The phone rings, a woman's voice is on the receiver: - Father, my brother died unbaptized, 64 years old. He needs to be buried, but where he lived, the priest won’t give him the “earth grass”, he swears that they didn’t call him in time, and he drove his relatives out of the church. And my mother is already 86, she is very grieving, I’m afraid that she herself will die. Help me out, dear, give us “land”, I feel sorry for my mother. It's not her fault that this happened. He would have been baptized then, as a child, but there was no church nearby. And when he grew up, he became a communist. He did not recognize God and refused to be baptized. But, father, he was a good man, even a very good one. So why not sing the funeral service for him? After all, it happens that you perform a funeral service for such worthless people only because they were baptized once in childhood, but you don’t agree with my brother, so at least give me a “country land.” I didn’t argue with her, how could I convince her? Her confidence that this “countrywoman” would help - even if not her brother, but at least her mother - was unshakable. Eh, if the funeral service I performed saved the human soul, then I would probably just do the funeral service and the funeral service. And the unbaptized, and suicides, and everyone in a row, just to save them from suffering. Only it is not the priest who saves, nor the “countrywoman”, it is Christ who saves. For the sake of this salvation, a person joins the Church through baptism. Just what, is it really enough to save the soul like this, one day in deep childhood - to be brought to church by your mother? The man was baptized as a baby, and then, after the life he had lived, they brought everything to the same temple in the same way, but only for the funeral service. What's between these two events? Well, maybe a person went into church and lit a candle for God, and maybe not just one, but many candles: “Lord, give me what I ask, and I will light candles for you for it, many candles!” Once in my childhood, I bargained with Him in exactly the same way before entering the plane for the first time: “Lord, I’ll light you two candles, Just let me fly safely,” and when they began to take off, I was so ready to “fork out the money.” "and by three... As if our Lord, like a sweet tooth with sweets, is "overeating" - less often with wax, and more and more with cheap paraffin sticks. Funny. Now, if from the time when the same person was baptized as a baby, and then the funeral service was performed for adults, nothing else connected him with God, then, honestly, people are wasting their energy, their nerves, and their money in vain. Even if a person was good, but far from Christ, he is not saved, and no “countrywoman” will help here, even if there is a rash of buckets of it. Reading the lives of the saints, I noticed: many saints never had time to receive water baptism. When would they have done this if they were executed immediately after confessing their faith before their persecutors? They say about such people that they are baptized in blood. Instead of being baptized with water and the Spirit, they were baptized with blood and the Spirit. For ancient Christians, dying for their faith was as natural as living in it. We call such people martyrs, or witnesses, witnesses of the faith. Their willingness to endure suffering and accept death rather than renounce Christ testified to the fact that without faith, earthly life itself lost all meaning for them... I wonder, do we today understand what we are doing when we baptize our children or are baptized ourselves? Are we able to stand up for our faith to the end, or is this just a game of tradition for us? Of course, someone will say: - So excuse me, what does this have to do with it? We, thank God, already live in the 21st century, and this savagery is a thing of the past. But who in the early nineties would have thought that in just a few years, executions of Christians would begin on a scale unprecedented in the history of mankind, and even with torture, as in the Middle Ages? In my understanding, baptism for an adult is the crossing of a certain spiritual Rubicon, after which there is no turning back. After baptism, much of what you did before should be forgotten, and now you need to live - according to Christ! During baptism, I always invite the godparents to “blow and spit” on Satan. This sentence almost invariably makes people, if not laugh, then at least smile. But blowing is the most common exorcist technique even in ancient times! I remember how I baptized a young woman at one time. The three of us were in the temple, me, her and her friend. So, when I blew on her, her knees gave way and she began to lose consciousness. After we brought her to her senses, I blew twice more, and each time she fainted... And somehow, before spitting on Satan, one student, who had been preparing for baptism for a long time, suddenly completely seriously and declares: “Maybe you shouldn’t spit on him?” Why should I ruin my relationship with him? It was the first time I encountered a person who thought like that. And I immediately remembered a joke... Do you remember how your grandmother lit a candle in front of the icon of St. George the Victorious? To George - a candle, and to a snake, the old woman invariably showed a fig. And so, in a dream she sees a snake, and he says: “Nothing, grandma, I’ll