His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada, was on Saturday July 13 and Sunday July 14, 2019 among the faithful of Windsor, Ontario.
In the Cathedral, protected by St. George and St. Andrei Saguna, whose relics are exposed for veneration, the hierarch celebrated Saturday the Vespers service and Sunday the Divine Liturgy together with Rev. Fr. Lucian Moldovan.
It was a spiritually busy weekend that reminded the Romanian Orthodox community in Windsor about the beauty and the difficulty of confessing faith in contemporary society abroad.
In the laicized society, far too technological, there is a great challenge – the religious indifference, the lukewarm spirit, the prominent impression of consumerism and the most surprising pursuit of purely earthly, material happiness.
The visit of the hierarch of Canada, the words of his teaching and the appeals, reminded the faithful who attended the religious services how important it is to confess faith through one's own life, by the power of personal example and what is weighing more than a thousand words: the love of God, bringing children to the Church, helping others in need, affirming with joy and by the living what does it mean to be Orthodox Christians.
In the sermon delivered at the end of the Divine Liturgy, the hierarch spoke first about the role of each believer in transmitting the faith:
Each of us - clergy and faithful - we have a particular role in the work of transmitting the Orthodox faith. The clergy are chosen by the Church which pray to God at their ordination for the gift of the Holy Spirit to come upon and shed on them, consecrated them for the work of Christ's salvation. But the simple faithful who have the general priesthood by virtue of Baptism are called to the same work of salvation with their specific role. They are all distinctive, but part of the same body of Christ that is the Church.
The Romanian hierarch of Canada recalled that this Sunday are also commemorates the Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of 451 in Chalcedon. His Grace reminded that the council deepened the understanding of the person of the Savior Christ as divine person one in two natures - divine and human united in a "unmixed, unchanging, undivided, inseparable".
Christ is One so the Church is one. In our work as believers we manifest the apostolic vocation of those who have known the Son of God Jesus Christ in the flesh and testified about it. The Church as we are witnessing in the Creed - is one because One is God, holy because it participates in the holiness of God, the catholic or the universal for the work of Christ and therefore of the Church is addressed to all and apostolic because the confession of the Church is founded on the testimony of the Holy Apostles who have known Christ.
The apostolate, the Christian mission, is not a hierarchical, clerical prerogative, but is intertwined with the mission and role of the laity, of every Christian who says 'I believe and I witness' and thereby testifies to his faith, thus becoming a living example. The saints who protect us with their sacrifice in faith, are the most powerful models for all.
The hierarch encouraged the active participation of the lay people in church life, in a responsible apostolate.
Rev. Fr. Lucian Moldovan thanked the hierarch, for the guiding words and for the pastoral visit.
Saturday, July 14th Bishop Ioan Casian also had a meeting with the parish council in which the community's plans for the immediate future were discussed.
