Parkhomenko Konstantin Vladimirovich
1974
Russian Orthodox Church
Third generation of modernists
San: archpriest
Graduated: SPbDS, SPbDA
Taught at: SPbDS, Public Orthodox University, founded by Fr. Alexander Men
Organizations: Department for Social Ministry of the St. Petersburg Diocese, [Orthodox Youth, Torch (ecumenical group)
Press: Radio Teos, Grad Petrov (radio station), Radio Maria (radio station), Danilov Monastery (publishing house), Satis (publishing house), Nikeya (publishing house), Dar (publishing house), Kievan Rus (website), ABC of Faith (internet portal)
Direction: ecumenism
Modernism
(June 29, 1974 - ) - Russian propagandist of modernism.
influence
Among the Orthodox (they were a discovery - Ed.) - these are, perhaps, such authors as: Vladimir Lossky, Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, Protopresbyter Alexander Schmeman, Protopresbyter Nikolai Afanasyev, Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, S. Troitsky (“Christian Philosophy of Marriage”), Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy), Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky), Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern), Protopresbyter Vasily Zenkovsky, Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), Sergei Fudel, Ivan Ilyin, G.P. Fedotov. These are my favorite authors, meeting whom was a holiday... Of the Serbian ones, I love St. Nicholas (Velimirovich) and St. Justin (Popovich).
As for the non-Orthodox, there was only one name that was a shock and a find for me: Clive Staples Lewis. The first thing I read by him was “Letters of a Screwtape”[1].
Excerpts from the interview
Father Konstantin recalls that in childhood, his parents read books to him and his younger sister and generally paid a lot of attention to their education and upbringing. For this he is very grateful to his parents, because these works have borne their worthy fruits. As a result, Konstantin became a priest, and his sister became a musician-teacher of the highest category in Perm. But the most interesting thing about his childhood was that he loved books about Lenin, and who among the Soviet children did not love the kind and caring leader?
Now Archpriest Konstantin Parkhomenko is married, his family has five children, and they are also accustomed to reading and enlightenment. True, the priest himself admits that he protects them from low-quality literature.
It is also surprising that Constantine’s path to Orthodoxy passed through atheistic literature. One day he found a shelf of atheistic literature in the school library, which he began to read voraciously, and a different world opened up before him, because before that he had never read anything religious. Quotes from patristic books were commented on in a stupid and somehow funny way, so he got the impression that this atheistic literature did not fulfill its purpose at all, but, on the contrary, only made him fall in love with the Christian faith. And then he began to compile magnificent spiritual sayings.
hierarchy
In 1987 he believed in God. In 1989-1990, he helped in the restoration of the temple (Assumption Church) transferred to the Perm diocese and served as a sexton and psalm-reader. Since 1997 - reader of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. In 1999 he was ordained to the rank of deacon. He served in the Kazan Cathedral.
In 2000, he was ordained to the rank of presbyter and appointed rector of the Church of Sts. Konstantin and Elena in the village of Leninskoye (not far from Repino). In 2001, he was appointed full-time priest of the Cathedral in the Name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity of the Life Guards Izmailovsky Regiment. In 2010, he was elevated to the rank of archpriest.
Holy Gospel
However, the first Christian book was the Gospel. In 1988, his father brought the New Testament, given to him by the Perm Bishop Athanasius (Kudyuk), whom his father interviewed just before the holiday of the 1000th anniversary of Rus'.
Konstantin was so happy, he saw in her such wisdom that every person needs to know. As a seminarian, he gave this pocket book to his aunt, but she did not use it, then Konstantin asked for it back and gave her another Gospel. And he bound this one in velvet, stuck an icon on it, and now he always carries it with him to church services.
essays
- Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
The Sacrament of Entry into the Church / Preface. O. Vladimir Fedorov. - St. Petersburg. - M.: Publishing house "Neva"; Olma-Press, 2002. - 480 p. — ISBN 5-7654-2247-0. - Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
Meet Orthodoxy. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House “Neva”, 2002. - Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
Life written by hand. Diary of a St. Petersburg priest. - M.: Dar, 2009. - Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
Orthodoxy in detail. Answers to the most popular questions. - M.: Dar, Pravkniga, 2009. - Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
Creation of the world and man. - M.: Dar, 2010. - Parkhomenko, Konstantin O.;
Parkhomenko, Elizaveta. This is the inheritance from the Lord. Father and mother about raising their children. - M.: Nikea, 2021. - 320 p. — 5,000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-91761-549-3. - Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
Angels and demons. - M.: Nikeya, 2021. - 336 p. — 4,000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-91761-668-1. - Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
About miracles in the Bible and in our lives. Testimony of God's love. - M.: Nikea, 2021. - 272 p. — 4,000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-91761-622-3.
articles
- Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
Scandalous exhibition of Marat Gelman “Icons” // 2013. - April 3. (Speech in defense of the blasphemous exhibition.) - Parkhomenko, Konstantin o.