wait a little longer, and then we’ll get even.” Since then, the grandmother has already placed two candles in front of the icon: in front of the saint, and in front of the serpent, just in case... During baptism, a person devotes himself or his child to the service of Good, and renounces evil forever. Although, who knows... One day after the service, two women approach the pulpit, one holding a child in her arms: - Father, baptize our baby, the “grandmother” does not accept us without baptism. I answer: “Do you understand what you are asking me?” We will baptize the child, dedicate him to God, and you will immediately take him to the fortuneteller? I won’t baptize a child for a witch! “How evil you are, father,” one of the women replies. - Is “grandmother” kind? Why not “help” an unbaptized child? She doesn’t need a child, she needs to mock a shrine! So much for “spitting” in the opposite direction. A Russian woman turns to me: “Could you baptize a child from a Muslim family?” My parents are Tajiks, we work here for a living. A child has been born and they want to baptize him. I answer: - Of course, you can, but why? We will baptize the girl and give her up to be raised by non-Christian parents, and who will then teach her the faith? Time will pass, and no one will remember that she was baptized! After all, we must baptize children from believing families. And parents are obliged to teach their children the faith, raise them on the basis of the commandments, and most importantly, give their children communion. And the more often, the better. If you don’t do any of this, then there is no need to baptize children. Sometimes in families themselves there is no agreement between parents on the issue of baptism. It seems to me that in this case there is no need for the other parent to rush and secretly baptize the child. You cannot begin the education of a future Christian with deception. Today there is no persecution; when he grows up, he will decide for himself. Everything will depend on the same Christian mother, whether she will be able to raise a child so that the child follows in her footsteps... Before baptism, once a week, I hold a meeting with those who are going to baptize children. I remember a couple of young parents came. I tell them about their responsibilities for Christian education: “We need to go to church more often,” I say. And they report to me that mommy can’t stand in church, she faints, and daddy doesn’t wear a cross, he strangles him. Here, such a damaged generation... Or the incident with the godmother. Before the baptism, I saw that the godmother had a lot of pendants hanging around her neck, but there was no cross. I wonder: - Where is your cross? - Father, I don’t wear it, forgive me generously, but it’s choking me. That's it, godmother! People don’t understand what a heavy cross they put on their shoulders when becoming godparents. You haven’t raised your child in the faith yet, and you’re already taking responsibility for someone else’s. Can you handle it? If you don’t at least pray for your godson, then the time will come when you will answer for your rash words. No one is forcing you to become a godfather. .. Promise God, and then obviously not fulfill what was promised - why? Sometimes Catholics and even Muslims are invited as godparents. I ask: “Would a Catholic teach your son Orthodoxy, much less a Muslim?” “Father, this is my business partner, it would be good for me to become related to him for business,” and he tries to sneak a penny in unnoticed. And one day, they bring their godfather to baptism. A young man in shorts, a stale T-shirt and sandals on his bare feet. True, there is a corresponding chain and a golden cross around my neck - a little smaller than my pectoral! I ask my parents: - Well, for such an important moment you haven’t found anyone more decent? The godfather heard and exploded. He swears and waves a thieves' finger in front of my nose. I turn to my parents again: “And is such a godfather really suitable for you?” They quietly said to me: “Father, cross him, he doesn’t have a lot of money.” It's clear. If you need it, take it. I don’t argue with my parents in such cases, why? Should I remake them? They will only get angry. Let life teach... Sometimes people cannot overcome themselves and share communion with everyone. “I’ll start picking up all kinds of infection from everyone’s mouths, there’s no point, we’ll get by, they say... I myself am a squeamish person by nature, and I will never eat in a cafe or canteen from a plate used by someone and a spoon licked by someone.” I won’t swear, I’ll just go and wash... And in church I give everyone communion with one spoon. And not only that, but after everyone else, I consume everything that remains in the bowl after the service. I wash the vessels and spoon with boiling water, and, again, I don’t pour all this water, but into myself. Nothing, not even the smallest drop of shrine, should be lost! And if people cannot imagine the state of health of those who came to receive communion, then I can imagine it very well. Today, a person’s path to church increasingly lies through illness and suffering. After all those suffering from oncology, AIDS, and hepatitis, the priest is the last to consume the gifts. And I don’t know of a single case when any of us, priests and clergy, fell ill. And if this were not so, the all-powerful SES (sanitary and