This is a glorious presentation!

Having seen the disastrous consequences of ‘Gay Pride’ on free speech and civilized society in the United States, other nations with more Orthodox Christians are taking note, and taking action.

Thousands of anti-gay protesters, including Orthodox priests, occupied a central street in Georgia’s capital Friday, with some threatening to lash with stinging nettles any participant in a gay pride parade which was to take place there.

Police in Tbilisi guarded several dozen gay activists and bused them out of the city center shortly after they arrived at the gathering. Those occupying the street held posters reading

“We don’t need Sodom and Gomorrah!”

and

“Democracy does not equal immorality!”

Police, however, failed to prevent scuffles, which resulted in 16 people getting injured, the ambulance service said. A number of protesters carrying bunches of stinging nettles threatened to use them on gay activists. They insist that homosexuality runs against Georgia’s traditional Orthodox Christian values.

Read more here.

“Even a year or two ago, only a few people could have imagined that Patriarch Kirill would visit China, that it would not be just a private visit, but it would be a semi-official visit, which would take place at such a high level – the highest state level,”

the metropolitan told the Voice of Russia radio station. Patriarch Kirill was the first Christian faith leader to meet with the head of China, he said.

“A year ago, no one could have thought that religious services would be conducted in Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai, especially in Shanghai’s Church of the Mother of God the Surety of Sinners, which had not been used for religious services for almost 50 years. In my opinion, this visit has exceeded even the most ambitious expectations in many ways,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.

However, there is still a great deal to do to bring the life of the Orthodox Church in China back to normal, he said.

The Russian Orthodox Church will conduct this work in close cooperation with the Chinese authorities and China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs.

Metropolitan Hilarion described the main task as securing the ordination of Chinese priests and resuming religious services at churches that still function as lay churches, he said.

“Our church is Orthodox. It must have priests. We will not be satisfied until all churches in China have priests,” Metropolitan Hilarion said. “The Chinese Orthodox Church is “not some foreign church structure, but it is a national church, which was established certainly with the help of Russian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, and became a national church in the 18th century.”

“The Orthodox Church of China is not some project imposed on us from outside. It was born in the depth of the Chinese Orthodox community, which is small, but is strongly committed to its faith. And I hope that this understanding will keep growing from now one,” the metropolitan said.

Source: Interfax

By Bishop Benjamin (Milov) of Saratov and Balashov (+1955)

A HOLY SATURDAY SERMON

Perhaps, beloved brethren, it would be better to keep silence, because the Holy Church today sings:

“Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and in fear and trembling stand, rendering nothing earthly-mined. For the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, comes to be slain, to give Himself as food to the faithful!” (from the Holy Saturday service).

Perhaps it would be better today to recall our sins, to know ourselves and remain silent. But our soul dares to speak and today it dares to tell you something.

Now we must remind you about something and let you know beforehand that all of us are treasures, bought by the precious blood of our Savior. We must remember that this evening or, more accurately, tonight, the Lord will draw nigh the Kingdom of God to our souls, draw it nigh as never before.

This century is a century of extreme malice, envy, self-love, a century of the tumultuous outpouring of passion. All of this, in this great, holy night, loses its power: malice grows quiet, envy ceases to corrode the soul, pride disappears, human passions are blunted, and our hearts are filled with unspeakable spiritual joy, delight, and exultation. This joy comes not because it is joyful in church; not because there will be many people; but because the Lord draws His Kingdom nigh to us, grants us His grace with an especially generous hand.

You see, when someone is in church he is calm and joyful, but arriving home, he is again immersed in the mire of everyday worries and troubles, losing this joy. Sinful feelings awaken in him anew, and he begins to lead his former life.

How do we lose the grace received on such a great day? The Lord Himself said:

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares (Luke 21:34).

Arriving home we will, as usual, break the fast. Normally we break the fast not only with the body, but with the soul as well. One loses oneself in food, forgetting everything, growing satiated. As a result of this one becomes inclined to sleep, carnal thoughts weigh one down, and one often suffers a fall, or is overtaken by a heavy, dark sleep, which poisons all the joy of Christ’s Resurrection. One becomes heavy, too lazy to do anything, even to think.

