Chișinău, Moldova, December 14, 2023
Photo: teologie.md
The rite of returning to the Orthodox Church was recently celebrated at the Academy of Orthodox Theology of Moldova for people who repented of apostasy.
The service was celebrated for people who had left the Church for Baptist and Pentecostal groups but later renounced their heresies and submitted petitions to return home to the Orthodox Church, the Academy reports.
Fr. Octavian Solomon, head of the Department of Missionary Guidance and Sectology, and several students of the Academy celebrated the rite, which includes the renunciation of heresy and the renewal of grace through a second Chrismation.
“We joyfully welcome these returns to the faith and encourage all those who want to follow the example of these Christians to contact the missionary priests of our institution for preliminary catechesis,” the Academy writes.
Catechism topics include the veneration of angels, saints, and icons, the name of God, the relationship between Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of Christ in Scripture, the commemoration of the departed, the state of the soul after death, the Christian as a theanthropic institution, the work of the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments of the Church, infant Baptism, and more.
OrthoChristian has reported on several such services in Moscow, most recently in December 2021.
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