Penza, 17 December 2014. PenzaNews. Plenary meeting that ended the Second regional Christmas reading session took place in Lermontov regional library in Penza on Wednesday, December 17.

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Summarizing the event, which started on December 12, Bishop Seraphim of Nizhny Lomov and Penza noted that one of the main topics of the reading session was the Christian family.

“Today we are experiencing a time of unprecedented humiliation of the human person and human relations. Concepts such as chastity, fidelity in marriage, loyalty and love are subjected to ridicule. Saying that the family is in crisis is saying nothing. In the vast majority of developed countries of Western democracy they simply do not register marriage or conclude contracts that are easily terminated. Sometimes the soccer player has more troubles leaving the team than for a man to get divorced,” he said.

According to the Bishop, in order not to lose the value of traditional family in modern Russian society, the state and the church should take an active part in the spiritual, educational and missionary programs.

“The future of the Russian world is largely dependent on how successful our service will be. Unfortunately, we see examples of Ukraine — a brotherly state — where terrible things are happening. Sometimes, when we look at it, it seems to us that the same situation is unlikely to befall us, but we are deeply mistaken. The same revolutionary events can happen with us if we do not have strong foundations and the strong family on which any society and the state are built,” the Bishop said.

Bishop Seraphim expressed the hope that the discussions held within the educational reading session will help the participants to find solutions to many internal issues.

“If at least one of the audience now wants to be a mother or father, to have Christian marriage and have many children, then we can say that the reading session was not in vain. I think that we should talk about it on various grounds as much as possible and use the opportunity to preach the word of God, about the Christian family as well,” Bishop of Penza and Nizhny Lomov said.