, the hierarchy and the Sacraments" (catechism), and on the other hand, in practice it is customary to call an Orthodox church a church. An Orthodox Christian treats one and the other name with reverence and respect.

The Word of God teaches that the Church, as a community of Orthodox believers, is the living mystical body of Christ, the Head of which is Christ Himself. The Church, as the Body of Christ, is filled with the grace of God, the saving and sanctifying power of God. Therefore, everyone who abides by his faith in the bosom of the Orthodox Church is saved for eternal life. In the Symbol of the Orthodox Faith we read the following definition: "I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." With these words we express our faith that the Orthodox Church is one throughout the world; it will remain so until the end of this age. Since the Orthodox Church exists throughout the world and all peoples professing the Orthodox faith belong to it, it is called Ecumenical. The existing separate Orthodox so-called Local Churches, such as the Greek, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Constantinople, Antiochian, Jerusalem, Alexandrian and other autocephalous Churches, do not in any way violate the unity of the Universal Orthodox Eastern Church. All these Churches have their own governance, independent of the other, but they preserve the unity of the Orthodox faith, the unity of the Sacraments, the unity of the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, and unity in prayerful communion. We are children of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and through her we belong to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Universal Orthodox Church.

The Lord Jesus Christ, founding His Church, established in it a sacred hierarchy, i.e. bishops, priests and deacons. Those who are chosen to serve the Church in each of these sacred degrees are ordained or ordained, and not self-appointed to become such. Moreover, this ordination must be completely legal, i.e. canonical. Without canonical ordination, consecration is not valid. Through lawful ordination in the sacrament of the priesthood, the grace of the All-Holy Spirit is communicated to the person who is ordained to the priesthood. This grace gives him the right to officiate, teach and govern in the Church of Christ. The laity do not have these rights and cannot perform any sacred rites. The self-proclaimed performance of sacred actions is not a sacred action, but a sacrilegious act that deeply offends the Lord Himself.

Of the three degrees of the priesthood, the episcopacy is the highest by the gift of the Holy Spirit. A bishop is the successor or heir of the Holy Apostles by grace. He has the fullness of apostolic authority. The Holy Fathers of the Early Christian Orthodox Church and the Holy Canons of the Ecumenical Councils, based on the Holy Scriptures, place the episcopal rank very high in the church hierarchy. "Without a bishop there is no Church," "He who is not with a bishop is not with Christ" — such is the teaching of the Orthodox Church. Without the will and blessing of their bishop, none of the clergy and laity has the right to do anything in the Church. Priests and deacons perform their sacred duties only with the authority and blessing of their bishop. Thus, according to the decree of Jesus Christ, bishops, and through them priests, are organizers and administrators in the Church of Christ, workers in the harvest fields of the Church. The Lord entrusted the souls of the faithful to the archpastors and pastors to bring them into obedience to the faith, to guide them into eternal life. They are the inspirers and organizers of both the whole Church and individual small churches or parishes. The Lord will ask them to answer for the fate of the Church, for the fate of the parish headed by them, for the fate of individual Orthodox Christians entrusted to their spiritual guidance. The priesthood is a terrible and responsible service before God. At this beginning, the life being built in the parishes is sanctified by the grace of the Savior Jesus Christ, who lives in the Church.

Inspiring faith, of course, moves all parishioners to a lively active participation in church life. Here, each parishioner bears and must carry out his obedience, entrusted to him by a spiritual pastor. No one can evade this obedience without causing damage to his soul. The deviation of an individual parishioner from the obedience entrusted to him removes him from the hope of achieving the salvation of his soul. And vice versa, the conscientious fulfillment of one's obedience or one's service in the Church is a salvific deed, which brings great benefit to the soul. Every good deed performed with zeal for the good of the Church in the parish is accepted by the Lord and, as it were, puts the worker on the scales of Christian virtues. Happy is the one who has accumulated many such virtues during his earthly life. In each parish, a wide field for work opens up and great opportunities are given for the accumulation of Christian virtues.