Therefore, that the joy of the feast not be taken away from us, let us be moderate in food, striving to keep ourselves hale and hearty as long as we can.

Our feast is normally not without wine. Under the guise of taking refreshment, people drink to one another and get drunk with various drinks. From excessive consumption of wine one becomes unbridled, more daring in one’s actions and, under the influence of wine, performs no small amount of foolishness, for which reason the Apostle Paul says:

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18).

Nowadays not only adults, but even children drink. Today it is considered normal, and even necessary, to give wine to young children. Not knowing limits, adults themselves drink wine with a child and laugh if someone gets this young person drunk. By so doing they divert this child from Christ, Who died and suffered for this child. The Lord Himself said:

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea (Mt 18:6).

For it is a great sin to defile an innocent young soul.

So one must be moderate in wine, and not allow children to drink it.

Then the Lord said we should not let earthly sorrow weigh down our hearts. People return home from church in an elevated, compunctious mood. But, finding oneself among an unbelieving family, one becomes upset and, offended by one’s family members, one loses that joyful feeling, a sense of burning resentment accumulates in one’s soul, and one cries bitter tears. These tears, which so gush forth from one’s eyes, cast a shadow over the soul and remove joy from the heart.

On such a day, if one has such trouble on one’s soul, sorrow over earthly needs, one should not cry, one should hide this woe in one’s heart and remain silent, so as not to disturb the general delight and exultation.

One can also ascribe to earthly sorrows conversations about earthly needs, which in the long run lead to condemnation. These conversations are especially lively during Paschal greetings. Fulfilling the law of politeness, people make unnecessary visits to one another, visiting and conversing with people they perhaps not only do not like, but even hate. These visits are of absolutely no benefit whatsoever, these official visits are simply a formality, a relic of antiquity, which are long overdo to be done away with. To the contrary, one needs to find the sort of person who can, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, rekindle our heart, who can plant a good seed, bring benefit to our soul.

So let our hearts be filled with spiritual delight, radiant joy, and quiet calm in this holy night. May they not grow cold, but be burning lamps, for the Paschal night, like no other night, revives man.

Let us be moderate in food and drink, let us set our mouth not to speak idle words and judgments, and then our souls will be blessed with Christ, to Whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

 HT: Pravmir

Source

This original lithographed edition was digitally photographed on November 22, 2011 at the library of Beijing Normal University. Digitization project coordinated by the Orthodox Brotherhood of Saints Apostles Peter and Paul in Hong Kong. The chopmark on the title page is stamped in Chinese: Beiping Furen University/Library Collection, and in English: Catholic University of Peiping, which operated under that name during the period 1925-1950 in Beijing before shortly thereafter relocating to Taipei, Taiwan.

Underwritten by the Orthodox Brotherhood of Saints Apostles Peter and Paul in Hong Kong, the electronic text of the Psalter as translated into Mandarin Chinese by Bp Innokenty of Beijing and published by the Russian Mission (Beiguan) in 1910 is now being made available at http://orthodox.cn/bible/psalter/1910/.

All modern Chinese liturgical translation being prepared for SS Peter & Paul parish in Hong Kong or for OFASC, that quotes or alludes to the Psalter are requested to be replaced with Bp Innokenty’s translation. Harmonization of terminology with the liturgical and the psalter text can then be performed. For resolution of any internal inconsistency of terminology, Bp Innokenty’s translation takes precedence. Revision of Bp Innokenty’s translation of the psalter text itself may be proposed if a balanced improvement can be achieved across the areas of modern comprehension, readability, chantability and accuracy in meaning to the original Greek.

Bp Innokenty’s translation of the Psalter is missing Ps 85:4 LXX which is now reconstructed using his translation of terminology and phrases of this verse that appeared in other parts of the Psalter, and the beginning verses of this Psalm which was originally mis-numbered is now fixed. To assist in finding where terms or phrases from this verse appear in other part of Psalter, unbound.biola.edu is used to search the Greek LXX and Russian Synodal versions. Two different translations of the word soul which appear twice within this verse is reconstructed following the precedent of the earlier 1879 Chinese Orthodox Psalter.

