Bishop Pitirim hold a prayer service before New Year
On December 31 st , the bishop of Zvenigorod Pitirim, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, hold a public prayer at the academy church of the Intercession of the Theotokos. .
Academic teachers and students as well as parishioners and pilgrims offered their prayers on New Year’s Eve.
Bishop Pitirim addressed the assembly and explained the meaning of a New Year Day for the Orthodox.
Over time, this feast got numerous mythical images and pagan symbols. However, if we scrutinize it deeply, we will see where it comes from and why does it reunite people all over the world. We might guess that it takes its origins from the dawn of the humanity. It simply takes us back to the times of creation the world and the first man, the childhood of the human kind. There is something childish and naïve in this feast as well. It inspires us to decorate trees, light candles and gather round a festive table. It might have been celebrating in this way since its first day. Is there anything sinful? Debates have been hold until this day, nevertheless, it is the case which St. Gregory the Theologian mentioned. He said that if we made a mistake in theological questions, we would not sin, because a question about celebrating New Year does not reflect on our salvation. It is not a dogma of faith; it is just one of rituals or customs. Even if we are not right, we do not sin.
There is nothing sinful in celebrating New Year, it is sinful to sin on purpose, but a New Year feast is quite neutral itself. We should fill it with a Christian prayer. That is what we do while performing a divine night service. It is a nice occasion to thank God one more time, to offer our prayers and ask for His blessing for a coming year. This feast has an eschatological perspective as, especially, other church feasts have. We remember a forthcoming renewal of this world when it reaches its sinful limit. This is what gives an eschatological meaning to this festive time. Despite giving food for theological thoughts about the righteousness of celebrating New Year, it does not make us sin or err.
During the public service all the assembly thanked Almighty for peace and His forbearance, asked for preserving the unity of an Orthodox church, giving kindness and benefits to everyone.
After the service the rector together with academic teachers and students lightened a Christmas tree in front of a new student residence and took a group photo under the fireworks.
Background information:
The public service in an academic church was held by the bishop of Zvenigorod Pitirim, Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, together with archimandrites Venedict (Knyazev), Platon (Igumnov), Ilarion (Forkavets), Luka (Golovkov), hegumen Adrian (Pashin), hegumen Meletiy (Sokolov), hegumen Gerasim (Dyachkov), archpriest Sergey Zabelich, archpriest Sergey Ishkov, hieromonks Feodor (Yulaev), Varnava (Losev), Appolinariy (Panin), Vyacheslav (Sorokin), Kassian (Ploskiy), Damian (Voronov), priest Alexander Orischenko, priest Dimitriy Nozdrin, deacon Dimitriy Maslov, hierodeacons Pavel(Polevoy) and Innokentiy (Glazistov).
Two academic choirs sang at the service. The first choir under the conduct of hieromonk Nestor (Volkov) and the second one was directed by Vitaliy Chuvilov.
