Article: Church as Liberated Zone in war against evil
Image from OrthodoxyToday
Soon after the martyrdom of Fr Daniel Sysoyev, an article was written by Deacon Stephen Hayes on Fr Daniel’s ecclesiology (understanding of the Church). Fr Daniel explained the Church as being an army that was fighting evil, as follows:
Churches are linking stations. There we get information from our governing body: ciphers (New Testament), reinforcement (Holy Communion), and we get support through mutual communication. We master all kinds of tricks in order to commit terrorist attacks against the prince of this world, that is, we learn how to do good. Obviously if an agent of the Holy Kingdom shirks attending the headquarters and does not keep in touch with the command center, he can easily get lost, lose his power, and fall in battle.
It’s a fundamentally different understanding of what the Church is, and one that makes a lot of sense. When considering that Fr Daniel was murdered for teaching Orthodox Christianity (in Russia, 2009, of all times and places), this makes his analogy all the more suitable.
Deacon Stephen delves into this more deeply in his article, The Church as the Liberated Zone, which is on his ‘Khanya’ blog.
