The Role of the Church Today

by Fr. Alexander Men

If we think of the role of the Church today, at least in those places where most of the population is at least nominally Christian, then we see a complex and very unsatisfactory picture. On many levels there is a deep, widespread, constantly growing hunger for spiritual values, a need for discovery, for an understanding of faith. We cannot say that there is widespread atheism among us. A deep religious ignorance or paganism is certainly predominant, but the desire for higher spiritual things has remained. The response to this desire is given by the Church because the Church is Christ’s instrument, the instrument of Christianity. She is obliged to preach what Christ gives to us. She must continue His life on this earth: preaching, service and incarnation through the mysteries. That is, her very presence must be the presence of Christ in the world.

One well-known contemporary writer once posed this question to a capable journalist: “How is it that Russia, an Orthodox country, became a land of overwhelming atheism?” He answered in the following way: The Church did not accomplish the role assigned to her by God—preaching, witness, presence. And now, if we are to speak of the future, let us pose this question to ourselves: “What does God require of us in the remaining time, which we, that is the Church, should focus our attention on precisely now, in these days?

Preaching

This means that we have to find a common language with the people of our time, not identifying with them completely, yet not isolating ourselves from them behind an archaic wall. We have to state anew, almost as if for the first time, all those questions which are placed before us by the Gospel.

Witness

This means that we still have to determine—if we have not yet determined— our life’s goal, to find our place in life, our place not in the usual sense of the word, but in our relationship to all of life’s problems.

Presence

This means we must learn how to pray at all times and deepen our experience of the Mysteries, so that our witness may not be a witness about ideology but of the living presence of God in us.