By Protopresbyter Peter Heers,
Professor of Old and New Testament, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary,
Jordanville, NY
Lecture
delivered at the Clergy Retreat
Audio
and video versions of this lecture will be forthcoming; please check
back to orthodoxethos.com for
these.
Howell,
New Jersey
Tuesday,
March 21st, 2017
Your
Eminence, Metropolitan HILARION
Your
Eminence, Metropolitan JONAH
Your
Grace, Bishop NICHOLAS,
Your
Grace, Bishop IRENEI,
Venerable
fathers and brothers in Christ,
Christ is
in Our Midst!
I
consider it an honor to stand before you today, to speak to the
Shepherds and Pastors of Christ's rational flock, and in particular
to the successors of the great work begun in the Russian Diaspora by
such holy ones as St. John the Wonderworker and Metropolitans
Anthony, Anastasi, Philaret, and Vitaly, Archbishop Averky and
Metropolitan Laurus and many others, who are revered fathers not only
of the Russian Church Abroad, but indeed of the Church Catholic.
The
witness given by the Fathers of the Russian Church Outside of Russia
with regard to the Holy Tradition, the monastic and ascetic ideal and
in particular the ecclesiology of the Church, continues to inspire
and guide Orthodox throughout the world.