About the so-called female impurity // Website of priest Konstantin Parkhomenko. (Communion of the Holy Mysteries during the cleansing of female impurity.)
Konstantin Parkhomenko, “The ABC of Faith”
During his studies, he also takes on missionary obediences: giving talks on various religious topics in social societies for the disabled, police stations, libraries, etc.
Since 1995, Father Konstantin Parkhomenko has become the author and presenter of a number of Orthodox programs on the TEOS radio station. He was also the creator and then the head of the Orthodox youth.
If you start to figure out who Konstantin Parkhomenko is, ABC of Faith, his popular website, will help answer this question. He has to spend a lot of time and effort on writing a number of articles and books, lectures that literally introduce readers to the ABC of the Orthodox faith right from the beginning.
A series of video lectures have been filmed, conducted by Konstantin Parkhomenko. "The Old Testament" is one of his popular lectures and is often viewed by those interested in the topic. You really need to get acquainted with this material, because it is presented so vividly and very professionally.
Today Konstantin Parkhomenko is a priest who, among other things, heads the parish Sunday school for adults and children and the family sector of the St. Petersburg diocese.
writing work
The first book, or rather a collection of articles by Konstantin Parkhomenko, which grew into a book series called “The Sacrament of Entry into the Church,” was published in 2002.
Constantine wrote the book “The Possession and Expulsion of the Devil” together with his wife, who for him is not just an assistant, but an equal participant in his missionary work. He speaks very warmly and kindly about his wife Elizabeth. According to him, it is a great joy for him to see his like-minded person in her. She is an orientalist by training and is now receiving a second degree as a psychologist. She really needs this, since many parishioners of their church often need professional psychological help. The entire Sunday school, where conversations are held, and various projects also depend on Lisa.
Joint works
The first joint book of the Parkhomenko spouses is “On Prayer,” and now they are finishing work on a book that will talk about how to raise children in the Orthodox faith.
Konstantin Parkhomenko also published a book, “Life Written by Hand,” based on his personal diary. He believed that some impressions would be replaced by others and everything would be forgotten, so he began to write down everything that worried him, what he remembered, his thoughts and comments. This is how his diary was born - a collection of wise and intelligent thoughts.
Now Archpriest Konstantin Parkhomenko perceives his writing activity as if through the lens of a camera: give it to one, he will not take anything interesting, but the other will notice so many interesting things around that you will only be surprised.
“The sermon should not only be heard in the church”
St. Petersburg priest Konstantin Parkhomenko is well known as a tireless missionary preacher. Such fame was brought to the priest by his books, articles, sermons, radio broadcasts, speeches to various audiences and answers to questions through his website on the ABC of Faith portal. And Father Konstantin began missionary work long before he was ordained. About how, according to the covenant of the Apostle Paul, “to become all things to all people,” a conversation with Archpriest Konstantin Parkhomenko
, cleric of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in the settlement of the Izmailovsky Regiment in St. Petersburg.
– Father Konstantin, you became a missionary while still studying at the seminary.
What was your first missionary activity? This was in the 1990s. At that time there was an active development of the “missionary space”. Temples were restored, Orthodox magazines appeared and disappeared, Father Andrei Kuraev traveled around the country, whose books, while published on newsprint, were read to the core by us seminarians and were hotly discussed. And the theological academy received letters asking them to send a “lecturer” or a student to talk with... The audience was very diverse.