epidemiological stations) would have “smeared” our last churches in the Soviet years, when they were looking for any clue to find an excuse. And all because the Holy Gifts, having an earthly nature, upon consecration begin to obey heavenly laws, and all that evil that falls from us into the Chalice immediately ceases to exist! Often people are concerned: - How should we dress when going to baptism? I always answer: “Dress decently, and as best as you can.” I never chase away women wearing pants. I remember talking to one girl. And it turns out that she no longer has a skirt in her wardrobe, as such! It’s okay, whoever decides to stay in the temple will eventually sew a skirt for himself, but there is no need to force anyone, Christ never acted through violence (with rare exceptions). For some reason, we have a common idea that in church the most important thing for a woman is to have a scarf on her head. Look, summer residents come in during the summer, and instead of a scarf, they cover the crown of the head with a handkerchief. It’s like the top of a woman’s head is the most seductive place for a man. Such a beauty in a miniskirt with a scarf on her head will stand in front of the icon, pray, and a fan will lay down. And where should all the men standing behind her put their eyes? It’s only the saints who don’t see anything, but we sinners notice everything... And instead of praying, the male half begins to get angry... For a woman to cover herself means not to pay attention to herself, especially male, and not only cover the head with something... Look how we depict the Most Holy Mother of God on the icons. This is how women dressed in Her time: simply, and at the same time majestic... Sometimes I hear the following question: - Father, how often should you go to church for services, and will it be enough to come once a month, or, after all, Should I check in more often? I don’t know what to answer. A believer is always drawn to church; he cannot bear being without the house of God... And then, we must begin Sunday day with prayer in church. For what? Yes, it’s very simple, after two hours in the temple you will go out into the world for a whole week, and what kind of Christian you really are will manifest itself outside the temple walls. At church we are all friendly, welcoming, smiling and loving to each other. And in the world we are who we are. So, in order to have the strength to be a Christian, we need to breathe in the sanctity during these two Sunday hours, otherwise, where will we get the strength? A woman of about forty is crying in the temple: “Something is happening to my daughter, when she issued herself a passport in a different name, that’s how it all started.” She became impudent, disobedient, smokes, and does not come home on time. Father, maybe let's cross her, maybe she will become a kind and loving girl again? “Eh, mother,” I think, “if everything were so simple, then we would probably do just that... They only baptize a person once, and then teach him to be a Human, and begin their studies immediately upon birth and without interruption from mother's faith and mother's prayer. We talked to her and told her about what I’m telling you now. He sympathized with the mother: “Now I wish you courage, strength and love for your daughter to overcome what she herself raised in her.” - Father, no one ever told me anything about this. If I had known this then, immediately after baptism, then everything would be different with my daughter now! So I’m telling you... Priest Alexander Dyachenk
Not all saints were perceived as saints during their lifetime; not all of them were authorities for everyone during their lifetime. The most striking example: robbers broke into the cell of Seraphim of Sarov and beat him. It would seem that Seraphim of Sarov! The robbers should have felt his holiness, but they didn’t...
You can be a serious spiritual authority, but there are people for whom there are simply no authorities. Neither Father Eli (Nozdrin), nor Father Ephraim of Vatopedi, nor other famous elders will give them anything - he has this attitude towards them: “come on, come on, tell me something, I’ll look at you, what you are like.” there is an old man." But when a person comes, as you said, to a young hieromonk or to a priest who graduated from seminary yesterday, with faith and hope, then through this young hieromonk the Lord will reveal His will, with such an attitude the person receives answers to all his questions, completely regardless of Despite the fact that this priest graduated yesterday (or maybe he hasn’t even finished seminary yet - he’s studying in the correspondence sector), the priest (I’ll say it exaggeratedly) is only a conductor between man and God - not a priest, an elder or a young hieromonk, answering questions. Coming to a priest, a person comes to talk with God, and through this guide, good or not, wants to hear an answer. But conductivity depends not only on the conductor, but also on the one who perceives (sorry, I may be trying to explain in some primitive categories, so that it is clear). The result also depends on who came with the question. You can come to the elder with a question and leave with nothing - you asked without trusting this person; or you can come to a young hieromonk, and if you ask with faith and hope, the answer will be given to you from the Lord, and you will receive everything you ask.
