Orthodox Christians take part in Father’s Day Celebrations at Minsk

Report Prepared for OCP Media Network – June 2014

On June 15 Orthodox Christians in Minsk (Belarus) took part in the celebration of the international Father’s Day. This holiday, which is celebrated on the third Sunday of June in more than 50 countries of the world, is nowadays only gaining popularity in Belarus.

The celebrations were held on the scene in front of the Orthodox Book Centre in Minsk. Among the participants there were the children amateur talent groups and, of course, fathers, who came to enjoy the kids’ performance together with the members of their families.

The idea of organizing the concert was brought by the head of the project “School Fathership” and the associate professor in the Belarusian State University Sergei Kirpich. He has been giving thematic classes in the Orthodox Book Centre for fathers and for the men who will become parents in the near future for already more than a year.
Sergei Kirpich believes that the restoring of the authority of the traditional family is the essential factor of solving social and economic problems in an appropriate and effective way.

He explains: “The history of the humanity is unthinkable without the idea of a family. Family is the first school of conscientiousness, sacrifice, devotion to God and to other people. Today we don’t have the right hierarchy in our families, the idea of fatherhood has been damaged and dragged through the mud. We break the essential Christian commandments. And if we won’t obey the Scripture, we will not live happily. Fatherhood, motherhood and childhood must be more important than investments, modernizations and innovations. Only by having a mature spiritual and moral position and a right understanding of what a family is we can solve social and economic issues of our life in an appropriate, productive and effective way”.

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