Metropolitan Chrysostom: The authorities of Greece are consciously destroying the Christian faith
May 16, 2017 – Metropolitan Chrysostom of Trikke and Stagonsk has commented the decision of the Greek parliament to eliminate Sunday as a non-working day.
The Metropolitan called the bill’s initiative “yet another provocative intervention”, aimed at de-Christianizing Greece. He called that the so-called “cultural revolution” is “a degradation of human identity and the turning of people into soulless machines of production and consumption of material goods”.
“Our Orthodox Church, since its foundation by Our Lord Jesus Christ, is remaining faithful to keeping Sunday as a non-working day… According to ancient testimonies, the early Christians gathered on Sundays to attend the Divine Liturgy, taking Communion of the Body and Blood of the Resurrected Christ”
This custom has stayed with us across the centuries and stayed up until our days, despite various difficulties in the life of the Church, especially during the first centuries of persecutions against Christians and during Turkish occupation.
Thus, Sunday is needed for Christians for two reasons:
1) The non-working status of Sunday is linked to a freedom of religion. In 313, Constantine the Great issued an edict about religious toleration, making Sunday a non-working day. This allowed Christians to worship to worship freely and to practice their faith in the multireligious Roman empire.
2) The Orthodox Christian faith is based on its church. That is, on mutual gathering of the faithful for common prayer and worship to God.
The newly founded attempts of the authorities to abolish Sunday is a testimony of pre-determined and well-thought of attempts from the authorities to destroy the social fabric of Greek society and the destruction of the Christian faith.
Our diocese would support any law bill that would fight the abolishment of Sunday as a holiday. It is time to take responsibility and to fight for our values and faith”.