You know, sometimes I can even ask the cleaning lady a question: “Aunt Dusya, what do you think?” And Aunt Dusya suddenly answers surprisingly... Why? But because this question is a hard-won one, and I, so to speak, turn to God through Aunt Dusya - and He answers through her lips.
Yes, of course, the elders are people filled with great wisdom, and not book wisdom, not thrown on themselves from someone else’s shoulder, but hard-earned, passed through a person’s heart. Spiritual people, even sometimes through their silence, are able to inspire and correct the life of those who come to them.
But, I will repeat once again that there is absolutely no need to rely on the elders (as everyone says now: “Where can we get the elders? Give us the elders”). Believe me, both a young priest and a young hieromonk will answer your questions if you see a servant of God in him, and not because he is young, has a beard this way or that, whether he shaves or doesn’t shave.
To measure spirituality by beard or age, or thickness or height, this is, to put it mildly, wrong. Therefore, trust not in age, not in beard and thickness, but trust that this is a priest.
This is not the first time for Archimandrite Dimitri (Baibakov) to take up complex projects. He created the Soyuz TV channel from scratch.
A seven-story building has risen in the Lechebny microdistrict - near the church of the healer Panteleimon. Despite the fact that the educational institution operates at the temple, it will be a secular secondary school, the priest who built it promises. Doctors at the mental hospital located next door behind the fence have already diagnosed him.
The hefty seven-story red brick building looks expensive and impressive. The area of 7,000 square meters will house a kindergarten, school, gym and swimming pool. All this was built by a priest - Archimandrite Dimitri (Baibakov). By training, he is a psychiatrist: in his youth he was a practicing doctor - he worked in the regional psychiatric hospital located nearby until he found himself in ministry. The temple of the healer Panteleimon, created by him, at first huddled in this hospital, in a small room that was adapted as a church.
There is now a legend about how the construction of the new brick temple began. “One day Father Dimitri came into the staff room and said: “We decided to build a temple,” Svetlana Ladina, editor of the Orthodox TV channel Soyuz, told URA.Ru. - The doctors asked him: “Have you found a rich sponsor?”, to which he replied: “No, we will do it with the help of the parishioners.” After this, fellow psychiatrists quickly gave him a “diagnosis.”
However, surprisingly, things worked out. “Where the bell tower is now, there was a small clearing,” says the priest. “We found her with the hospital administration and began to settle in.” And in 23 years they became so settled that they built a temple, a baptismal building and a church house, in which there is a library and a Sunday school.”. Along with the buildings, the parish grew, not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively - there were more and more parishioners with children, large families.
“From the city center, my family and I went to the Panteleimon Church, on the eighth kilometer of the Siberian Highway, with small children in our arms on public transport. There was an amazing family atmosphere there.", recalls Svetlana Ladina.
“On Sundays, the church began to turn into a kindergarten: there were many more children than adults,” recalls Father Dimitri. “I’m a monk myself and I’m wary of children because I don’t know how to handle them.” But something needs to be done with them! And so we decided to continue our complex of buildings and build an educational center, which would include a kindergarten and a school.”
The center took seven years to build. “We rely exclusively on donations - we have no sponsors or benefactors”, says the monk. And explains:
“It’s one thing when you take money from the budget and use it, it’s another thing when you build for yourself: you get completely different prices. Therefore, I will not say how much a square meter cost me. If someone finds out, they’ll just come and shoot me, because such prices don’t exist.”
The building is designed for five groups of kindergarten and 11 grades. Baibakov assures that it will be ordinary, general education - with mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and so on. At the same time, icons and lamps hang in the classroom and in the corridor.
Now one kindergarten group and a first grade have been recruited, in which there are only 15 people so far (the classroom is designed for 25 students). “The education of children has not yet been documented in any way,” the priest admits, “that’s why we don’t advertise the educational institution. But we will receive all the documents". Father is confident that he will be able to license the school, citing his experience in obtaining licenses for television broadcasting (he launched the Soyuz TV channel in Yekaterinburg).
