The Weapon of Temptation, July 1958

Prayer and the Sword

Our Emigrant Lot, August 1958

Celebration of the "Day of Russian Culture"

The Struggle Against Faith and the Church in the USSR, 1962

Christmas Messages

Christmas Message. December 1957

The Nativity of Christ, 1962

Nativity sermon of His Grace Archbishop Athanasius, 1965

Christmas Greeting, 1967

New Testament

Archpastoral New Year's Appeal

New Year's Thoughts, January 1964

Easter Messages

Paschal Epistle, 1957 by His Grace Bishop Athanasius

Our Pascha, March 1958

Let us be believers

Easter Greeting, 1962

The Joy of Easter Night, 1965

Easter Greeting, 1967

Christ – Joy Eternal, 1962

Easter Greeting, 1969

Paschal "Catechetical Discourse"

Ancient Easter customs in the Orthodox Church

The Descent of Jesus Christ into Hell

Doctrinal Topics

Life of a Parishioner, June 1958

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).