Church and parish activity can be expressed in different types and forms. One sings in the church choir, another reads during divine services, a third directs the church choir, a fourth works on cleaning and decorating the church, a fifth serves in the altar and helps the clergy, a sixth sews and repairs sacred vestments or lights lamps, a seventh is engaged in parish charity, an eighth donates to the construction of a church, a ninth teaches in a church school, a tenth exhorts and denounces those who have gone astray and apostatized from Orthodoxy, etc. A church warden, or a member of the parish council, or a treasurer, or an auditing commission, brings benefit to the soul, for this is service to the Church, and service to the Church is service to Christ. The service of the Church in the sisterhood is spiritually beneficial, for this service is dedicated to the House of God and is done to the glory of God. And all kinds of ecclesiastical activity benefit the soul of the worker, if he does it for the glory of God, for the salvation of his soul, in simplicity of heart, and not for the sake of vile self-interest or driven by ambition. The Holy Apostle Paul calls the service of the Church the edification of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13).

Serving the Church, one should not bring disorder into church life. Any disorder in church life, introduced by individuals or groups of persons, is a great sin, contrary to God, severely condemned by the holy Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 1:10-12). Division in church life or enmity in the Church destroys the salvific work of Christ. In his church activity, everyone should act in accordance with the instruction of the Word of God, which says: "Do not think of yourselves more than you ought to think, but think modestly, according to the measure of faith which God has given to each one... And as, according to the grace given to us, we have various gifts: whether you have service, continue in service, whether you are a teacher in teaching, whether you are an exhortator, whether you are a dispenser, give in simplicity, if you are a ruler, rule with zeal, if you are a benefactor, do good with cordiality, let love not be feigned; turn away from evil, cling to good, be brotherly to one another with tenderness; warn one another in respect; do not faint in diligence; burn with the Spirit; Serve the Lord; be comforted in hope; be patient in tribulation; in prayer are constant; take part in the needs of the saints; be zealous for the hospitality of strangers... Be of one mind with one another; do not be highly wise, but follow the humble; do not dream about yourself; Do not repay evil for evil to anyone, but take care of what is good before all men. If it is possible on your part, be at peace with all men" (Romans 12:3, 6-18).

This instruction of the Apostle shows us the path along which we must walk in order to attain eternal salvation. The entire church life of the first centuries of Christianity was organized on strictly Christian principles. Christians of those centuries were highly moral in their private and family lives. Our life today should be organized on strictly Orthodox principles. If the lofty piety of the first Christians now seems to us unbearable, then nevertheless we must strive for their ideal. Ancient and modern Russia embodied Christian ideals in their lives. The hosts of the holy saints of God, who shone forth in the Russian land, testify to this. All of them are our heavenly intercessors and intercessors before the throne of the Almighty. We must turn to their intercession with fervent prayer more often. Their heavenly help is always effective. Russian Orthodox people deeply believed in this, served molebens and went by the tens of thousands to venerate the relics of these saints, deeply revered the memory of their heavenly patrons, whose names they bore at baptism. And their faith did not remain in vain. From time immemorial, the piety of the Russian people shone brightly throughout the Orthodox world. His entire life, not only personal and family, but even social and state, was imbued with churchliness. Magnificent temples, cathedrals and monasteries were built with a sacrificial hand. All of Russia was densely dotted with a multitude of churches of God, in which Divine services were performed daily. On holidays and Sundays, these churches were overflowing with worshipers, powerful choirs skillfully sang in them, and solemn services were performed. At that time, there were few people who were late for church for the service, because everyone was trying to get to the beginning of the service. There were no conversations, whispers, or pacing around the church during the service. Everyone was in a reverent mood at prayer. The men stood on the right and the women on the left in the temple. The women all prayed with their heads covered and behaved modestly and humbly. The worshippers realized that they were in the House of God before the face of the Lord Himself, Who looked at them and knew their thoughts. The people loved their temples and donated a lot for their decoration and maintenance. At every church, life was in full swing. The Russian people brought their sorrow and their joy there. Through his prayers, the Lord helped him and gave him the strength to bear his worldly cross, which was very difficult for many. There were no non-believers in Russia at that time, and everyone belonged to their parish church, being its parishioners. Their abbot was not only a priest, but also a true spiritual father. He knew his parishioners, called them by name, and the parishioners were his children, who treated him with respect and love.

