A Good Person Is Not a Profession - The Psychology of Effective Living - Online Magazine. Profession is a good person A good person is not a profession
From the book Good and Evil in Our Lives. Questions and answers"
At first glance it seems that the phrase Good man is not a profession” is an absolute banality, that it is primitive and elementary. Indeed, if we want a person to perform certain professional duties, then his personal qualities are not too important to us, more important is the level of professionalism.
But if this phrase were just a platitude, it would not have become so famous, it would not have been repeated so often. It means that it contains some kind of paradox, some kind of internal contradiction, which allows her to claim some wisdom. And this paradox becomes obvious if you think a little.
So, it is argued that there is something more important than the most important assessment of a person. A good person, as it turns out, can sometimes, in some situations, be far from being the most useful, or even simply harmful. But a bad person in these cases can be much more useful than a good one. That is, the choice between good and evil, between good and bad, does not have an all-encompassing, universal meaning, sometimes it even harms a person, society, and the world. This is the paradox and the secret of the success of this phrase.
Now let's try to figure out where the logical error is here.
The most important thing is that the term "good person" has several different meanings.
In a global sense, a good person is an active servant of good, refusing evil in any form. This phrase has nothing to do with such people.
But in a local, everyday sense, we sometimes call a good person a complaisant, non-confrontational, polite, ready to listen to others and sympathize with them. He does not actively serve evil - and already for this we are ready to recognize him as good. And it is precisely in relation to such “good” people that the phrase in question often turns out to be absolutely correct, although banal. Such "good" people may well be not smart enough, poorly educated, inept, lazy, which interferes with any business. Such people may even be hidden, passive servants of evil, so calling them "good" is generally wrong.
A truly good person is, first of all, an honest person. Therefore, he treats any business in good faith. He never deceives his partners, colleagues, or those for whom he works. A good person will never agree to take a position for which he lacks education, abilities, character traits, health, and desire to work. A good person will always strive to perform his duties in the most efficient way. For a good person, the most important thing is not self-interest, but the benefit of the cause. If he feels that the business he is doing is really important, he is ready to work for the minimum remuneration (and how we like to use this quality!). Therefore, if a good person takes up some business, then you can be calm - everything will be in order.
But a truly bad person is able to overwhelm any business that he is entrusted with. Even if he is smart, educated, energetic, purposeful, but he has no honor, conscience, responsibility, he will be useless and even harmful in any job. Bad person will always think first of all about his personal interests, about how to do less and get more. He will strive for his professional duties to receive additional remuneration in the form of an increase in salary, bribes, theft, and tax evasion. He will constantly try to change his place of work to a more profitable, warm, bread, even if it requires regular violations of the law.
Perhaps this issue would not have been worth paying so much attention to, if from the phrase under consideration, completely wrong conclusions were not drawn more and more often.
For example, many already quite seriously believe that only a scoundrel can work well.
They say that only those who quickly enrich themselves at the expense of bribes and embezzlement of public funds will work well as an official. That is, only those who steal well work well. And who steals badly, he works badly. Honestly, no fool will work for a salary. Therefore, we must turn a blind eye to the rapid enrichment of officials, in no case should we find out where their funds come from, let alone confiscate their property. Otherwise, no one will go to work as an official.
In the same way, only one who works dishonestly can be a good businessman: he evades taxes, pays his employees low wages, sells low-quality goods, gives bribes to officials, profits from violence and human vices. Such an energetic, inventive, greedy and shameless person can really achieve success. However, the benefit of his business is an insignificant by-product of his personal enrichment. Therefore, in no case should fair laws be established in business and strictly monitor their steady observance. This can scare away the most dishonest, that is, the most successful, from business, and great damage will be done to the country.
But relying on evil, on its servants, never brings real, long-term benefit. The temporary benefit from this will eventually turn into a massive decline in morality and economic collapse.
- 04. 09. 2017
Professor Pavel Luksha told Takie Dela about what education will be like in the middle of the 21st century and what “skills of the future” we need to master now
Pavel Luksha, Head of the Global Future of Education international initiative, Professor of Practice at the Education Development Center of the Skolkovo School of Management:
The first question you need to ask yourself is: why change education? And this question cannot be answered unless we ask ourselves what kind of world we are going into.
