Bessarabia Metropolitanate launches volunteer guide for the clergy

The Diaconia Social Mission, the charity arm of the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church, has launched a volunteer's guide specially designed for the men of the cloth, Info-Prim Neo reports. The guide titled “Volunteer Service in the Orthodox Church” is a vade mecum that aims to explain to the pastorate the concept of volunteer-based work from a religious perspective. The guidebook is chiefly destined for the priests willing to perform volunteer-based work in their parishes with the help of the local youth. The work comprises a number of chapters that cover different aspects of volunteer service, like Biblical examples (for instance, the model of Saint Basil the Great who founded a large fraternity of 'volunteer' missionaries). Copies will be distributed among the parishes of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate as well as to everyone interested. “With the help of this publication, Diaconia aims to revive the old tradition of philanthropy, brotherly love, and generosity in the modern society. The volunteer service is in fact a modernized aspect of this tradition”, says Diaconia program coordinator Gheorghe Zagorodniuc. “Volunteer Service in the Orthodox Church” has been authored by Father Viorel Cojocaru, senior priest at the Silent Heart Church (Biserica Inimii Tacute), with the support of a group of theologists from the Bessarabian Metropolitanate. The guidebook was published by Diaconia as part of a volunteer support program “All for one and all for one Future”, financially supported by Caritas Vienna.