June 30, 2009
Washington D.C.: Temperance Day in Washington

After the Slavonic Liturgy on June 28, two individuals who have dedicated their lives to serving alcholics and drug addicts, spoke in the refectory of Washington 's Cathedral Church of St. John the Baptist.

The first presentation was made by Fr. Vadim Arefiev, founder and director of the House of Industry in Brooklyn, NY, an Orthodox benevolent organization established according to the principles set down by St. John of Kronstadt, who had opened similar Houses and Temperance Societies in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Since 2004, Fr. Vadim and his faithful assistants have regularly been doing the prayer rule together with the homeless and alcoholics in the most awful dens of iniquity of Brighton Beach .

In December 2004 these workers used their own personal resources to open a chapel and a site for the House of Industry on First Street in Brighton Beach.

The House of Industry functions under strict rules that help those being cared for along every step of their path toward getting on their feet. The House affords them the opportunity to acquire peace in their souls and helps them to achieve sobriety.

After Fr. Vadim Arefiev's vivid presentation, L.I. Gordeeva, a psychologist and coordinator of social programs in Estonia for the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations gave a talk.  Liudmila Ivanovna is also director of the Loska Social Rehabilitation Center for drug addicts and alcoholics, attached to the Church of St. John of Kronstadt.

As though they had coordinated their remarks, Liudmila Ivanovna and Priest Vadim Arefiev both emphasized that “what is impossible for man, is possible for God.”  If one is honest with himself, and truly strives after healing, he will come to Christ and His Church.  Turning to Orthodoxy, which has God-given experience in doing battle with evil (with sin, with the passions), is the only thing that can help the suffering soul find the strength to find salvation.  Deliberate, conscious participation in the Church Mysteries, personal effort in prayer and obedience are not temporary replacements for narcotics, but rather are involvement with and communion in true spiritual life.  The question becomes not merely one of change, but of new life, life with a new purpose.

Each of these spiritual strugglers, one in America, and the other in Estonia, are firmly convinced of the importance of fighting to heal and save every single individual, for according to St. John of Kronstadt, there is nothing more precious than the soul: “The whole world is not as precious as one single soul, for the world passes away, while the soul is immortal, and remains unto the ages.”

The parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist donated $5000.00 to the good works of both charitable organizations.

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese