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The Orthodox Church is the Church of the Resurrection. This is our message to the people. The fullness of our faith is that Christ rose from the dead. The apostle Paul said that if Christ has not risen, our preaching and faith are in vain. Assumption is so important feast for us, because we believe that Mary ascended from earth to heaven and so did her divine son. This is the foundation of our faith and our expectations.

What is the role of the Church in this difficult economic period? How does it help the people who need support?

The reason for everything that is happening is that people do not believe in God. States’ heads in the world are not believers. Justice and love for people in their countries are not in their inner feelings. The people who are elected heads of state today are not doing it to serve their people and to sacrifice for them, but for the opposite: to gain strength, popularity, money and decide the fate of people without any sense of justice. Things would have been quite different if these people are keeping God's message to love our neighbour, to sacrifice for him to give him anything we can. Then, we would not witness all these economic games, "battles" for power, imposition of political will and violation of state sovereignty.

Greece also is in this position because it did not do well. We did not learn to be prudent. The people from the first church fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. Moreover, I mean that they did not eat at all and they gave the poor the money they saved. Who is doing this today? We have so many examples in the history of the people and church that can help us today but we left them aside.
 
And what have we achieved? Instead of getting free, we are becoming increasingly bound. We got so much money and there is no result. None of us, and I mean both ordinary people and churchmen, did not sit down to consider what should be done. We are fighting every day to have more and more goods of which there is no need. This boundless prosperity leads to these results, with which we are unable to cope. Thus, while claiming that we believe we become atheists in fact.

We have a God who has given us His teaching about how to live, but we left His gospel aside. And it is not too hard to remember the Great Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoevsky. People would have crucified Jesus again with great ease, because he does not satisfy their interests. We have learned to be people of interest. If we can exist with five pairs of pants, why should we have 15 in our wardrobes?

The Church is also part of this secular situation because it is composed of people. But the essence of the struggle is to be able to change this way of things. However, the Church must fulfill its duty and it is communicating the message of the resurrection. The truth is that God fed people first, and then taught them.

Today, the Church provides ten thousand free lunches for the homeless and people who need help only in the region of Attica. Their number is fifty thousand across the country. We also provide financial assistance to people to pay their bills for electricity or phone, medicines, clothing and tutouring to children, for treatment in hospitals, to release people from detention because some were detained for amounts like 100, 200 or 1,000 euro. The Church seeks to "cure" these cases and people provide for the resources when it does not avail the necessary funds.

The "bet" is to understand the message of Jesus in our lives because if we can reach it we will become much better people and live much better. There are people who have nothing, but because they believe in God, they really have anything, as odd as it may seem. Because Jesus is everything and when we believe, we will be able to find the things we need.

Today, there are many people begging outside, with closed stores. Our greed made them more than needed. We wanted plenty of everything. The abundance of food brought us a bunch of diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol. If we fasted during Lent, we would have none of that.

We see that luxury cars are sold at very low prices, but nobody wants to buy because gasoline is expensive, the tax is high, maintenance costs are high. It is not possible not to recall the words of the preacher Kozmas Etolos that "the time will come when you will have everything and you will be not able to get it." And all this happens because we are away from God and His teachings.

What is the attitude of the Church to cremation?

They say we should burn the dead bodies because cemeteries are full and there is no place elsewhere. But here's a big difference between other religions and beliefs. The Orthodox Church does not use the term "cemetery" but "kimitirio" ("the place of the dead"), because people are sleeping there until the resurrection when God will come to judge them. Therefore, our problem lies in the fact that we have lost our faith even for this. The world is huge, but we are unable to find a place to put our sleeping brothers and sisters. And this is because we forgot that the Orthodox faith is faith in the resurrection. We believe in it, not in death.

Some say that cremation is more civilized and correct manner. They argue that ancient Greeks and other ancient peoples burned their dead. However, I would like to add something. The ancient Greeks and other nations burned the dead after they indulged the honours imposed in that era. Then, they gathered the remains of their bodies, put them in special places and worshiped them.