The world of "Opanki!"
Imagine what the plant looked like in the 19th century and how it looked in the 21st. Or the transportation system. Or a bank. We will see huge differences. The only space that looks the same in the 21st century as it did in the 19th century is the school. A class where children sit in rows in front of the teacher and study subjects according to programs that are also basically created in the 19th century. Obviously this model is outdated. But how should it change?
Pavel LukshaPhoto: Sergey Fadeichev / TASSNow we observe and assume that the total number of changes in the world of the near future - technological, political, social - will be so great that we simply cannot understand what we are preparing today's first graders for. This means that the first thing we must say to ourselves is: guys, we need to prepare a person so that he can respond to the challenges in a changing world as variably as possible.
In English, this changeable unpredictable world is called VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity). And in Russian we call him "opanki". This is not a transcript of the abbreviation, but its essence. In the middle of the 21st century, there will be a continuous “wow” with people. So what should a person be like to cope, for example, with the news that his field of activity is no more, that it has been replaced by robots? Or that there have been such political changes that his country no longer exists, by the way, this happened to all of us in the early 90s, when we suddenly found ourselves in another country and had to quickly adapt to the changed conditions. The “wow” situation applies to any place in the world. You can’t say: “I’m going to Canada now or New Zealand and it will never be there." Will be anywhere.
“what should a person be like to cope, for example, with the news that his field of activity is no more”
Who in the 90s was the most adapted to change? People who understood that they could only rely on themselves. They had good physical fitness, emotional stability, assertiveness and willingness to act. Some of them became bandits, some became entrepreneurs. If we exclude the bandit track, people with entrepreneurial qualities are best adapted to the “wow” - they are able to make decisions in conditions of uncertainty, act, see opportunities (and not just threats), develop all the time, always look for something new, etc.
Accordingly, the next generation should acquire precisely these qualities: the ability to respond to uncertainty in a positive way: “Oh, cool, something new! What can we do about it?" In general, this reaction is typical for young children who perceive the world in the playful exploratory logic. And the modern school rather destroys creativity than cultivates it. This means that we need to create such programs, such spaces in which children will not lose the promise to actively act, create, and cope with uncertainty.
Children in a classroom in Keane Town, Cheshire County, New HampshirePhoto: Keene and Cheshire County (NH) Historical Photos/www.flickr.com
The problem of the current school is that it was created under the prevailing industrial model of society in the 19th century. Then it was necessary to have a lot of workers who obey the boss, do what they are told, do not go beyond job descriptions and by pattern are capable of performing prescribed tasks. Preferably highly specialized. And in a world of uncertainty, this is the most risky thing you can think of. The school brings up discipline, submission, lack of creativity, the use of templates. That is, it directly contradicts what we are moving towards.
Learn and unlearn
We already understand now that in the new, uncertain world we will live for a long time. Humanity is constantly increasing life expectancy. It is expected that by the middle of the XXI century in developed countries it will exceed 100 years. Even if there are no radical technological breakthroughs associated, for example, with genetic engineering, when they learn how to remove the aging gene and people begin to live virtually forever. Or if doctors defeat age-related degenerative diseases nervous system. Enormous funds are directed to this area of development. So, it is very likely that in the next 10-20 years there will be solutions and the age of 120 years will be the new normal.
120 years old will be the new normal
In the old logic, a person prepared for 10-15 years, then worked out his cycle of activity in the industry for 30 years, retired at 55-60 and then, conditionally, lived for another 10 years and died. And if people live to 120, 60 years will be the middle of an active life. We will work until at least 90 years old. And, most likely, we will have 3-4 changes in the direction of activity. What does it mean? That we will need to completely “rebuild” ourselves throughout life, completely relearn, and more than once. And if you have to relearn all the time, what is the most important thing to be able to do? Learn and unlearn.
