Many times, priests keep young people close to the church through various extra ecclesiastical activities. Football is one of them.
Dozens of parishes, especially in rural areas, have set up football teams, often coached even by the parish priest, reports Adevărul. This is also the case of the football team of Vorona Centru Parish from Botoșani County, founded two years ago by Fr. Andrei Anușcă.
The team participated in the Football Championship of the Archdiocese of Iasi, which concluded recently.
“Almost 20 young people gather every Sunday at the church to pray and then to play football. The church championship is quite strong,” father Anuşcă explained.
“First the teams from the parish play, then at the next stage they play at the archdiocesan level, in the county and, finally, the best teams fight for the title of Archdiocese.”
This week, Vorona Centru Parish Football Team was visited by Orășeni Schit Parish Team. “A few matches were played, both between our young people from Vorona and with the guests from Schit,” Fr. Andrei Anușcă said.
Spectators included the Dean of Botoșani, Fr. Petru Fercal, but also Archimandrite Nicodim Petre, counsellor at the Mission, Statistics and Pastoral Forecast Sector of the Archdiocese of Iasi.
“Football is an Orthodox game
“Football is a team sport; we say it is an Orthodox game,” Archim. Nicodim noted.
“Football means communion; it means teamwork. In football, we learn to give up; we give passes so the team may win. I played football in high school, and now, when I saw them on the field, I feel like joining in too.”
Photography courtesy of Vorona Centru Parish / Facebook
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