Perspectief 2015-28

Perspectie 10 Lidiya Lozova repentance and changing yourself; help those you can help in case of need; appreciate your parish, which is your spiritual family. Persuaded that the Church should transcend political disagreements, he never spoke of political parties, their programs and activities. However, he never advocated for keeping away from social and political life either. On the contrary, before and during the Maidan he used to repeat to his parishioners that Christians should be active citizens of their society and their country. This became especially significant when the question of the human dignity and rights arose in connection with the beating of student protesters by government officials on the 30th of November 2013, as well as during further protests. When asked whether a Christian could participate in public protests, 7 father Philaret emphasized the fact that St Paul was a Roman citizen and openly took advantage of his civil rights in Acts 22:25-29, just as the forty warriors from Sebastia did in the 4th century 8 . Thus, he implied that a Christian could take part in peaceful protests if his or her Christian conscience prompted him or her to act against social injustice in support of human rights and dignity. For the Christmas of 2013, St Clement’s Center sent a greeting to its friends and partners, one line of which accentuated the problem of human dignity: “St Clement reminds us of the dignity of every human person, which is once again endangered and needs to be defended: ‘Brothers, let each of us be pleasing to God by keeping to our special assignments with a good conscience, not violating the established rule of his ministry, acting in reverence’ [“dignity” in the Russian translation]” (St Clement of Rome, 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, Ch. XLI). The letter was sent by St Clement’s Center on the 23d of December 2013.” Father Philaret then signed this letter as Center’s counsellor. Some of the UOC MP priests in Kyiv used to warn their parishioners against taking part in the protests because they feared that the parishioners could easily compromise their Christian identity in a crowd and commit sinful actions. Father Philaret, however, used to repeat that it was possible for a Christian to remain a Christian wherever he or she was, including crowds. Later some of the St 7 This was the question people frequently addressed to priests at that time. 8 They were Roman citizens, and they were tortured in the cold waters of a lake near Sebastia (Armenia) in the 4 th century. Before that happened, one of them said to a commander who was to torture them that the Emperor would never let him shackle Roman citizens. The memory of the forty Sebastian warriors is widely celebrated in the Orthodox tradition (March 22).