The question of the mission of the church in the modern world as such is very complex, in particular for the Russian Orthodox Church at present in the Soviet Union (sic). For many years this country's people, believers and non-believers alike, had been living with a split mind, a condition that could not but affect the state of their souls. They were brought to the point where they found themselves lacking spiritual resources, resources that otherwise could have helped them "depart from evil and do good" (Ps.34:14)

Most deplorable of all, perhaps, is the fact that during these years, with our church all but forbidden to preach, little by little our believers have lost the habit of opening their heart, as if being afraid to look into it and to measure the depths of their conscience. It is chiefly for this reason that people have grown 'hard' of heart, with no love left for God and their neighbour, a condition that had led ultimately to a drop in the level of spirituality and morality in our society.

Under these circumstances, the mission of the church, while remaining essentially the same at all times, is now taking on some new and important features. The Orthodox Church never considered its mission to be of an "applied" character, nor to be confined to the building-up and enlightening of the believers. The ultimate good of our Lord's coming into the world and establishing his church was to save and redeem people from the bondage of sin and to unite them with God. Having established his church to bring people back to God, Jesus Christ equipped it with all the means necessary to achieve this goal.

To this end there are sacraments celebrated in the church, the first and foremost of which is the eucharist, in which people become truly united with God. In order that human beings may become partakers of this mysterious communion with God, however, they must participate in another sacrament - the sacrament of repentance, which serves to purify the human soul and prepare it for communion with God.

The sacrament of repentance is a long and difficult journey. It is, first, the realisation of one's sinfulness before God and other people. Then, the confession of sins to the priest. Finally, the development of an ardent desire never to commit these sins again. This process of repentance must be an integral part of the life of every Christian. For if a person, seeing himself or herself as a believer, does not go to church and does not participate in its sacraments, ie. is not a partaker in its sacramental life, he or she is like a traveller, journeying without compass or map, totally relying upon his or her own intuition, perhaps even being unaware of where he or she is bound!

In general, the life of our parishes is concentrated upon the liturgical life of the church, ie.on the sacraments celebrated in the church. These sacraments are the heart of our spiritual and religious life. It is precisely in the church that we derive strength to carry out our daily manifold assignments and obligations in the family, in our social and our professional life.

Our faith must be the main criterion by which we define our lifestyle, our worldview, our behaviour, actions and decisions. The inevitable consequence of a broken organic link with the church and its sacramental life would be the loss of our guidelines and of the very meaning of life, entailing further- because of the ensuing loss of communion with God- degradation of personality, which in turn will not be without impact on the whole society.

Therefore, the primary task of the church's mission is to "church" its members, to make their relations with the church and parish, as well as their involvement in the liturgical life of the church, stronger and more active. We Orthodox are often criticized for being reserved and exclusive, for concentrating too much on the liturgical life within a closed worshipping community, and for our lack of a wider and more open mission. A partial explanation may be found in the situation in which our church had to live during the last seven decades, when many areas of Christian social ministry, always open for the churches in the west, with now well-developed structures for missionary work and evangelism. for religious education and charity work, remained closed to our church.

Moreover, it is important to remember that the focus on liturgical life has always been the main feature of our church, that the house of prayer has always occupied the central place in the life of the Orthodox. True, there used to be a whole network of all kinds of religious societies, brotherhoods or sisterhoods, of charity services, hospitals, orphanages, homes of hospitality, etc. - all run by the church and named bogougodnye (in the name of God, to please God).

In addition, the church had its own secondary and higher schools. All these institutions, however, were organised through parish churches, which served as centres of the prayerful life of Christians. That is why the Russian Orthodox Church identifies as its first priority the organisation of a normal and full parish life around the destroyed and now restituted churches.

For example, let us take the town in which I live, and the parish of which I am a member. This is a rather large town in the Moscow region, located in an agricultural area, and as such, is very typical of Central Russia. The population of our town is 157,000 adults, and the neighbouring villages have an additional 85,000 adults. In the town and in its closest neighbourhood there are only seven functioning churches, four of which have been opened in the last two years; there are thirty more yet to be restored to improve the situation and to make it as it used to be when every locality, whether a village or town, had a church of its own, which was not just a place for worship, but the very centre of life.

Considering the religious life in our country and in the church in general, one can say that the number of parishes and church membership are growing. The following figures help to illustrate that fact; in 1985, three (3) new communities came into being; in 1986, there were ten (10) new communities; in 1987, sixteen (16); in 1988, eight hundred and nine (809); in 1989, the total number of parishes reached 11,118; towards the end of 1990, their number was 12,000 compared to 6,806 in 1985; therefore, the number has actually doubled. This process continues. However, we are still very much below the number of parishes existing in 1961, let alone the number of parishes before 1917.

So, most of our parishes, especially in the cities, are too big to function well, to satisfy fully the spiritual needs of those who turn to the church for consolation and for help in solving their problems. An insufficient number of priests is another problem. Because of the fast growing number of our parishes, the theological schools of our church find it impossible to cope with the task of training enough priests to fill all the vacancies, not to mention their practical inability, at least for the present, to offer the urgently needed education for catechists and other teachers of diocesan and Sunday schools.