During a tour of the school, Father Dimitri admits that he personally planned the building. It consists of three blocks standing in a “cascade” so that the school does not “crush” the temple. “I myself am an architect, a planner, and a designer,” says the priest. “I even designed the cabinets in the classroom myself so that everything would be in color.”. A gym is currently being completed in the first block (it should be launched in November), and a swimming pool will eventually appear in the third block.
Good teachers with 30 years of experience were hired to teach the children. “You can’t call them grandmothers, but they are very experienced teachers”, says Father Dimitri. And the school, and the children's, and development groups - all services are paid. Baibakov’s assistants refused to name the exact cost of training, noting only that it was low - within a few thousand rubles, in order to “recoup” the cost of training.
According to people around the priest, neither the temple nor the school really had any rich sponsor - they collected everything “on a pretty penny.” Colleagues see the secret to the success of his projects in something else. “This is a man who is surrounded by miracles,” says Svetlana Ladina . - But I want to be understood correctly: he never pretended to be a miracle worker, it’s just that the Lord, seeing that he was doing the right things, sent him his help. First he created an Orthodox newspaper, then the “Resurrection” radio channel, then the “Soyuz” TV channel. It is known that in the midst of construction, Father Dimitri, in order to pay off the builders, sold his apartment.”
There is no doubt that the private school of Archimandrite Dimitry Baibakov will be in demand - his temple has long become a kind of cultural center of the microdistrict. “There are a lot of people here who come from the villages of Tubsanatorium, Mental Hospital, Medical, from cottages in the area,” says physical education teacher Olga Reshetkina . - All these children study with us, plus children come from the city. There is forest all around, fresh air, its own well, a separate territory. We think there will be more and more children.”
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Everyone who knows him, both friends and enemies, agree on one thing: he is a professional, and a professional with a capital P. Over ten years of work, literally out of the blue, he managed to create one of the largest media holdings in the Urals. This is a 24-hour radio channel, three newspapers, a magazine, two daily updated websites and a publishing house that owns three printing houses. Three daily and three weekly television programs are broadcast. More than seventy videos have been made. The total circulation of printed books exceeded several million, but none of this personally belongs to him and cannot belong to him. Because he is a monk, and renunciation of property is one of the vows that monks take during tonsure. Everything he did belongs to the Church and the people.
The future abbot Dimitri was born in the small town of Talitsa, in the Sverdlovsk region. This is the outback, where children still say hello to everyone they meet, and the doors of houses remain open until late at night. When he later enters medical school, he will be given one point in the competition for being from a rural area. His parents are simple people. Mom is an accountant, dad is a carpenter. From childhood, they instilled in their son the habit of work, patience and perseverance. Already from the second grade, little Dima, unexpectedly for everyone around him, began to show a serious (as far as possible for a seven-year-old boy) interest in chemistry. He very quickly became friends with teacher Tamara Dmitrievna, and soon became a regular in the school laboratory: here he was given books with different formulas to look at and allowed to be present during experiments. But they were still not allowed to work with reagents. Therefore, Dima spent the practical part of his classes in a secluded place with medications purchased at the pharmacy. He crushed the medicines, mixed them, dissolved them in water, carefully observing the changes. The results of the experiments were carefully recorded in a notebook.
In the fifth grade, he won the Chemistry Olympiad among high school students, after which he deservedly received the nickname Mendeleev. Time passed. Over the years, the appetite for discovery has only increased. Due to his interest in the unknown and secret, Dima developed a new hobby: microbiology. Now it could be found in the bacteriological laboratory of the local sanitary and epidemiological station or the infectious diseases department of the district hospital.