Volunteers are needed to proofread carefully the word document against the scanned page images, and submit any corrections to mitrophan@orthodox.cn.

Source

On May 12, 2013, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had a talk with Chinese believers at the Russian Embassy in Beijing.

The Primate of the Russian Church had met many of them before when he visited China as chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations. He reminded his audience of the words Matron Van Lin Ju had said as far back as 2001 about the need to resume church life.

Addressing the audience, His Holiness said:

‘I meet you, my dear ones, with a special feeling. All of you will be certainly mentioned in the history of the Church. You have performed a feat, having no priests and even sometimes having no hope. But still you have preserved the Orthodox faith. Today we are together witnesses to great changes in the life of China and in the life of Russia. It has led to the fact that for the first time in history, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia could pray together with you in the very place where the Albazians used to live, in the territory of the Russian Orthodox Mission. Low bow to you for your efforts, faith and hope which you have preserved in your hearts.

Today, together with the Russian Ambassador A. Denisov, we came up to the cross I consecrated in 2001 when we first met. And I said to Mr Ambassador that since that time the territory has changed. The trees have grown. And then I thought it was not only the trees that have grown but also many things have changed. The church of the Assumption has been restored. There are opportunities now for me to come to pray together with you. Today two Chinese students attend our theological schools, one in St. Petersburg and another in Moscow. They wish to become priests. I hope more people wishing to become priests will come. I very much hope that the parishes of the Chinese Orthodox Church will be granted registration, and at some moment there will be a Chinese bishop, so that the Chinese Orthodox Church could have a full life, could herself ordain her priests, organize places for worship and preach the gospel.

Well, for the present when there are still no such things, the Russian Church and the Patriarch personally are responsible before God and history and all of you for the fate of Chinese Orthodoxy. Therefore, all that happens in the life of Orthodox Chinese is very dear to my heart.

I was very happy today when I saw you all at the service and could pray together with you. I was glad I had an opportunity for lifting up prayers for the Chinese people and those who have been affected by the flood. I believe that the Lord helps those who suffer.

I also prayed for China and Russia and our relations, so that there could always be friendship, mutual aid and support between the two countries. Today, our friendship is of a global importance because the two great countries, China and Russia, are sovereign, independent and have their own position and support each other including in the international arena.

Chinese people keep appearing in Russia. Nowadays there are many of them as people come to work. And in China, too, there are many Russians. There are very intensive exchanges between the two countries. God willing, it all will promote the welfare of our peoples’.

Matron Van Lin Ju, in her turn, shared her memories of the meeting that took place in 2001.

‘I remember very well that on the 1^st of November, when over a hundred Chinese came to meet you, it was a cold day; it was snowing. And now, twelve years later, you have come here again, and we are very glad you did. We love China and Russia and, certainly we will preserve our Orthodox faith. Your Holiness, you have come to China; you have met the PRC’ Chairman Xi Jinping. It gives us a great hope for the bright future of Orthodoxy in China’. She quoted China’s Chairman’s words that every Chinese should have a Chinese dream. ‘And my dream as a Chinese Orthodox woman is that Beijing become a place where we could pray, celebrate the Orthodox liturgy, have our own Chinese clergy and normal religious life. It is my Chinese dream’.

Speaking in response, Patriarch Kirill said,

‘You spoke about the Orthodox Chinese dream. Everything begins with a dream and then people try to do something that will make this dream come true. It is called a project. And when a project is realized, the dream is manifested in reality. Your dream seems to reach the stage of project because there are very kind intentions shown by the Chinese authorities. The signs of this good attitude to the Chinese Orthodox Christians are my visit to China and the study of Chinese young people in Moscow. Therefore I believe we have a dream, on one hand, and have already begun creating a project of the bright future for the Chinese Orthodox Church’. His Holiness also noted that he was glad to see representatives of the younger generation of Chinese Orthodox Christians.’

The Chinese who spoke at the meeting told that the history of their families was strongly intertwined with the history of Orthodoxy in China. Among them was the elder daughter of the last cleric of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church, Archpriest Alexander De, who was ordained as priest by the head of the 20^th Russian Orthodox Mission in China, Archbishop Victor of Beijing and China in the early 1950s. She said how her father felt keenly for the fact that no priest would remain in China after him.