Little by little, dioceses are opening their own theological schools. Some of the parishes especially in big cities, introduce the practice of shortened theological education courses for priests and deacons to satisfy the growing need for this kind of "abridged" curriculum is rather risky, providing no possibility for a gradual "growing into" the spiritual fabric of the church for future pastors and leaving them without sufficiently thorough education. As for the education offered at the theological seminaries and academies, it is not only concerned with knowledge of theological disciplines and information on the canon law. Theological students acquire practical experience of the living church, which feeds, as it does, not only the mind but also the heart of the man preparing himself for priesthood.

So, on the one hand, the growing number of parishes and active parishioners testifies to the fact that faith is alive among people, that despite all their economic difficulties they continue to restore churches, thereby returning to their Orthodox roots. On the other hand, however, we are facing a phenomenon, where the head of our church, Patriarch Alexy, called the "religious running wild" and that is an immediate result of state policy regarding the church.

This is the situation when the traditional devoutness of people often takes the form of religious ritualism, people merely observing a tradition without investigating its depths or realising its sacramental meaning. This is the situation when there was no critical attitude towards religions and teachings incompatible with Christian doctrine, such as astrology, belief in healers of different sorts, or in the appearance of other planets' inhabitants, and so on. Therefore, oriental religions, with their own emphasis on individual perfection and way of perceiving the reality around us, are very popular among young people today, many of them coming to the church are disoriented; they need dialogue to help them in their search for the truth.

Participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the church protects human beings against false teachings, with the detrimental influence on them. As our church is restoring the once existing structures of spiritual formation, religious education and charity work, it tries to emphasize their being rooted in its liturgical and sacramental life.

Another important challenge for us is to restore a normal parish life and to ensure the renewal of church communities. Here again I would like to refer to the example of my parish. In summertime there are between one hundred and two hundred baptisms each week, most of which take place on Saturdays and Sundays. Imagine what that means for the priest! A baby to be baptised is brought by the parents and godparents. In the majority of cases these are young people with a very vague picture of what the priest is going to do to their baby. All they know is that it must be done, as something that was once done to them. The priest must talk to them to make them realise that what he is going to "perform" is not a magical act of some kind, just to protect the baby against any possible troubles in the future. Rather that baptism is a sacrament by which the baby becomes a full member of the Church of Christ, that from now on he or she must be brought up in the spirit of orthodoxy, and that the parents, together with their baby, are embarking upon the course of spiritual life, thereby assuming upon themselves very serious and heavy commitment.

True, it is the duty of the priest to make them aware of these responsibilities. But if there are four or five hundred families to address in two days, what kind of catechetical talk is to be expected from him? It is the tradition in this country that almost all families bring their children to the church for baptism, as well as for certain other sacraments and rituals, such as marriage, funerals, remembrance of the dead. As our churches are overcrowded, inevitably the individual members are lost sight of by the priest. Therefore, until there is a church in every city district, in every remote village, it is impossible to speak about any orderly spiritual life in the parish, or about religious upbringing and spiritual enlightenment of people.

It is no exaggeration to say that now all our parishes are working to full capacity fulfilling their pastoral, educational, enlightening and charity responsibilities in spite of the difficulties and problems caused by an insufficient number of priests, catechists and church buildings.In addition, there is a lack of financial resources to construct churches, parish centre and theological schools, to restore the ruined churches and to maintain the old functioning ones. The economic crisis in our country severely affects the church, for it does not receive any subsidies from the state and is totally dependent on the voluntary contributions of the believers.

Sunday schools for children, nowadays emerging everywhere, are, as a rule, a success. Some parishes also plan to open Sunday schools for adults. Catechetical groups and workshops spring up here and there thanks to the initiative of young people. Our parish has a library of religious literature. Once a week there is an experienced priest available for the young readers of religious books to talk with them and to answer their questions.

A greater openness to religion and to the church, a recent feature of our society, together with the state's permission for the church to resume its activity in the areas that were closed to it before, arouses great interest in the Russian Orthodox Church, its history, life and teaching. Our priests often receive invitations to deliver lectures in schools, colleges, in factories and plants and in workers' clubs. As a rule, they all comply with such requests, though with their tight working schedules in the parish, this an additional and very heavy burden. They simply cannot refuse when they see the sincere wish of people to know more about the church, where their hearts tell them lies the truth, for in this way people rediscover the treasures of the church.

There are many state schools that invite priests to teach the Bible and the history of the Russian Church on a regular basis. In Moscow, as well as in some other big cities. Orthodox Grammar schools have opened, basing their curriculum on that of secondary schools. Such work is very important for our society. Special attention is now given to the spiritual formation of children as a basis for a more spiritual and moral future. Indeed, the real renewal of our parishes, of our communities and of our society as much on what children, as upbringing is a whole depends very is to become of our far as their moral concerned.

A new sphere of activity has now opened for our church. This chaplaincy in hospitals and educational institutions, prisons, and labour camps, and pastoral care for mentally and physically ill people unable to go to church, whose need for edification and consolation is the greatest. The work in this area calls for sacrificial love and great spiritual strength on the part of the clergy.

In conclusion, it seems pertinent to underline that religious freedom, in the true sense of the word, has given the church many new possibilities to carry out its mission in the world. It has also made us take a fresh look at the traditional life of the church, induced us to seek new ways for our witness and shown us the urgent need for renewal in our parish lifestyle in order that we may be able to fulfill our Christian calling in this society.