A real cultural phenomenon for St. Petersburg at that time was the creation of the center of Orthodox communication “Oko”. Meetings were held there every Sunday evening for over five years. More than a hundred were crammed into a room designed for 50 people. We invited believers and non-believers to talk and discuss. This discussion was sometimes quite heated. The democratic atmosphere (the listeners sat with a cup of tea in their hands) contributed to the fact that people who were still completely far from the faith and afraid to cross the threshold of the temple came to us. organized holidays, pilgrimages, excursions; For two years in a row we published the newspaper “Favor” (about a hundred issues were published), which became so popular among religious citizens that it was sold in the House of Books on Nevsky Prospekt...
– Do you think such centers and clubs are needed?
- Without a doubt! Thanks to the activities of our center, which invited people of different faiths and non-believers into its walls, an atmosphere of religious tolerance and cooperation between Christians was formed in St. Petersburg. A large number of people through our center found their way to the temple, bonds of friendship appeared between the listeners and even Christian families were created. I think it’s possible to create something similar at any parish. By the way, in St. Petersburg, in some parishes, such clubs still exist today.
– But where can we find presenters for such meetings, since priests are very busy?
– Each diocese should have its own missionary team (at the diocesan missionary department, for example). Missionaries may include both clergy and educated laymen. And the city should know (this must be reported) that such people exist. That they will come and hold a meeting, a debate, and answer questions.
If there is no such service in the diocese, it is realistic for any priest to create such a circle.
Personally, I have the contact information for several prominent St. Petersburg priests, and when a request comes in to come and speak, or to appear on a television talk show, or to do something similar, I call them and ask them to do it.
There is no doubt that every religious educational institution would be nice to have such a missionary “combat crew” of thoughtful and bright students who would be ready to come to a meeting with any audience. A kind of “professional missionaries”...
I want to emphasize this: not only a clergyman, but also any educated and zealous Christian can be a missionary. If the priest in the parish knows about such people (they themselves express their readiness to work in the missionary field), he will be able to involve them in various projects.
– For a very long time you collaborated with the famous Protestant radio “Teos” in St. Petersburg. How interesting and rewarding was this missionary experience?
– Radio station “Teos” in St. Petersburg began broadcasting in the early 1990s. This Protestant radio gave airtime to both Catholics and Orthodox Christians. And for us, Orthodox people, there was not even a question: to go to them on the radio or not to go. This is a real sermon for thousands of people, reaching a huge audience! We asked for a daily Orthodox program and other programs, and they gave us this time. Naturally, it's free. From 1995 to 2002, I hosted the “Orthodox Conversation” program, which ran every weekday. It was released on record, that is, I brought cassettes with the broadcasts made to the radio, and they were broadcast.
– What missionary effect did these programs have?
- Incredible! The Protestants said: “Well, if only they would listen to the Orthodox! They have the best passes." I only conducted an “Orthodox conversation.” Other Orthodox programs were prepared by other people, of whom I cannot but name Archimandrite Iannuariy (Ivliev), Archimandrite Augustine (Nikitin), Archpriest Boris Bezmenov, and Protodeacon Andrei Chizhov.
Here and there, but in St. Petersburg, no Protestant of the 1990s said that Orthodox Christians are stupid, dark, superstitious people. The love of Orthodox people for God, the exploits of saints, the grace of God pouring out through shrines, the support of the Mother of God - Protestants knew all this, because in their homes every morning the ringing of bells announced the broadcast of Orthodox broadcasts. I'm not even talking about the large number of conversions to Orthodoxy from Protestantism thanks to these programs.
In the early 2000s, the radio began to decline, and then some foreign mission bought it, and the Orthodox were removed from the radio.
– Were you not reproached for collaborating with Protestants?
– I will never betray this ministry of mine and will not say that it is better for the Orthodox not to contact Protestant radio. And other zealots reproached me a lot for such cooperation. I will say only one fact: when I became a priest, I performed the rite of joining Orthodoxy more than a hundred times. Both individuals and entire families converted to Orthodoxy. Many because they discovered Orthodoxy through Teos radio programs. Someone will say: couldn’t they have learned about Orthodoxy otherwise? But as? Protestant traditions and confessions are, in general, closed structures. Does our pious parishioner often read Protestant books and listen to Baptist sermons? So Baptists will not read lives and listen to recordings of the Orthodox liturgy. They boil in their own juice. And here, through the native Protestant radio, which sounded in many homes, the Orthodox word bursts in like a breath of fresh mountain air. There is something to think about and something to compare.
– What are the features of missionary activity in a modern metropolis?