Patriarch Kirill underscored the importance of having Chinese clergy in the country.

‘Then it would be possible to obtain an official registration of the parishes, and they will exist officially. I very much hope that the number of Orthodox clergy will grow, thus normalizing the life of the Chinese Church’, he said.

His Holiness also expressed hope that a group of Chinese Orthodox Christians will soon be able to make a pilgrimage to Russia.

‘I will always be happy to meet with you’, he said.

Source

Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has said his government will debate legislation to ban abortion. The announcement follows an appeal by the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church for the procedure to be made illegal in the small country, according to a Radio Free Europe report.

In his Easter Sunday address, Patriarch Ilia II called abortion

“the heinous murder of an innocent creature committed with the decision and intent of parents,”

according to Civil.ge. 

“A doctor is a direct accomplice to this crime as well. This merciless murder of infants still continues unhindered and there is no one to protect them – neither the state nor the society,” the Georgian Patriarch said. 

In a plea to parents, the Patriarch said,

“Those who do not want to give birth to a child for economic reasons… please do not commit this terrible sin; if you cannot afford raising children, the Church will take care of them.” 

“Abortion has been banned since ancient times,” the Patriarch noted in his address, “but as in various other countries, abortion is legalized and even encouraged via mass media and liberal ideology.”

He also said abortion needed to be restricted because of the country’s below-replacement-level birth rate. 

“Today, when there is so grave a demographic situation, we think that the state must adopt relevant laws to ban abortion,” he said. 

Prime Minister Ivanishvili said the Patriarch’s assessment of Georgia’s demographic problems was correct, but added that improving social and economic conditions for the average Georgian family could also decrease the number of abortions. 

“Only this issue [an anti-abortion law] cannot solve this problem. In order [to tackle] the demographic problem it first and foremost needs economic development… there are other issues as well, but I think that the major factor is revenue for the families,” Ivanishvili said, adding, “Families should have more opportunities, they have to live better, and the state should take care of them.”

The chairman of the parliament’s Health and Social Protection Committee, Dmitri Khundadze, told journalists that he favors banning sex-selective abortions but believes an outright abortion ban may increase back-alley abortions. 

“This is an issue which requires a cautious approach. I think that sex-selective abortions, which account for 30% of all abortions in Georgia, should be banned,”

MP Khundadze said on May 6. 

“But I think that an outright ban of abortion is inadvisable, because it may lead to an increase in unregistered abortions and an increase in newborn mortality rate,” he said. 

In 2009, Patriarch Ilia II sparked a baby boom in the country by promising to personally baptize any baby whose parents already had two or more children. 

“The results have been,” in the words of the Georgian Orthodox Church, “a miracle,” with the country’s birth rate increasing by nearly 20% during 2008. 

The head of Georgia’s civil registry, Giorgi Vashadze, told the BBC that the jump from 48,000 births in 2007 to 57,000 in 2008 could be explained in part by the Patriarch’s incentive, but also by the rise in average household incomes. 

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili publicly stated that the patriarch deserves much of the credit for the rising birth rate, which was 25 percent higher in 2010 than in 2005, and which Saakashvili said is helping the government achieve its five year plan of increasing the aging nation’s population from 4.5 million to 5 million by 2015. 

“This will help raise the birth rate,” Saakashvili said. “The patriarch has already taken steps in this direction. We should be thankful to him for continually reminding the Georgian people that we should multiply.”

Source

For my Orthodox spiritual children, my heterodox friends, or non-Christians in general, what do you fill your senses with?

News? War? Violence? Fear? Abortion? Porn?

Do you think that affects you? Then enjoy this excellent presentation which, I assure you, you will not consider a waste of your time.

by Fr. Lawrence Farley

I am a giant fan of Fr. Lawrence’s writings, and this blog entry is no exception.

