“…there is another category of people: they have walked away from the Church because they were disappointed. They were not disillusioned with themselves, or their ideals, or even Christianity as such, but with what they saw in the Church. Again not the Church sacraments, or its saints, or history, but its present human component…We must be honest with ourselves, the external circumstances, those who judge us (even if with prejudice), and above all with God. We are very weak Christians, we often build our lives in the Church in such a way that it is extremely hard to recognize disciples of Christ in us, we hardly bear any resemblance to the light which shines before all men (cf. Lk. 11:33) and the salt of the earth (cf. Mt. 5:13) no matter what we may think or speak of ourselves. If we did, people would see this in us and bear witness to this as it was before, when even persecutors had to recognize the uniqueness of the life of Christians in comparison with that of non-Christians. And some would hate us for this, others would persecute us, and others would love us—precisely for this.

Integrity and the cry of repentance (which are inseparably linked), a sincere desire to overcome our weakness and again the cry of repentance when we have made no progress is not only the hope for salvation. It is also a guarantee of the fact that people who come to church today will nevertheless believe us, that everything is genuine and serious here, that there is no falsehood in it, but that there is human weakness and the power of God ,which is in action despite or even against weakness.

It is painful not only to speak but also to think about this. But I believe we shouldn’t be silent about this. Because, I will repeat, there are too many losses and there will be more if we don’t change and if the degree of our integrity and openness doesn’t change, if our reaction to any reproach (even the most deserved and justified one) will be self-justification, which contradicts both reality and common sense, completely forgetting how often we implore the Lord during services, repeating the Psalmist’s prayer: Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works (Ps. 140:4).

 – ‘Seek only the Church’ article in pravoslavie.ru)

***Now and then we include a particularly thought provoking or inspiring excerpt not from one of our regular ‘Elders’***