– A village or provincial priest can always refer to his humble place: “What can I take from me? We live a different life in our village...” I do not agree with this formulation of the question, but as an argument for people it works. But the city priest has no right to be poorly educated and gray. The urban audience is a specific audience. Usually a high level of education, freedom in clothing, morals and behavior. Not taking this into account and not going to this audience armed with knowledge and disposed to benevolent openness means failing as a missionary. Let me give you an example. In our city there is a courtyard of a remote monastery. And so the monastery regularly sends hieromonks there. On a business trip of sorts. And a lot of misunderstandings occur between the city people who came to the temple and the visiting priests. For example, the priest expels from the temple those who are wearing makeup and those who come in “inappropriate form.” But people come to the temple to light a candle, write a note, seek advice after or before work!..
In some churches, they combat “inappropriate appearance” by placing a basket of scarves at the entrance. One can be put on the head, the second can be wrapped like a skirt around the waist. Personally, I am against such pious tricks. The church is not an ethnographic reserve or a theater. In the “game of dressing up” I see falsehood, but there should be no falsehood in the Church. I accept the traditional opinion that a woman in a temple should wear a skirt and her head should be covered. If the priest considers it important, even if he speaks about it from the pulpit (I myself don’t think it’s important enough to talk about it from the pulpit), but the temple should not be inaccessible to those who, for some reason, look different.
One more point: a priest, of course, first of all, must be a spiritual person, but he must also be a cultural person. It offends me when other priests poke at their parishioners.
Something else very important. As you know, in many cities there is a sad and incomprehensible tradition of closing the temple during the day “for drying”, “for cleaning”, etc. As a result, a person who wants to go to pray at the icon is deprived of this opportunity. I'm not even talking about the fact that modern people really need to talk with a priest. There may be a need to ask him about something, to share his misfortune or joy. In churches where several priests serve, it is very simple to organize everything; you just need to distribute which of the priests is on duty in the church on what days (this, for example, was done in our church - the Trinity Cathedral of the Izmailovsky Regiment). The priest performs divine services in the morning and evening, during the day he serves a prayer service, a memorial service, and performs baptism. And the rest of the day he is available for communication. But even if the priest serves alone in the temple (in large cities this is practically not the case), it is still possible to place a watchman in the temple, but the temple must be open during the day!
Oddly enough, Moscow, the most prosperous city in terms of the number of churches and priests, provides us with a sad example of closed churches. Patriarch Kirill spoke quite unequivocally on this matter at the Diocesan Meeting of the Moscow Diocese in 2009: “All churches should be open during daylight hours for everyone who wants to touch the shrines, and there should always be a priest on duty who can give an answer to anyone who comes to him about everything.” issues of spiritual life and salvation. It is in the church that people should receive answers to these questions, and not in underground passages and not at crossroads, where sectarians of all stripes carry out their soul-destroying work, trapping weak souls in their nets.”
– How much do modern technologies help a missionary in his work?
– Just as an excavator bucket is an extension of the human hand, and the wheels of a car are an extension of our legs, so technical innovations are only an extension of what a person is. Continuation and intensification, repeated concentration of fragile human efforts.
Hundreds of people will hear the sermon delivered in the church. They will hear it once, and then the surging impressions will wash it away. A sermon recorded on a tape recorder will serve for many years, and different generations of people will turn to it. And one person will be able to periodically listen to this sermon and discover something new and important for him.
This sermon will be heard from the player inside the car when the parishioner goes somewhere; the transcribed sermon can be published in the parish newspaper or posted on the priest’s website.
I touched on the topic of technical devices that help the work of a pastor and missionary in the article “Why does a pastor need his own website?”, so I will not repeat it.
– What topics are most relevant and important for preaching today? Which ones are most likely to touch the soul and heart of a person, contributing to his conversion to God?
– The topics are the same as a hundred and a thousand years ago. A person always remains a person, and everyone will be concerned about questions about God, man’s place in the Universe, eternity, love and suffering, etc. There will always be “damned” questions that will interest thinking people: why, if God is good, does He allow the innocent to suffer? How can we reconcile the existence of eternal torment with the idea of a merciful Heavenly Father? will the demons be saved? and so on.
Another thing is that each time requires its own reading of eternal topics and the formulation of answers to them. In this regard, I consider Patriarch Kirill, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), and Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev to be brilliant missionaries. Among the deceased are Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, Archpriest Alexander Men, Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann.