At the end of October in 1840, the celebrated author Hans Christian Andersen (famous for his fairy tales) left his native Denmark for an extended trip in the east. He wrote about his travels in his book A Poet’s Bazaar: a Journey to Greece, Turkey and Up the Danube. Andersen was an experienced traveller, who had visited Italy some years before. In his latest memoir, he compared his experiences of Easter in both Rome and Greece in the following words:

“The Catholic Easter in Italy, especially in Rome, is wonderful, fascinating! It is an uplifting sight on the vast square of St. Peter’s to see the whole throng of people sink to their knees and receive the Blessing. The Easter Festival in poor Greece cannot be celebrated with such splendor. But having seen both, one comes to the conclusion that in Rome it is a festival which, in its splendor and glory, comes out of the Church to the people; whereas in Greece it is a festival which flows out from the hearts and minds of the people—from their whole way of life—and the Church is only one link, one strand.”

Sometimes outsiders can see with greater clarity and objectivity than insiders can, and I think that in this case the non-Catholic and non-Orthodox Andersen was onto the something. Andersen appreciated both the Catholic and the Orthodox Paschal celebrations, but he thought that the Catholic one

“came out of the Church to the people”,

whereas the Orthodox one

“flowed out from the hearts and minds of the people”.

In other words, both Easter festivals were like the churches which celebrated them, the Catholic Easter manifesting the clericalism which characterized the Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Pascha manifesting the popular spirit which characterizes Orthodoxy. In the Orthodox Church, Pascha

“flows out from the hearts of the people”.

Clergy are involved, of course, since they too are part of the holy laos, but Pascha is primarily the people’s Pascha.

This popular spirit of Pascha reveals something fundamental about the Church’s life, namely the reality that St. Paul calls

“the koinonia of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 13:14, Phil. 2:1).

The Greek term koinonia eludes easy translation. It is sharing, fellowship, joint participation, communion, an experience of the Spirit which is shared by all the faithful and which binds all of them together. In Phil. 2:1 St. Paul groups it together with “encouragement in Christ”, “incentive of love”, and “affection and sympathy” as inspirations and reasons for maintaining unity within the local church.

This is why it is so important for a community to travel together, with a sense of mutual belonging. We define ourselves not just in terms of our relationship to Christ, but also in terms of our relationship with one another; we serve Christ as our Lord, but as members of a particular community, as fellow-communicants with Sam and Suzy and Vladimir and Antonios whom we see at the Chalice every Sunday.

It is as a community that we journey through Lent; it is as a community that we experience the power and intensity of Holy Week. It is as this same community that we finally arrive together at our Paschal goal. Our weekly Sunday attendance at Liturgy and our annual experience of Great Lent and Holy Week all combine to meld us into one body, allowing us to experience the koinonia of the Spirit, and it is as this united body that we experience Pascha.

Pascha

“flows out from the hearts of the people”

as Andersen noted because the koinonia of the Spirit has knit our hearts into one. The priest prays for this at the conclusion of every Anaphora:

“grant that with one mouth and one heart we may praise Your all-honourable and majestic Name”.

After Holy Week has come to its climactic conclusion on the following Sunday, this prayer is abundantly answered, as the people’s Pascha flows out from this one heart.

Andersen saw this when he visited “poor Greece” well over a century ago. It can be seen even today in Orthodox parishes throughout the world.

Source

by Anthony Bradley

How the push to be ‘radical’ and ‘missional’ discourages ordinary people from doing ordinary things to the glory of God

A few days ago on Facebook and Twitter I made the following observation:

Being a “radical,” “missional,” Christian is slowly becoming the “new legalism.” We need more ordinary God and people lovers (Matt 22:36-40).

This observation was the result of long conversation with a student who was wrestling with what to do with his life given all of the opportunities he had available to him. To my surprise, my comment exploded over the internet with dozens and dozens of people sharing the comment and sending me personal correspondence. Today’s Millennial generation is being fed the message that if they don’t do something extraordinary in this life they are wasting their gifts and potential.

The sad result is that many young adults feel ashamed if they “settle” into ordinary jobs, get married early and start families, live in small towns, or as 1 Thess 4:11 says,

“aspire to live quietly, and to mind [their] affairs, and to work with [their] hands.”

For too many Millennials their greatest fear in this life is being an ordinary person with a non-glamorous job, living in the suburbs, and having nothing spectacular to boast about.