When a person is sure that “you need to do only this way, and not otherwise”, then it is very likely that at some point his habit may turn out to be the main block on the way to change. We see this when, for example, good engineers Soviet schools are faced with modern schools of digital design. They are not able to work in this environment, because they are used to negotiating everything with a drawing board, with a ruler, with colleagues who are sitting at neighboring tables. And they need to work in an environment where their colleagues - one in Brazil, the other in South Africa, the third in India, in different time zones - they didn’t see each other at all, they assemble the model in a digital environment. For them, this is a brain explosion, they do not understand how one can work in this parallel design. Habits prevent you from entering a new reality.
Children in the computer classPhoto: Mahmud Imran/commons.wikimedia.org
Every child has the ability to actively learn. In the first few years of life, a person pumps through himself such an amount of information that is incomparable with any school curriculum. And then we come to school, and they tell us: “Do this, open another page of the textbook, don’t look out the window,” that is, they format it so that we do exactly what and in the rhythm that is convenient for the school itself and forbids us to show natural curiosity. And this is the main competence that a person must possess if he has to constantly move from one sphere to another during his life, learn something new and change in a new, long life.
And the question immediately arises: will the school itself have time to change in the near future? Of course not. And what should parents do? Everything I'm talking about can be solved today with the help of additional education. For example, entrepreneurial competence is trained in the so-called children's accelerators. There, the child in the design logic tries to create his own startup. This, of course, is not yet an adult startup. But you can come up with a project, assemble a team, earn pocket money, and this motivates the child to enter new type activities.
Biology didn't prepare us for this.
What else do we understand about our future uncertain world? That it will be complex and technologically rich. Neural networks, machine learning, many processes can be automated. And since people have to work in a technologically saturated world, they must understand scientific, engineering, mathematical foundations, be able to set a task for a program, a technological environment, robots, etc. That is, programming will become: a) basic literacy and b) most likely not will be especially different from how we communicate with each other.
Now imagine the world in which a large number of entrepreneurs of all ages, constantly generating new ideas, changing their career paths, using all sorts of complex technology, interacting with each other in such a metropolis as Moscow, St. Petersburg or London. This society has one general characteristics: it is more complicated than the one in which our ancestors lived at the beginning of the 20th century, and obviously more difficult than what a person has been “used to” for millennia. This is a society for which biology did not prepare us. Culture and education are preparing us for this.
Taxi driverPhoto: Per Gosche/www.flickr.com
But what then, you ask, to be with a skill that gives a person the opportunity to earn money? Let's take even the old taxi drivers who kept a map of the city in their heads, knew the best routes, etc. It turns out that even now a person who has just arrived in the city can perform the same task with the help of a navigator. That is, the idea that there is a competence that is guaranteed to feed a person throughout life ends. The same thing can happen with almost any profession. This means: 1) a person must constantly update his type of activity; 2) in this complex, uncertain world, those who are able, having huddled in a group, to create a comfortable space for mutual support, win. In external environment this group will invest some collective competence. One will not be a warrior in the field. Other things being equal, it is not individual professionals who will benefit, but the community becoming a space for joint development, renewal, doing something that people like, fits their lifestyle, etc. And they will obviously benefit from corporations, because the corporation gives strength collective action, but does not give meaningfulness, conformity to the way of life. These new "communities of practice" will benefit both from the corporation and from the individual professional, be it a surgeon, a dentist, an artist. Accordingly, the number two idea in this world is that in addition to the fact that you must constantly be ready for personal changes, you must also be able to cooperate, find common meanings, create an environment, a community.
New family
On what principles can a “community of practice” be built? On the most different.
The next generation will be both more introverted and more collaborative at the same time. Someone will completely go into the digital world: with the advent of augmented reality and other simulators, they will generally be able to lie in capsules, as in a matrix, and not get out anywhere, while someone, on the contrary, will say that the real world is the most interesting, because that it is more complex than what a computer can simulate.
There are already a huge number of communities, and there will be even more. The word "community" seems to me not entirely successful for one simple reason: a community is a form that has existed for a very long time, and we call this form some new quality that looks partly like a traditional community, and partly like a new one. It's like families.