And there was also a great love for Alla Borisovna Pugacheva and her songs. Because of which he once left home. And of course, the divine thunderous Yevtushenko. Then it was simply impossible to get his poetry collections in Talitsa. And Dima had to go to the library, where he took photocopies of Yevtushenko’s books in the reading room and carefully copied his favorite poems into large 96-page notebooks. He generously shared his hobbies with his classmates. Dima studied well, and as was customary in those days, he was an October student, a pioneer and a Komsomol member. He joined the Komsomol out of conviction, because he believed (read Ostrovsky’s novel “How the Steel Was Tempered”) this organization was an association of advanced Soviet youth, to which, not without reason, he included himself. Having become the deputy secretary of the Komsomol organization of the school for ideological work, he began to study atheistic literature and the works of V.I. Lenin. Sincere conviction in the correctness of the teachers of communism and a strong desire to understand the surrounding reality through their works (which was vital for Dima, since he was already fifteen years old) played a cruel joke on him. The teachers' criticism of the Holy Scripture turned out to be completely unscientific, superficial, and most importantly, impenetrably stupid. As a person familiar with the principles of Marxism-Leninism, he, without any doubt, decided to turn to the primary sources. To do this, Dima went to the oldest church of Peter and Paul in Talitsa in order to take the Gospel from the priest. The temple, despite any political cataclysms, never closed, and was popular in certain uninformed circles of society. He went there in great fear, since he firmly remembered that in the Soviet Union the Church was separated from the state. And having crossed the threshold of the church fence, he suddenly clearly realized that his native state was left behind him and he was in some strange unknown place. The realization of this was so strong that he turned around and rushed back. This time the Soviet state won. But not for long.
The love for truth turned out to be stronger. After some time, Dima came to the temple again. And he talked to the priest, who, after listening carefully, handed him a Bible, which his mother later found and took to the district party committee. Where she was also listened to attentively and a case was immediately opened about church propaganda among young people. A scandal arose, after which the priest was forced to leave their small town. But that was a completely different story. The main thing happened. Dima touched, studied, tried with his own hands what did not belong to the Soviet state. What he touched belonged to eternity.
By the end of school, he knew exactly who he would be and what he wanted. But Dima wanted to become a doctor. And a military doctor. Why did I enter the Military Medical Academy twice? Each time he was missing one point, and in the end he became a student at the Sverdlovsk Medical Institute. By that time, Dima was a believer, went to church and had a spiritual father. Christianity and communism coexisted peacefully in his worldview for the time being. After all, who are Christians? The salt of the earth, and therefore the leading part of society. Who are the communists? (Read Ostrovsky's novel again). He sincerely thought that communism and Christianity were, if not twin brothers, then certainly relatives. Dima sincerely remained in this delusion until he joined the army and became a sailor on a nuclear submarine of the Northern Fleet.
Here, at a depth of several hundred meters, there was a parting with the childish naive world and illusions characteristic of young ardent natures. Shattered by the realities of adult Komsomol and party life, they quietly drowned at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Here, on the boat, he first encountered the insincerity and hypocrisy of loved ones. The most offensive thing is that these were good people whom he respected. But only party cards connected them with the ideals of communism. Because only holders of such tickets can be on a nuclear submarine. And these good, decent, honest and intelligent people had to be hypocrites. This brought such disharmony into the soul of the young sailor (an electrician of ship equipment, deputy secretary of the ship's Komsomol organization, awarded a diploma for conscientious study of the classics of Marxism-Leninism) that a year later he submitted an application for his resignation from the ranks of the Komsomol. It was Christmas '87. There was not much time left before M. Gorbachev’s speech at the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU.
The older comrades tried to reason with Dima. They said: “You believe in God, no one has anything against it, but why leave the Komsomol? Why ruin your career and spoil your biography? Why this pose, why this self-determination? After all, none of the sensible people believes in any kind of communism for a long time. And nothing – they live.” Well, how could he explain to them that he couldn’t live like that, that it was simply impossible to live by a lie?
He was successfully expelled from the Komsomol. Soon a dispatch came from the shore from the political department, saying that the sailor Dmitry Maksimovich Baibakov, as unreliable, should be written off to land in the very near future. But unexpectedly the entire crew stood up for Dima, from the cook to the ship’s commander. A report was filed asking that he be left on the boat. The crew took the rebel on bail. And he was left to serve.