As for the missionary approach, I stand on the missionary platform of the great Paul: “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). The approach of the Apostle Paul is not an approach of denying everything that exists in the non-Christian world, but an approach of understanding and accepting the best and most valuable of all that has been created in this world. Let's say modern music. It can be branded as Satanism and thereby stand in opposition to the younger generation, or the same youth can be taught to see grains of Divine truth flickering in modern culture. And then music will not lead away from God, but will lead to God. A Christian, like a bee, must collect nectar from all the flowers growing in this world.
Addressing modern man, I say: “Faith will make your life immeasurably more beautiful. Agree that any knowledge (for example, our sense of beauty, the ability to hear poetry, etc.) does not impoverish us, but enriches us. So is faith. It allows a person to escape from the plane of our space and come into contact with other, heavenly, otherworldly spheres.”
I tell people: “There is God above everyone. Whether we believe in Him or not is our business. If we don’t believe it, it’s only worse for us. If we believe, we must decide what to call Him: Master (hence the word Lord)? The Almighty? Creator? The Great Unknown? Absolute? Christ offers something else: call Him Father, and call yourself His children. This is an incredible right, not given to anyone except Christians. A person receives the right to call himself a son, a daughter of God! Only Christ, the true Son of God, could grant us such a great and happy right - “to those who received Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12).”
Christ calls Himself the Light, the Way, the Truth... The Faith of Christ gives a person, disoriented, poking around like a blind kitten, among philosophies, ideas, the opportunity to come into contact with reality, which will answer all questions and give the soul what the soul is looking for, but without God to find cannot: a feeling of peace, joy, meaning. In this regard, the sacrament of baptism is called very aptly in the Church - the sacrament of enlightenment. For a Christian, blindness and confusion are replaced by sight and a gradual clarification of who we are, why we came to earth, how and why we need to live, where we go after death...
By the way, I will give good advice to missionaries: Take the time to carefully read and analyze the speeches of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. This is always a mission of the highest standard. Look how His Holiness builds his speech, addressing athletes, youth, politicians, scientists... (These speeches are available on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate.) Look how Patriarch Kirill holds himself on stage, on the pulpit, how he controls his voice, gestures. I am constantly enriched by missionary techniques and examples from these speeches.
Of the figures I know, I would very much like to see two textbooks on missionary writing written: from Patriarch Kirill and from Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev.
– What place do books, articles, and speeches by priests occupy in preaching and missionary work today? Isn't oral preaching in the temple enough?
- Not enough! Statistics say that two to three percent of Russians go to church and regularly take confession and communion. Despite the fact that the majority of Russians really call themselves believers. Why is this majority not in the temple? They don’t understand the meaning of church life, the importance of the sacraments, are they too lazy to work on themselves, to improve their lives? There are many reasons, but there is a fact: they are not in the temple. Can we leave these people without nourishment, without a word about God and truth? No. Therefore, I believe that the sermon should be heard not only in church, but also from the television screen, through radio broadcasts; There should preferably be a religious page in every magazine and every newspaper. And books about faith should be on the shelves along with secular literature.
Regarding the expansion of our preaching, I will say one more thing: Christ the Savior did not sit in one place and did not reason that if anyone needed it, they would come to listen. Christ constantly walked and moved in order to reach as many people as possible with His preaching. When there were many people, He entered the boat and slowly sailed along the shore, preaching to the people gathered on the shore. That is, according to Christ’s thought, the sermon should be as inclusive as possible! Modern media technologies serve exactly the same purpose.
– You also preach in book clubs, where intellectuals usually gather for discussions and debates. What are the features of working with such an audience?
– A missionary should not have the complex to say in response to a question in which he is not competent: I don’t know. A preacher who plunges into a discussion of any topic with aplomb looks stupid. I am competent in my field. But I can't know everything. By the way, smart people understand this very well and respect the intellectual humility of their interlocutor.
Some priests develop a strange complex. Apparently, under the influence of the fact that the old women listen to everything the priest says with the most tender look, nod and kiss the hand, some priests form the idea that everything they say is wisdom of the highest standard. It’s unpleasant to see a smug priest speaking outright nonsense with a smart look.
– What types of preaching are acceptable and acceptable today? How justified are the sermons at concerts that cause confusion among a number of believers?