There is an assumption that many existing families under the powerful influence of technological and social transformations will disintegrate, are already disintegrating. On the one hand, people are becoming more and more atomized, they say: "It's easier for me myself." On the other hand, they discover that there are like-minded people, people who are similar to them, with whom they feel good. There is a bulkhead: out of this community begins to be born new family or a new tribe on new grounds. We don’t even fully understand what it is, we just record what is happening.
"Gardener" - the leader of the new era
For example, it is clear that in a “one man is not a warrior” situation, people who have the competencies of cooperation, dialogue, including peacemaking, that is, the ability to work in the mode of non-conflict productive situations, outperform those who do not have this ability. They will have a strategic advantage. They used to say, "a good person is not a profession." Now a “good person” becomes a profession, if he is the engine of this very community, creates the right emotional atmosphere in it. The tribe will be ready to share with him various resources - money, power, anything - in order for him to maintain the viability of the community. And those who know how to create such cells around themselves create a new world.
And these are not leaders in the usual sense. The leader of a feudal society is a knight with a sword, able to cut off the heads of all enemies and force his subjects to do their will. The leader of the new reality is a person who, perhaps, stands in the background, does not come forward. But he organizes the space in such a way that everyone around him goes into the most productive mode of life. They get high, they are interested, they do what they love and get a decent energy resource for it. They feel that in their interaction a process of creativity, living energy, etc. is born. Someone must launch and create such a life-giving community. They are kind of gardeners.
“The leader of the new reality organizes the space in such a way that everyone around him enters the most productive mode of life”
In the new reality of a complex society, it is no coincidence that we use the term "gardener". The transition to a complex society brings the human world much closer to biological systems. When you enter the forest, you see: here a tree grows, here a bunny runs, here a bird flies, here a squirrel jumps, here some kind of bugs crawl. They are all very complex beings, much more complex than the robots, the programs, the buildings we build. At the same time, they are all somehow synchronized, a balance is built between them. The forest grows as a whole and exists for thousands of years. This is an extremely complex system in which a huge amount of information flows. This system does not need to be managed in order for it to develop, but it can be helped. And here foresters, gardeners are those who organize the right space so that living processes flow in the right direction.
Some people gradually begin to enter the role of this kind of managers. It is different, but strategically stable. A knight with a sword is not able to create a forest, he can only kill enemies and flog vassals with a whip. He is not able to create a space in which the vassals feel good, in which no one obeys him, but everyone is busy with what they need. This is the quality of a new leader. It is similar to what Lao Tzu once wrote about: the ideal ruler is the one whom no one sees, hears, but he directs everyone. This is where we are going - from cooperation to the ability to organize environments. Habitat, habitat, ecosystem. And gardeners environments have new leaders.
Lao Tzu Photo: wikimedia.org
We are now releasing a report on the topic of 21st century skills, where one of the theses sounds like this: in logic industrial society the main model is a machine. A machine is made up of parts, hence the idea of human modularity. He is a cog in the car. Not a simple screw from one monoblock and an alloy, but a complex prefabricated structure. He himself is seen as a machine in which we can put different competencies. And he must also be able to read, and we will also teach him how to hammer nails, and let's also add a little mathematics to him. We assemble a person like a machine from different parts, and say: "Go work as a cog in a social machine."
In a complex world where the key metaphor is the forest, Live nature, we can’t say to a bunny: “Bunny, we’ve sewn such an ear for you, go sit in this place, don’t move.” No, the bunny was born, grew up, runs by itself, we can only create conditions for the bunny to feel good. A complex person is not assembled, he is grown, formed in complex environments, and he has some qualities that form the basis of his personality, able to interact with a complex world. In this sense, 21st century competencies like the ability to cope with stress or the ability to learn and relearn are manifestations of the core of personality. key concept it becomes not career self-realization, not “I am like a professional”, but my interesting, high-quality, eventful life.
At the same time, “a rich inner world” means, oddly enough, the presence of internal paradoxes. In man there is different types motivation, he does not want one thing, but different. “He plows the arable land, writes poetry,” he will work out politics. And it's all for fun, and it all complements him. And then not even individual competencies are important, but what is called an existential strategy. What underlies the existence of this person, in his life route.
