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.

Fear of expulsion from the parish should keep true believers and church people from falling into grave sin. According to church rules, parishioners are all persons of the Orthodox confession who live within the boundaries of a given parish and maintain a living connection with the parish church. All these persons are entered in a special parish book together with their families. This book notes the surnames, first name, homeland, rank and occupation of each person, how old or date of birth and baptism, date of being and confession and Holy Communion, marriage, time of death, time of moving to the parish or leaving it. The duty of a parishioner is to take part in divine services in his parish church on Sundays and, if possible, on feast days, to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ several times a year, to take part in works of charity, Christian enlightenment and mutual assistance. This is how the life and work of a good parishioner of the Russian Orthodox Church, zealous for his personal salvation and for the development of the parish to which he belongs, is presented.

Brothers of Jesus Christ

In the Holy Scriptures "there is something incomprehensible, which the ignorant and the unconfirmed turn to their own destruction, like the rest of the Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:16).

Such incomprehensible passages for sectarians are those that speak of "Jesus' brothers" (Matt. 13:54-56; Mark 6:2-3; Luke 8:19-21; John 2:12). Soon after the miracle in Cana of Galilee, Jesus Christ came to the city of Capernaum and here in the synagogue began to teach the people. The inhabitants of Capernaum knew very well that Jesus had not studied ancient Jewish theology anywhere, and therefore they were amazed at the power and depth of His teaching. Rumors of the miracle at Cana also came to them, and they cried out in amazement, "Whence hath He such wisdom and power? Is He not the son of carpenters? Is not His Mother called Mary, and His brothers James and Josiah, and Simon and Judas? And are not His sisters all among us? Where did He get all these things from?" (Matt. 13:54-56). It is on the basis of these words that "the ignorant dare to assert that the Most Holy Virgin Mary, besides Jesus, had other sons. But first of all, the holy Evangelist Matthew does not speak of the "brothers of Jesus" on his own behalf, but only repeats the words of the inhabitants of Capernaum, just as the same Evangelist repeated the words of the Pharisees, that Christ casts out demons only "by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons" (Matt. 12:24; 9:34).

If the sectarians accept the words of the inhabitants of Capernaum about the children of the Most Holy Theotokos as true testimony, then in this case, without violating the laws of logic, they must continue their blasphemy and, together with the Capernaumians, say that Jesus Christ was the son of a carpenter, and also blasphemously repeat the above-quoted words of the Pharisees, i.e., in other words, they must confess that they are anti-Christians, enemies of Jesus. like the Pharisees. Various sectarians, from among yesterday's Orthodox, who are not able to say a living word on their own, but only blindly repeat the words of cheap American preachers, certainly want it to turn out according to the Scriptures that the Most Holy Virgin had children. To this we will invite them to find a place in the Holy Scriptures where it is said that they were. The existence of a dispute around this question indicates that the sectarians have an irreconcilable enmity towards the Mother of God. Only because the Orthodox Church teaches that She had no children, except for the Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the sectarian is tempted to say the opposite.

However, we will try to acquaint the reader with this issue in more detail. First of all, the words "brothers" or "brother" in the language of the Holy Scriptures in no way testify to uterine kinship. In the Old Testament, every fellow countryman is called a brother, for example: "Do not despise the Edomite (these are the descendants of Esau, the Gentiles), for he is your brother" (Deuteronomy 23:7). In the New Testament, every fellow believer is a brother, regardless of national origin (Matt. 23:8; Rom. 1:13; 1 Cor. 1:26; Galatians 4:12, etc. (. Exactly the same meaning has the Greek word "adelphos", the Hebraic "ah", in Russian "kinsman". And the sectarians themselves call all those belonging to their sect brothers. The same must be said about the "brothers" of Jesus Christ. in order to be justified in asserting that the "brothers" of Jesus Christ were "in utero", it is necessary to indicate in the Holy Scriptures at least a hint that the Most Holy Virgin Mary was the Mother of James, Josiah, Simon and Judas. But this is nowhere to be found! On the contrary, wherever "His Mother" (John 19:25) or "the Mother of Jesus" (John 2:3), i.e. the Mother of the only Son. Otherwise it would have to be said: Mother of Jesus, James, Josiah, Simon, and Judas.