Priests call for General Church Assembly

A group of priests from several districts demand the Metropolitan of Chisinau and Moldova Vladimir to urgently convene the General Assembly of the Orthodox Church of Moldova. The priests said on Tuesday, November 6, at a press conference, that this assembly had been awaited by Christians for more than 18 years, Info-Prim Neo reports. Priest Elisei Grigoras of Drochia said that the convention should address a series of pressing problems. He wants a number officials to be called to report and namely those responsible for the adoption of the Law on Ensuring Equality, also known as the Antidiscrimination Law, the Law on Freedom of Conscience, Thought and Religion, formerly known as the Law on Religious Denominations, the Law on reproductive health and others. The list of issues to be discussed includes the recently publicized topic of church members living in luxury. The priests consider that such topics damage the image of the church. Priest Ion Carpineanu of Balti said that 85% of all priests barely made ends meet and often they had to take a second job or send their wives or children abroad. The priest admits there is a church elite, which is well-off, but numerically it is very small. “Only a small percentage of them lead a decent living and only some tens commit excesses. It would be a great mistake to criticize them all, accusing them of luxurious desires and indifference towards Christians”. Priest Ioan Grigoras says that he feels hurt when the press labels all the priests the same in the news reports about them. The priest says that all people are ordinary mortals and not immune to sins. “The church is the body and we, the priests, are the limbs. When a limb is ill, the body suffers, but when the whole body is ill, all the limbs suffer”. According to the church members, the General Assembly of the Orthodox Church of Moldova is supposed to take place once in four years, but the last time it was convened in 1994.