Sermon of Bishop Akakije

[Sdcn.Ephrem]

St. Philaret of New York:

Naturally... Christian patriotism... requires from each of us as great a service as possible to the nation. The value of such service is even more significant if it is rendered unselfishly - free of any material calculations and considerations. A person serves the country in one way or another when he participates in its life by, for example, expressing himself in the press or in civil elections, etc. In this, one must strive to bring benefit to the whole country, the whole people, and not to one's own personal or party interests - then one's conscience will be at peace. It may be that one will not attain great external success, but let him, nevertheless fulfill the duty of a patriot and a faithful child of the nation in an honorable and Christian manner.

[Barbara]

My feeling, though, is that Metr Philaret wrote that back in a better era.
If he were to be here in America today, I am not sure he would find that participation in the electoral process does
ANY good whatsoever.

I consider especially 'presidential elections' to be nothing but a planned distraction, just like movies or stupid TV shows.
The media plays up every election and makes the entire nation get involved in a useless struggle. Always the same puppets win, so there is NO contest at all !
Better to channel one's energies into planning ahead for a difficult future, a chastisement from Heaven, possibly,
and organizing one's life to be the most God-Pleasing possible.

Back in Metropolitan Philaret's time, the US stood for something : the "free world" versus Soviet repression and barbarity [though you notice
only one or two movies like "One Day in the LIfe of Ivan Denisovitch" ever made to the screen. So it could not have been AS HIGH on the agenda
to expose Stalin and concentration camps as one might wish. Only anti-Nazi movies were ever allowed to appear, and the public was given
the a nauseating diet of the same old fare, over and over, up to this day].

Today, most alert people realize that THIS country is not free, either. So it's not as praiseworthy to engage in politics as it would have been
during the few decades after World War II.

Instead, if one has extra energy to devote to politics, why not sign up for a committee which is promoting the return of legitimate Monarchs
to rule their former lands ? Some will say that is futile, but at least a little publicity for THIS cause won't hurt.