Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk: ‘People need personal communication with the clergy’

Metropolitan Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk spoke in his report at the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church about importance of personal communication of the clergy with the believers, ‘No serious work for bringing people to the faith is possible without personal communication of the rector, clergymen and church workers with the parishioners, and particularly with our compatriots who are in search of God and have not been united with Christ through the confession of Orthodoxy, life according to the commandments and participation in the Sacraments instituted by God.’

Metropolitan Clement underscored that people often come to the Church to find answers to the question about the philosophy of life. Lacking personal communication with the clergy and intelligible answers, people begin to look for the truth in other confessions or even religious movements.

Metropolitan Clement also stressed the importance of communication of the parishioners always going to church with the clergy. ‘These parishioners should not be deprived of personal communication with the priests, and their talks should not reduced to the confessing of sins and receiving penance.’

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