Sysoyev Program: Co-workers, Missionaries and the Liturgical Year
Article by Andrew Smith :: Photo courtesy Sarah Meggitt Photography
This post will be continuing the series on Fr Daniel Sysoyev. If you don’t know who he is, check out my first post.
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The most important part of Fr Daniel’s program was the people alongside him.
As much as the priest needs to be praying and inspiring others to pray, a lot of the work of evangelism comes from laypeople who are educated. This really important. Perhaps because it is seen that priests have something to gain that laypeople don’t; perhaps because priests are supposed to be ministering to laypeople (rather than bringing in more laypeople). Whatever the reason, it’s absolutely essential.
Laypeople in key positions need to be educated and responsible, and are the best way of ensuring that the priest is able to keep focused on prayer and teaching. These laypeople are able to ensure people come to talks, and to keep catechumens and the newly-baptised within the Church. And, perhaps most importantly, they have to be reading the Scriptures each day. It’s a part of being connected with God.
Fr Daniel didn’t allow this to happen by chance – he planned for it by establishing a missionary school. Not a rubber stamp or semi-private lectures, but a school, including exams. Missionaries were taught how to preach the Gospel to those who were not Orthodox – whether of various denominations or of different religions, particularly Islam, Theosophy, pagans and various cults. He taught how to do this in modern language, and working from the Scriptures.
So, what did a missionary do?
Missionaries, wearing the badge of the church (so that they were identifiable), would be on streets around the parish building. They’d invite people to come into the church, and would have leaflets on hand for those who wanted to know more about specific ideas (particularly confession or baptism). For those who seemed very interested, the missionaries would have a copy of the Gospel of Mark to give.
So, what were the results of this? In this case, there were two results. Firstly, people were often happy that it was an Orthodox person approaching them, rather than those of another sect. Of course, part of this was probably to do with familiarity with Orthodoxy in Moscow, but this was part of the result. Secondly, many people came to the Church – from as varied backgrounds as protestant Christians to Satanists.
The missionaries would then be sent to more difficult tasks – preaching to guest workers, to meetings of non-Orthodox Christians, where the Scriptures would be shown to follow the Orthodox teaching, and the Church that Christ established shown to be the same as in Acts and the Orthodox Church today. It was seen by the missionaries that Orthodoxy was the bringer of Christian unity – that is, by looking at Scripture truthfully and uniting under that truth.
On special days, missionaries would have different activities. In the Orthodox Church, there are certain days that will attract people who are nominally Orthodox – Christmas, Epiphany (with the blessing of the waters), and Soul Saturday (where prayers for reposed relatives are offered). On these days, people would be encouraged to not simply come to church, but also to participate in the mysteries. On Soul Saturday, there would be sermons delivered in cemeteries. On major feast days, missionaries would also be called upon to talk about sacred history, confession, the need for baptism (or marriage, in some cases), and to hand out leaflets and invite people to meet with clergy.
Easter presented an even greater opportunity, given the multitudes of nominally Orthodox people present. Between the time between the midnight office and the proclamation of the Resurrection, Fr Daniel would read the Gospel passage about the women who brought ointments to the tomb late at night (Gospel of John, chapter 20), and would tell parishioners about the main hope of Christians – that is, the hope of the Resurrection and forgiveness. Moreover, loudspeakers were set up to broadcast these services, and missionaries would be tasked with approaching passers-by, inviting them to the service and distributing leaflets about confession and communion.
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This series will continue for the next few posts.
Do you think that these ideas - educated laity, sermons to different religious groups, a missionary school, distributing pamphlets – would work in Western countries? Have you tried any of these?
Leave your comment below!
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