37. I have been abroad several times. There, of course, during excursions, Catholic and Protestant churches are often visited. How should an Orthodox person behave when visiting a Catholic or Lutheran church (as a historical monument)? Is it possible to light candles, make the sign of the cross? Or is it better not to do this?

Since there is no unity between our Churches, we, as Orthodox, should not participate with the heterodox in the Sacraments and take a prayerful part in their divine services. Everything else is quite permissible (of course, within the customs of the places we visit). If it is customary to light candles in a particular church and they are offered to visitors, then there is no obstacle to light them. And we can make the sign of the cross in any place, and even more so in a Christian church, albeit non-Orthodox, (unless, of course, it is provocative in relation to the parishioners of this church). If the expression of our faith in a non-Orthodox setting confuses us or those around us, then it is better not to do anything of the kind.

38. My friend is a Catholic. Last year, he went to an Orthodox church with me for Christmas. This year he invited me to a night mass in a Catholic church, I thought it would be impolite to refuse and went. Can Orthodox Christians attend services of Catholics or Protestants?

Here we need to look at the reasons for this. If you went to a non-Orthodox service with your friend so as not to offend him, then you have done a deed of love and have done the right thing. If you find yourself on an excursion or on a trip, and having entered a non-Orthodox church during the service, you have been there for some time, there is nothing wrong with that, either. If you are interested in Catholic or Protestant liturgical rites, and you attend them for the purpose of education, I personally do not see anything wrong with this either. If you live abroad, there is no Orthodox church nearby, and religious feeling requires you to be in church, then I think it is quite acceptable to attend the traditional services of the historical Churches without participating in their sacraments. But if, having the opportunity, instead of the divine services and Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, you prefer to go to non-Orthodox churches and pray there, this will already be a direct and inadmissible violation of faithfulness to your Church.

39. I feel God in my soul, but I don't know which church to go to. Orthodoxy seems to me sham, Protestantism is sugary, and it seems that Catholics correspond to my ideas about the Christian Church. But I feel that it is wrong to go to a Catholic church, because I am Russian, my ancestors were Orthodox, what should I do?

Such opinions are common to many people when they take their first steps in faith. The only way here is not to remain at such a superficial level of perception, but to try to study both Orthodoxy and its difference from other Christian confessions. It is wonderful that you already have two important things: you feel God in your soul – this means that you will know the meaning of what is happening in the Church through this feeling, you will recognize the rite through Christ, in His light, but not vice versa; and feel your connection with your ancestors – this should lead you to investigate the reasons why Orthodoxy was so dear to them. Serious and conscientious study of these subjects will undoubtedly help you make the right choice. The main thing is to understand that our Christianity is not reduced only to "going to church" and aesthetic impressions, but should be everyday communion with God and the life of the Gospel.

40. I am Orthodox, and my brother goes to a Baptist church. When we talk to him, I find a difference only in the rituals and the outside. Are there significant differences between Orthodoxy and Baptism?

Eat. This is what the rites "dress up". Since the time of the Apostles, the Orthodox Church has had within itself the most important thing for the Church – the Sacraments, that is, special sacraments, established by God Himself, through which the Holy Spirit is given to the faithful. And Baptists do not have Sacraments, limiting themselves only to liturgical meetings. This does not mean, of course, that you can immediately put all Baptists in the category of "unsaved" – the solution to this question, as I have already said, belongs only to God; it means that Orthodoxy offers us a much fuller and deeper spiritual experience than Baptism.

41. I believe in Christ, that He is risen. I am Russian. But I don't like Orthodoxy with its isolation and conservatism, grandmothers in churches who behave aggressively. I went to the Lutheran church several times, I liked it much more. Tell me, what difference does it make how to believe in the risen Christ?

