“It is time to draw closer to one another, so that common prayer and active love may prepare the way for communion and unity within our ancestral Church,” Metropolitan Antonie said on Monday as the Metropolis of Bessarabia marked 34 years since its reactivation.
Metropolitan Antonie celebrated a Te Deum service at the Metropolitan Chapel of St John the Theologian in Chișinău.
The anniversary recalled the decision of the Diocesan Assembly held in Chișinău on 14 September 1992, when participating clergy and laity decided to reactivate the historic Metropolis of Bessarabia.
Metropolitan Antonie recalled the period of Soviet persecution and the efforts of those who preserved the faith and their connection with the Romanian Orthodox Church. His Eminence noted that the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church described the reactivation of the Metropolis of Bessarabia as “a sacred act of truth and justice”.
“We honour the members of the 1992 Diocesan Assembly and all those who served this cause, sharing the same apostolic faith, the same Romanian heritage and the same calling to holiness.”
The faith we have received must bear fruit
The Metropolitan of Bessarabia emphasised that the anniversary should not remain merely a commemoration of the past, but should become a call to continue the work begun by previous generations.
“They guarded the faith unaltered during persecution; it is given to us to make it bear fruit in a time of freedom. They endured the closing of churches; we are called to fill the reopened places of worship with prayer and to draw near, with one mind, to the Holy Chalice.”
“We truly honour their sacrifice when we order our own lives according to the faith they defended at the cost of blood. The continuation of their work has been entrusted to us,” His Eminence said.
Call for reconciliation and unity
Metropolitan Antonie emphasised the need to overcome divisions and for brothers to draw closer to one another.
“We also bring before God the pain of division between brothers, asking Him for the wisdom to bear witness to the truth with greater gentleness and for the strength to seek reconciliation.”
“After so many decades of estrangement and division, the wounds of the past need to be healed,” His Eminence emphasised.
Metropolitan Antonie also said that “love for our nation is lived out through care for those beside us, thereby fulfilling the commandment to love our neighbour. Let this be the measure of our brotherhood: how much of our neighbour’s suffering we are prepared to bear.”
Fr Petru Buburuz, who participated in the 1992 Diocesan Assembly, then recalled the circumstances surrounding the reactivation of the Metropolis of Bessarabia and the aspirations of those involved.
At the end of the commemoration, Metropolitan Antonie, accompanied by clergy and faithful, went to the monument to the Holy Prince Stephen the Great in central Chișinău, where he laid flowers in gratitude to their forebears.
Photo: Metropolis of Bessarabia