When he returned to the institute, he began to work under the leadership of the future professor Alexander Sergeevich Grigoriev at the department of microbiology. Helping his teacher in his scientific works, he devoted his student work to the topic in which he was studying. He liked absolutely everything about the department. Dima spent a long time at work and in the end he was allowed to spend the night on the sofa in the hall. He brought a pillow from home and now could not leave the laboratory for days. And when he did leave, he went to the temple. Church of the Ascension. There Dima Baibakov became an altar boy. These are young guys who help the priest during services. After some time, a situation arose when it became simply physically impossible to combine work at the department of microbiology and work in the church. And it was necessary to choose. He chose the altar. Because there is a great mystery there, and God is there. And there, every time during the Liturgy, the heart is carried away into an unknown, supermundane reality. Which is true!
Two years later, the priests of Voznesenka invited him to take holy orders. Of course, he thought about it, as everyone who works in the church thinks. But I didn’t make any plans for this. Rather, he admitted that maybe someday, in some years, at a respectable, mature age. Soon after the reception with the Ruling Bishop, Archbishop Melchizedek, his ordination took place. He became a priest. Outwardly, the life of student Dmitry Baibakov has not changed at all. He spent the working week at the institute and only on Saturday and Sunday went to the village of Rudyanskoye, Sukholozhsky district, where he was appointed rector of the local parish. During their internship in psychiatry, students worked in a regional psychiatric hospital. Soon the doctors learned that there was a priest among them. They brought this priest to the head physician and asked if it was possible to open a temple or at least a prayer room in the hospital. Soon the first hospital church in Yekaterinburg was opened there, and Fr. Demetrius was appointed its rector. It was September '93. From that time until now he has served there.
(End to follow)
Search the scriptures
Konstantin Korepanov, teacher at the missionary institute, YekaterinburgAbout the attitude towards authority We continue our conversations on the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans. Let's turn to chapter 13. In its first part, the apostle provides a rationale for the Church’s attitude towards state power. This passage, out of context, is very well known, people constantly refer to it - the relationship between the Church and the state
TV channel "Soyuz"
Beginning in No. 4 (757) January 31, 2014 will mark 9 years since the first Orthodox TV channel in Russia “Soyuz” went on air. The word goes to his audience. Happy birthday to Soyuz TV channel! My favorite channel, I watch you with the greatest desire. Educational and educational programs. I learn a lot about the joy of life and Orthodoxy. I enjoy watching Conversations with Father. People really need you
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Dmitry Maksimovich Baibakov was born into a large family in Talitsa city. His grandmother baptized him (in honor of Saint Dimitry Prilutsky), parents were unbelievers.
“For me, the path to God was a search for Truth. Reading atheistic literature, I saw flaws in the criticism of the Gospel, but my knowledge was not enough. I went to the priest in the church to ask him to read the original source - the Gospel. But the first time I was afraid to go into church. Approaching the church fence, I remembered that according to the Constitution, the church is separated from the state, and I could not understand where I would end up if I left the state. In Soviet times, in my opinion, it was much easier to come to God than now.
In the Soviet Union, from kindergarten they taught to be hardworking, honest, kind, to love the Motherland, and these are all Christian values, the authorities raised a Christian, a Christian without Christ. It is no secret that the commandments of the builder of communism are copied from the 10 commandments of Christ. That system brought up a harmonious personality. In my head, the Komsomol and God combined very harmoniously at that time. The “Komsomol Charter” contains a fight against religious prejudices, but the Church always fights against religious prejudices.
The Komsomol is the vanguard of youth, but Christians are also the vanguard of humanity. Unfortunately, today in Russia there is no unified education system - at school it’s one thing, in the family another, on the street something else... Instead of a coherent worldview, you get okroshka, it tears your soul into pieces. Today in society, in my opinion, we have two healthy education systems left: the church and the army.”
After graduating from school and serving in the army, Dmitry Baibakov continued his studies, while simultaneously serving as an altar boy in the newly opened Church of the Ascension of the Lord. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1992, while still a student. And in September 1993 the story began Temple of the Healer Panteleimon – "the temple that he built father Dimitri»
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This was the first in Yekaterinburg temple built at the hospital. At the Regional Psychiatric Hospital, where father Dimitri managed to work as a psychiatrist. The temple was built from scratch - they cleared a site in the forest, laid the foundation, and began laying brick walls. Temple of the Healer Panteleimon unique in many ways, including the fact that it is the only one in history Ekaterinburg a case when money for a temple was raised through a telethon.