Unfortunately, for many people, Orthodoxy is aggressive grandmothers in churches. Without in the least justifying these, I must nevertheless note that if some evil old woman is enough to extinguish a religious feeling in a person, then this very feeling, alas, is very weak. The weakness of religious feeling is inevitably intertwined with the superficiality of perception, as a result of which we see nothing but isolation and conservatism in Orthodoxy. Faith in the resurrected Christ is of course the same for us and for the Lutherans. But one cannot stop only at the belief that Christ has risen; It is also necessary to embody this belief in our daily existence. It is in it that a very significant difference is revealed between the deepest Orthodoxy, which goes back centuries and goes back to the apostolic community itself, and Lutheranism, which arose only in the sixteenth century.

It is another matter that the current situation is such that the depths of Orthodoxy are hidden, they are not revealed in our modern church life, they are often replaced by many things that have nothing to do with the Church. In particular, the notorious old ladies: after all, they were born not at all by the Orthodox Church of Christ, but by our Russian society with its traditions of rudeness and total disrespect. The Russian Church and Russian society consist of one and the same people, and most of the Church's problems are in fact not ecclesiastical, but problems of mentality, history, and the social and cultural structure of our society. Perhaps you are better off in the Lutheran Church because it preserves a different, Western tradition, and your soul rests, meeting there goodwill, politeness and respect for yourself. For all my categorical disapproval of the above-mentioned phenomena of our church life, they should nevertheless be separated from the teaching and authentic experience of the Church, and we should try to know and partake of it, without paying special attention to the obstacles in the form of certain features of our national character.

42. I am now going to an Orthodox church, but I have not yet decided whether this is what I need. Tell me, why does the Orthodox Church try to be archaic and as incomprehensible as possible for people? Why do we need services in Church Slavonic, because no one understands them! And all the other attributes of antiquity... As the saying goes, keep it simple, and people will be drawn to you.

The Orthodox Church is archaic not at all because it is done "on purpose". Indeed, much could be changed and somewhat modernized (and, I think, it is necessary to do this); But this applies exclusively to external things. In essence, the Church cannot change, and the more it moves forward with the world in time, the more it will seem archaic to this world. The fact is that the Church is twofold: it is not only a human community, but mainly the work of God; and that which pertains to God is unchangeable in the Church. And this is what relates to God: the Holy Scriptures; the dogmatic and moral teaching of the Church, her spiritual experience; and finally, the manner in which the Sacraments are performed. Usually, reproaches for archaism are presented to the ritual side of the life of the Church; But the rite, despite the fact that, as I have already said, it can and should be adequate to its time in external forms, is itself based on the above-mentioned unshakable divine foundations. Hence church conservatism. In addition, archaism and conservatism also contain such a significant thing as the connection of times. It is very important for us that the Church preserves the experience of generations and generations of Christians; But this is also essential for people who are not churchly, but who think, who are not satisfied with the disintegration of primordial human ties in today's world.

Now about simplicity (we have already touched on this topic above). There is the simplicity of Christ, the simplicity of the Gospel – it is attained by the complex and long-suffering life of a Christian on earth, which includes both the acquisition of a large amount of knowledge and the acquisition of a diverse life and spiritual experience. And there is another simplicity, which, according to the Russian proverb, is "worse than theft." This is the simplicity of pop, primitivism, herding. Its symbol is a plastic box with a screen, which stands in every room of most people on earth. From TV, a modern person receives all the information about all aspects of life. But you can't get information about the Church from the box. Here you need to read a couple of books in silence, and think with your own head about the meaning of life, and after that, in general, work hard with your mind and heart to see both the laws by which life flows and your place in it. You said that no one understands the services. They are incomprehensible not because of the Slavic language. If you translate them into the language of the MK-Boulevard magazine, they will become even more incomprehensible. In order to understand the services, one must read, study, understand, and most importantly, accept the worldview of the Bible, the Holy Scriptures. But this is inconvenient, uncomfortable, and unfashionable for most people. What kind of Bible? What was said, sung, shown on TV is the truth, the level at which you need to live. And what, to bring this primitive pop into the Church? The spirit of herding, which decomposes the brains of even church people, penetrates into it; what, then, to deprive the Church of all rights to protect herself? And in general, there are a lot of complex things on earth, incomprehensible to the majority. Is it possible now, for the sake of this majority, to simplify them? but this is tantamount to destroying the richness and diversity of existence that the Lord has given us...