– A missionary can use various forms and platforms for his preaching. Just as the Apostle Paul preached in the Athens Areopagus (in our understanding - the parliament building), in synagogues (heterodox churches and houses of worship), in squares (concert venues), among scribes and wise men (scientific communities), so a modern missionary must go there, where are the people to testify to the Truth!
In this regard, I am not against performances by His Holiness the Patriarch in giant concert halls. I know this offends some people. But the subjective opinion of someone is not the whole truth of Orthodoxy and a guideline in our activities. The benefits of such performances are much greater, a hundred times more, than the harm. Young people see that they are coming to them, they are extending their hand to them, they want to talk to them and they are ready to listen to them.
I also believe that speeches by clergy before concerts (in particular rock concerts) do more good than harm.
A missionary always takes risks. But his best defense will be love for the Lord and sincerity, and not trying to please everyone. The Apostle Paul advises his disciple the Apostle Timothy to avoid those who “know nothing, but are infected with a passion for competitions and contentious arguments, from which envy, strife, slander, and crafty suspicions arise”, to avoid empty disputes “between people of a damaged mind, alien to the truth, who think that godliness is for gain” (1 Tim. 6:4-5).
– Some priests are forced to combine serving God with work in the world in order to support their family. To what extent can such a situation be used for the mission?
– I am categorically against clergy working in secular jobs. Shepherding, preaching, prayer, and raising the educational level should completely occupy the priest. A priest should not have any other jobs (teacher of secular disciplines, paramedic, gas station worker), as is practiced abroad. To be a good doctor, a doctor must devote all his strength to professional improvement. The teacher is the same way. You can't do two things well!
What to do if you need to feed your family? I think the parish should make sure that the priest has something to feed his family, educate his children, and go on vacation.
If the parish is wealthy, the head of the parish, the rector, must provide sufficient salaries to all clergy. The other day I was talking with a reader at a St. Petersburg cathedral. He, a graduate of a theological academy, recently got married and needs money. The reader's salary is small. And so the abbot offers this reader to carry out construction work together with other workers and receive a second salary for this! I was amazed by this use of valuable footage. Is there no other obedience for a graduate of a theological academy than plastering and painting? You can give obedience to teach children and adults. Or take spiritual patronage over some school or college and entrust this reader to regularly hold meetings there; organize a youth missionary group at the parish, and so on and so forth.
If the parish is poor, assistance (like patronage) must be provided to it by rich parishes. At the diocesan level, all this must be decided, and the diocesan authorities must control these issues. So that it doesn’t turn out that rich churches don’t know where to spend the money (what else could they gild?), and poor parishes barely survive.
There are many other models, even one where willing parishioners contribute a tithe or other amount for the maintenance of the clergy.
The question of the most productive activity of missionaries and preachers arose already in the 1st century. Let us remember how this issue was resolved: “Then the twelve apostles, having called together many disciples, said: It is not good for us to leave the word of God and worry about the tables. So, brethren, select from among yourselves seven known men, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom; We will appoint them to this service, but we will continue constantly in prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6: 2-4). A person endowed by God with the charisma of a missionary, a teacher, should not waste precious time, which he could devote to service, on extraneous matters, and should not think about his daily bread. You can remember the Apostle Paul, who sewed tents and thereby obtained his means of subsistence, but it seems to me that this was the personal decision of the Apostle Paul. In general, it turned out that this was inconvenient, and the Church refused such a combination of ministries.
Returning to your question, I will say that lay believers should use secular work for preaching. Every person, no matter where he works, must position himself as a Christian, must try with his life not to give reasons to condemn Christianity, and must always be ready to testify to his faith.
Modern Orthodox writers and theologians
Of the modern church figures, Konstantin Parkhomenko certainly singled out Patriarch Kirill, Archbishop Hilarion (Alfeev), Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev and teachers of his theological academy - Archimandrite Iannuarius, Archimandrite Augustine, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov and Archpriest Alexander Sorokin.
However, if we do not take theologians from fiction writers, then the most memorable authors for Parkhomenko were Archpriest. Nikolai Agafonov, Yu. Voznesenskaya, O. Nikolaeva, prot. Yaroslav Shipov. And N. Urusova’s book “The Mother’s Cry of Holy Rus'” simply stunned Father Konstantin with its magnificent content.
