Victoria Mindova
I can not say that I am a believer, nor righteous, but my meeting with Father Alexandros made me look in a different way at the Christian Church. So far, the Church for me as well as for many others, I guess, was just another public institution without any particular significance for my personal path in life. Maybe it will remain so for the future as well, but I can not tell about the goodness when I meet it.
This is the story of Father Alexandros, who is only 29 years, a man in his prime (as would say Karolson who lives on the roof) and has undertaken the uneasy task to build a temple in the small municipality of the capital Nea Chalkidona together with people of his parish. I found myself in his small church occasionally. What struck me were neither lavish iconostasis, or high-domed temple, because there was nothing like that. On the contrary. The church of Nea Chalkidona is housed in a modest hut of bricks and steel. What impressed me the most was the pioneer enthusiasm of the priest and his parish, who are determined to build a temple of their own in the small suburb of Athens. For the first time I felt that Christianity can really give a sense of belonging and importance by making good or just by building a church that brings people together, and not dividing them.
The presence of Father Alexandros in the Street in stories of GRReporter is not accidental. He says that perhaps raising the temple is somewhat mercenary work, but my opinion is that if all mercenary works in the world were like his, the problems on Earth today would be much less and much more righteous. He agreed to tell us about his work and his thoughts about life, religion and modern Greece. This is his story:
How did you decide to become a priest
I liked the idea of being a priest since my childhodd, although I was a very live and even a naughty child. As a young man I was hanging out with friends, having fun, we had different companies, but inside I needed also something else. The idea that you are useful and you can help people, and you are also in constant touch with the world around you. As a priest I am able to constantly keep in contact with people from the parish, we talk about various issues, we discuss the problems of everyday life and I help with whatever I can. These are things that I like and they predetermined my decision to become a priest. Nobody influenced my decision I just knew what I want. I went to study theology in Athens and took on the path I chose for myself.
Theology
Theology as a science is very misunderstood ... I've noticed that many people believe that theology deals only with God, but this is not true. Indeed, it deals in depth with the philosophy, the inner life and human history, present and the nature of things that surround us as a whole. Gospels reveal not only the history of Christianity, but also the everyday life of people in the old days. Theology is in its essence a science. It does not contradict the scientific approach to perception of the world, just the theological understanding stops at a level from which on is God. Science in turn tries to unravel the secrets of the divine. This is the only difference between theological and scientific. There is no other difference.
New Parish
When I finished my studies and served my military service, I was ordained a priest and I sent in one church for three years. Then I came to Nea Chalcedon. When I started here four years ago, there was no church and no parish. First I found only about ten people from the municipality, but the need for believers to have their own church and priest with us is great. It gives a sense of belonging. Many years before I show up, citizens of Nea Chalcedon have attempted to build a neighborhood church. Of course the familiar problems with the state institutions have made this impossible, especially when the region itself has not been allocated by the Church as a separate parish. To light a candle, to pray or simply to attend a liturgy people were supposed to go to close or more distant neighborhoods. People generally need a temple of their own, which they may attend and perform traditional Christian rites. However, when you are away from the church it is difficult to establish lasting contacts with other members of the parish or to become a member of the community. When they heard that in the neighborhood has come a new priest, people started flooding.
Ever since I came we slowly and gradually built the small church that you see together with people from the parish for only three months. Small, clean and tidy the church is now working normally and started to develop its own community. The next step was to start building the new church, which will be our new temple. We've already fineshed the hardest, but we still have work. The problem as always is that we don’t have the money. This of course will not stop us, it will just slow us down a bit from the initial plan.
In Greece, generally are built smallrr churches. This gives citizens a sense of community and belonging. From ancient times in Greece, the church is a place for meetings and communication. After a Mass in the villages, and even in the towns people leave the church, go to the local square, where they all know each other. They will drink a cup of coffee in the adjacent cafeteria, they will discuss the problems of everyday life and the church in general becomes a kind of second home for our citizens. The meaning of the word "church" has the meaning of kindness and gather in one league.
The crisis in Greece is in the first place spiritual and moral, and then economic
What is happening today in Greece is the result of many factors. First, obviously, we learned nothing from our history. If we turn back to our history we will see that we were constantly at war, revolutions and civil feuds. This occurs because the Greek people are truly united only in the face of great difficulty. The temperament of the Greeks is a major cause of misfortunes that have reached us in historical plan. People today are confused, they have lost their way and they can not understand who they are and where they belong. This is not an excuse for the behavior of modern man, this is fact. I think this confusion in the new generation is to a great extent due to the lack of education and general culture. Schools in Greece do not educate our children any more. We are witnessing strange phenomenon. During the H1N1 outbreak public schools stopped teaching processes while the epidemic ceased. Private schools and care centers, however, continued to work. The logic of the government did not become clear. This is just one example that we alone lead a cats and dogs life as the popular proverb says. We deprived our children from classes without really protecting them from the danger of being exposed to the virus.
The crisis that is not only economic, but also spiritual and moral in the first place. But it is also an opportunity for us to change a lot of our bad habits accumulated over recent years. We lost our moral values. Anyone is looking to take the eye of his fellows. Now is a good time to reconsider our values and to fix it.
Among other things, the Greeks are unfortunately have lost their abilities to stand up for their positions. Today we do everything that Europe tells us to do. Without us there the name Europe would not even exist, as it is of Greek origin. We accept without objecting our sentence today. This probably occurs because the entire Greek nation is complicit in the events of the recent decades. Everybody shares a bit the common guilt for the situation we are in today. Politicians are definitely responsible, but also the citizens who benefited from the vicious system are responsible. If you give me a position in any ministry, without having the necessary education, experience or knowledge just because I'm a friend of the right people, it makes me just as guilty as the politician who appointed me to this place.
The Vatopedi monastery scandal
In its essence this story did not affect so much church circles in the country. Believers who know how the church works were not influenced by the speeches of the media in the country. Those, however, who do not deal with Christianity and the church as a whole found another argument in their fight against it. God will judge who is right and who is not. Inside the church circles do not believe that Ephraim has done anything against the canons to be punished with excommunication. When the abbot Ephraim went to Mount Athos he saw a fissionable monastery. The Church property was worn out over the years, along with the scientific, cultural and spiritual heritage which is kept in it. The fact that he finds funding to restore the property of Mount Athos does not mean that has done anything wrong. The same is also true for the small church, which are building today in Nea Chalkidona. If today someone came and asked us to help with the construction of the temple, we will not give it back. From our ancient history from Byzantine times, church and state are united in one.
The problem is not the fact that management of the monastery found ways to restore the assets of Mount Athos, but that politicians got involved.
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