“I studied at medical school because a doctor is the most humane profession, the most Christian of professions. I wanted to treat especially dangerous diseases, to be a microbiologist, an epidemiologist. But by the end of the institute, I was already serving in the temple, and I was faced with a choice: either the Temple or the department at the institute. I chose the Temple and, specializing in psychiatry, worked for a year and a half after studying in a regional psychiatric hospital.
The work of a doctor is a service, he must give himself completely, you cannot serve two masters. I chose the Temple again. The Lord sends signs to every person, whether the person believes in him or not, all the time; one must be able to hear them. A huge temple complex in a forest in a clearing - it was the will of God. If something doesn’t work out, then I don’t ask God for something specific. I ask not for what I want, but for the ability to understand what the Lord wants.”
Temple of the Healer Panteleimon- one of the important places of social service Ekaterinburg diocese. At the church there is the first Orthodox office in the region for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts; today there are more than ten such offices in the region; classes on the prevention of abortion are held here. The soup kitchen is open daily. But Father Dimitri has one more obedience: under his leadership, a unique church media holding for Russia was created in Yekaterinburg, which includes 3 newspapers, a printing house, a news agency, a book publishing house, a 24-hour radio station “Resurrection” and the first Orthodox TV channel in Russia “Soyuz”, with 24-hour broadcasting throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
“After the launch of the TV channel, we were strongly criticized: “You can’t do this, everything was not done according to the rules.” Although we already had a newspaper and radio, we did not know how to make television. But you can’t wait for “tomorrow” all your life, you have to do today what you can do today. Development will always continue. Using technical means to educate people is a good thing, I have been and will be a conductor of the will of God. There is no such church media holding anywhere, it’s not a matter of personality, there are a lot of talented people in the city. The Bolsheviks decided that Russia would end in Yekaterinburg, but the Lord commanded that a TV channel appear here.”
On air TV channel "Soyuz" religious programs do not make up the majority, but all programs are made on the basis of the Orthodox worldview. IN Yekaterinburg managed to create a new television: moral, educational, educational. Under the direction of Father Dimitri They accomplished the impossible: in a city of one and a half million people they found a frequency for broadcasting and launched round-the-clock broadcasting to the entire Northern Hemisphere of the Earth.
“Now, after a while, we can admit: having no means, no experience, no knowledge, creating practically from scratch something that never existed - Orthodox television - was only possible with faith and prayers, feeling the support of the Orthodox. Every show TV channel "Soyuz" accompanied by a ticker - donate 100 rubles to our TV channel. This is people's television. Viewers like our channel so much and the number of our viewers is such that we have enough money to broadcast halfway around the world. We keep in close contact with the audience, asking them what they like and what they don’t like. Communication with the viewer is varied - telephone calls, e-mail, forum, pages on VKontakte, regular letters that I need to read, I need to understand what people think.”
From the outside it may seem that Yekaterinburg There are enough temples, but dispassionate statistics tell a different story.
"IN Yekaterinburg Now there are a little more than 50 churches, but 30 churches exist in adapted premises: in garages, in the hospital lobby... 50 thousand people - the maximum capacity of all Christian Temples is 1.5 million. Yekaterinburg. If we are talking about the need for moral education of people, then such a number of Temples is not enough. The ideal norm is: one Temple for 2000 - 5000 inhabitants, so that the priest-shepherd can educate and instruct parishioners.
We don’t need money from the state to build churches: we organize everything perfectly ourselves. Today, the main problem is land allotment - officials do not provide land for Temples. On the outskirts, in a vacant lot, we received land allotment for 8 years to build a Temple in honor of St. Luke. We have been collecting papers for another temple for 12 years! They never tell us: “No,” they tell us: “Bring another certificate.” But everything is God's will, temples in the Urals will be built."
In 1998 father Dimitri took monastic vows. This important event took place at the famous Ural shrine - miraculous Chimeevskaya icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary V Kurgan region.
“If I receive a blessing, I go to work. Without I want - I don’t want, I can - I can’t, if I’m in the mood - I’m not in the mood. Because I can’t do it any other way. I am a monk."
