Title: The mission of our Church clergy in relation to Orthodox Romanians’ migration
Author: † His Grace Emilian (Nică), Bishop of Crișan, Vicar of the
Archdiocese of Arad
Abstract: Grija Bisericii Ortodoxe Române pentru credincioșii plecați din țară s-a concretizat în organizarea de parohii și eparhii, cu păstori care slujesc cu multă jertfelnicie românii stabiliți în străinătate. Românii au prins rădăcini în diferite țări, iar episcopii și preoții au organizat parohii unde se desfășoară activități pastoralmisionare, cultural-educaționale și social-filantropice. De aceea, Patriarhia Română prin Sfântul Sinod a proclamat anul 2021, „Anul omagial al pastorației românilor din afara României”, în semn de apreciere a eforturilor românilor (clerici și mireni) în mărturisirea credinței ortodoxe și păstrarea identității românești în toate dimensiunile ei, dar și pentru dinamizarea legăturilor între românii de acasă și cei plecați peste hotare.
Keywords: Orthodox Church, Romanian diaspora, eparchies, hierarchs, priests, mission, migrants
Summary: During history people migrated from an area to another, from a country to another, due to diverse motifs and on diverse purposes. The migration of the Orthodox Romanians started after the year 1990 and is has increased especially after Romanian has entered the European Union (2007), so that, according to the statistics, there are five millions Romanians in diaspora. The Orthodox Church’s care for the believers who left Romania it has been concretized in organizing parishes and eparchies, with shepherds who are serving the Romanians who has settled down abroad, with a great spirit of sacrifice. The Romanians rooted themselves in diverse countries, and the bishops and the priests organized parishes where are being developed pastoral-missionary, cultural-educational, and social-philanthropic activities. Consequently, the Romanian Patriarchy through the Holy Synod it has proclaimed the year 2021 as “The Homage Year of the Pastoration of the Romanian from outside Romania”, as sign of appreciation of the Romanian’s efforts (clerics and laymen) for confessing the Orthodox faith and for preserving their Romanian identity in all of its dimensions, and also for stimulating the connections between the Romanians from home and the ones who left for living abroad. Our Church’s servants haven’t an easy mission. The hierarchs and the priests from abroad they apply missionary means adequate to a pastoration aiming the Romanians coming from diverse provinces of Romania and who live and work in diverse social environments. The Romanians from diaspora they have also other expectations from the priests, and the shepherd must correspond to some complex requests from the believers. The communication means are very useful to the priest for an efficient mission and they are very useful to the believers too. Thus, we aim to develop this theme, having the experience of serving the Romanian parochial communities from other countries, formulating, in the same time, pastoral-missionary strategies which to be practical and bringing good results.
† Emilian Crișanul (Vlad Nică) – Episcop-vicar al Arhiepiscopiei Aradului, conf. univ.
dr. titular la Facultatea de Teologie Ortodoxă din Craiova, conf. univ. dr. habil. la Facultatea de
Teologie Ortodoxă „Ilarion V. Felea” din Arad; e-mail: psemilianrm@yahoo.com