Here are a few thoughts on how we got here:

(1) Anti-Suburban Christianity. In the 1970s and 1980s the children and older grandchildren of the Builder generation (born 1901 between 1920) sorted themselves and headed to the suburbs to raise their children in safety, comfort, and material ease. And, taking a cue from the Baby Boomer parents (born between 1946 and 1964) to despise the contexts that provided them advantages, Millennials (born between 1977 and 1995) now have a disdain for America’s suburbs. This despising of suburban life has been inadvertently encouraged by well-intentioned religious leaders inviting people to move to neglected cities to make a difference, because, after all, the Apostle Paul did his work primarily in cities, cities are important, and cities are the final destination of the Kingdom of God. They were told thatGod loves cities and they should too. The unfortunate message became that you cannot live a meaningful Christian life in the suburbs.

(2) Missional Narcissism. There are many churches that are committed to being what is called missional. This term is used to describe a church community where people see themselves as missionaries in local communities. A missional church has been defined, as “a theologically-formed, Gospel-centered, Spirit-empowered, united community of believers who seek to faithfully incarnate the purposes of Christ for the glory of God,” says Scott Thomas on the Acts 29 Network. The problem is that this push for local missionaries coincided with the narcissism epidemic we are facing in America, especially with the Millennial generation. As a result, living out one’s faith became narrowly celebratory only when done in a unique and special way, a “missional” way. Getting married and having children early, getting a job, saving and investing, being a good citizen, loving one’s neighbor, and the like, no longer qualify as virtuous. One has to be involved in arts and social justice activities—even if justice is pursued without sound economics or social teaching. I actually know of a couple who were being so “missional” that they decided to not procreate for the sake of taking care of orphans.

To make matters worse, some religious leaders have added a new category to Christianity called “radical Christianity” in an effort to trade-off suburban Christianity for mission. This movement is based on a book by David Platt and is fashioned around “an idea that we were created for far more than a nice, comfortable Christian spin on the American dream. An idea that we were created to follow One who demands radical risk and promises radical reward.” Again, this was a well-intentioned attempt to address lukewarm Christians in the suburbs but because it is primarily reactionary, and does not provide a positive construction for the good life from God’s perspective, it misses “radical” ideas in Jesus’ own teachings like “love.”

The combination of anti-suburbanism with new categories like “missional” and “radical” has positioned a generation of youth and young adults to experience an intense amount of shame for simply being ordinary Christians who desire to love God and love their neighbors (Matt 22:36-40). In fact, missional, radical Christianity could easily be called “the new legalism.” A few decades ago, an entire generation of Baby Boomers walked away from traditional churches to escape the legalistic moralism of “being good” but what their Millennial children received in exchange, in an individualistic American Christian culture, was shamed-driven pressure to be awesome and extraordinary young adults expected to tangibly make a difference in the world immediately. But this cycle of reaction and counter-reaction, inaugurated by the Baby Boomers, does not seem to be producing faithful young adults. Instead, many are simply burning out.

Why is Christ’s command to love God and neighbor not enough for these leaders? Maybe Christians are simply to pursue living well and invite others to do so according to how God has ordered the universe. An emphasis on human flourishing, ours and others, becomes important because it characterizes by a holistic concern for the spiritual, moral, physical, economic, material, political, psychological, and social context necessary for human beings to live according to their design. What if youth and youth adults were simply encouraged live in pursuit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, education, wonder, beauty, glory, creativity, and worship in a world marred by sin, as Abraham Kuyper encourages in the book Wisdom and Wonder. No shame, no pressure to be awesome, no expectations of fame but simply following the call to be men and women of virtue and inviting their friends and neighbors to do the same in every area of life.

It is unclear how Millennials will respond to the “new legalism” but it may explain the trend of young Christians leaving the church after age 15 currently at a rate of 60 percent. Being a Christian in a shame-driven “missional,” “radical” church does not sound like rest for the weary. Perhaps the best antidote to these pendulum swings and fads is simply to recover an mature understanding of vocation so that youth and youth adults understand that they can make important contributions to human flourishing in any sphere of life because there are no little people or insignificant callings in the Kingdom.

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