Winning with God’s Help; Archpriest Seraphim Nedosekin on Confessing the Faith in Soviet Times

Pravoslavie ^ | 1/25/21 | Olga Orlova

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The St. George the Victory-Bearer Church on Poklonnaya Gora is associated with military glory, and this year it celebrated many significant events, including the 75th anniversary of Victory in WWII and the 25th anniversary of the building of the Church of St. George to commemorate this victory. Moreover, this year the church’s priest, Seraphim Nedosekin, celebrated his milestone birthday. In our interview, we asked him how these Heavenly and earthly Christian warriors can help us overcome the problems of this world.

Just desire to serve God, and God will take care of everything

—Fr. Seraphim, are there any stories in your family history that show how with God’s help people of the twenthieth century managed to withstand persecution, just as the early Christians and St. George the Victory Bearer faced the challenges that God chose to give them?

—Upon hearing God’s call, all Christians will follow their hearts and answer His call. These opportunities to confess our faith are presented to us all the time. Even the recent history of our Church has plenty of examples of people confessing the faith and suffering martyrdom for the sake of God. We have a multitude of new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church who are praying for us, that we would remain steadfast in the Truth.

Just like them before us, we view the deeds of Great Martyr St George the Victory-Bearer as a vivid example of confessing Christ. St. George was only 18 years old when he embraced the Gospel verse, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn. 15:13). This is what this is all about—no matter what path a Christian chooses in this world.

One of our relatives, my grandfather Parmen’s grand uncle, was a schema-archimandrite. He was one.......

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