Our people respected and knew how to respect their clergy. In this form and in such forms, church life in Russia developed from the day of her baptism under the Grand Prince of Kiev, St. Vladimir, and before him, from the day of the Holy Right-Believing Princess Olga. The Russian people, having found themselves by the will of God in a foreign land and settled in various countries, brought up in the Orthodox faith, began to arrange their lives in new conditions with the preservation of the pious traditions of their glorious ancestors. Wherever a more or less significant group of Russian emigrants settled, a temple of God was erected there by the labors and sacrifices of Russian settlers. Not only church life, but also social and political life was concentrated around this church. The built temple became a unifying center.

With the obvious help of God and the great sacrifice of many Russian people of good will, we built a magnificent church of God in such a short time that it caused bewilderment among some, and delight in others. This church is our cathedral and will be so for all the archpastors of the Argentine Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. From now on, all the Russian people who are not only in Buenos Aires, but also in other cities of Argentina, must unite around the cathedral and group into one friendly family under my archpastoral omophorion.

If the first Russian church in this city, built more than fifty years ago, served as a place of church schism and great church turmoil through the fault of selfish people, then this council can now unite them, who previously deviated from Russian church unity. Nothing prevents them from returning back to the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church and being with us "in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace," in the words of the Holy Apostle Paul (Ephesians 4:3). Awakened by this pious desire, I call upon you and all the Russian people to rally here, near this cathedral, and to unite in the closest way in fervent prayer for the remission of many sins, for the salvation of our souls, for the liberation of our homeland from the communist yoke. We have nothing to be at enmity with each other, we have nothing to divide among ourselves. But we have a lot of data to unite. Unity saves, but schism destroys. There are many Orthodox Christians in Buenos Aires, but not all of them are parishioners in this or that parish, as full members of it. And this phenomenon testifies to the lack of consciousness of our compatriots in the ecclesiastical respect. Many are not members of the parish because they do not understand the meaning and importance of this work. According to the definition of the Parish By-laws of the All-Russian Church in the time of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, "a parish in the Orthodox Church is a society of Orthodox Christians, consisting of clergy and laity, residing in a certain area and united at a church, constituting a part of the diocese and being under the canonical administration of its diocesan bishop, under the direction of a priest-rector appointed by the latter." "The purpose of the parish is that Orthodox Christians, united by faith in Christ, prayers, Christian teaching and church discipline, assist each other in achieving salvation through participation in the Sacraments, Christian enlightenment, good life, in works of Christian charity, and have care for the needs of their church, clergy and parish with its institutions, as well as for the needs of the diocesan and church-wide Russian and Universal Church." As can be seen from this definition, a parish is not a secular organization pursuing earthly goals.

A parish is a purely religious society, sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Every member of the parish who fulfills the requirements of the Church and Church discipline is saved for eternity. He who dwells in a parish is in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, for a parish is a small church. That is why it is so important to be a member of a parish and to bear all the burdens of church life. It is a pity that many do not want to be parishioners, avoiding active participation in church life.

On the salutary benefits of being a member of the parish, I will give a couple of examples taken from actual recent life. In one of the parishes of our Diocese, several persons cohabited without church marriage, which is a grave violation of the Law of God. Through me, these persons were married in the Church and became full-fledged parishioners, and they sincerely thanked me for leading them away from the sinful path and leading them into church life. Many such examples could be cited. In another parish, almost half of the sisterhood consisted of women living illegally. When we explained that they did not have the right to be a sisterhood without a church marriage, some of them immediately got married in the church. Thus, as you can see, church discipline has a beneficial effect on the correction of sinners.