Without cattle and elites
I argue that this will be the case if we discard the snobbery that is characteristic of the modern administrative system, which divides people into cattle and the elite. In fact, each person is quite complex.
Based on the trends that we see, I think it's the prerogative to live difficult life will cease to be something that is available only to the elites. In the future, this opportunity will open up to everyone. It's a bit like we're entering a big, well-designed online game world where we can design our own character and start exploring the space, encountering all the different creatures that inhabit it...
“One of the main things that will be “reassembled” during the 21st century is the political structure of countries”
The transition from simple to complex is due to the fact that in simple situations one leader can feel with his mind, consciousness or body The right way actions alone. In complex systems of competencies, one person is not enough to feel them, let them through and find the right solution. 70 years ago, the cyberneticist William Ross Ashby described this as the law of necessary variety. The systems that are managed and the systems that are managed must match each other in terms of complexity. This general principle, according to which all control systems work in all areas, whether it is the control of the brain, the body, or the control of the anthill, which the uterus exercises with the help of pheromones, or the way the forest self-coordinates.
Polycentric leadership is an inevitable consequence in a world of communities. Leaders will not be able to govern on the same basis, they must form a kind of tribal councils, agree on common meanings. In theory, the Internet was invented for this, and not to post cats or watch porn. In the 1950s and 1960s, people invented it as an environment in which they generate collective knowledge, distributing their cognitive abilities as efficiently as possible.
Country leaders at the G20 summit
Regulatory systems like politics or finance will face major revisions over the coming decades. Maybe the elites don't want that. And this is the saddest thing, because, for example, the end of the feudal era in Europe, as you know, the 30 Years' War, was the most destructive war of that period. But it cleared space for a new society. There is a risk that global elites will perceive the new situation as a threat to themselves. They won’t want to change, and that’s the point: “We have the resources, we are satisfied with the current structures of the economy, we are satisfied with the way society works.” The consequence may be big war in which either society will reboot or humanity will be destroyed, which is a possible scenario for the 21st century.
But there is hope that today's elites will still be smarter than their predecessors. In the end, for some reason we accumulated knowledge. They can say: “Guys, listen, if we don’t start to change, then we will simply be carried away by the wave of transformation.” This is a good scenario.
That is why we in the "Global Future of Education" define for ourselves the main task - the creation of supranational civic methods of cooperation between people. We are starting to build parallel systems of the nervous tissue of the global society that will help overcome the crisis in a peaceful way. This is too powerful a civilizational movement, it does not depend on the election of specific leaders. We can only control the flow of the river, we cannot force it to stop. Or we can, but with disastrous consequences. Our task is to ensure that the river does not carry away everything that is already there.
Thank you for reading to the end!
Every day we write about the most important problems in our country. We are sure that they can be overcome only by talking about what is really happening. Therefore, we send correspondents on business trips, publish reports and interviews, photo stories and expert opinions. We raise money for many funds - and we do not take any percentage of them for our work.
But “Such things” themselves exist thanks to donations. And we ask you to make a monthly donation to support the project. Any help, especially if it is regular, helps us to work. Fifty, one hundred, five hundred rubles is our opportunity to plan work.
Please sign up for any donation to our benefit. Thank you.
If you want, we will send the best texts of "Such cases" to you on email? Subscribe
A good person is not a profession. But a huge plus if a good person is also a highly qualified specialist, a professional. We bring to your attention teaching materials for a thematic lesson ( class hour) “A good person is not a profession?”.
Lesson option [ PDF ] [DOCX ]
Presentation [ PDF ] [PPTX ]
Tasks for students (worksheet) PDF ] [DOCX ]
Target: the formation of moral consciousness on the basis of the assimilation of universal values.
Tasks:
- to form the need for the assimilation of moral values;
- encourage students to self-development and self-education;
- develop the ability to consciously choose the good.
Task number 1.
The topic of the lesson today is “A good person is not a profession?”
1. Think about what you think the meaning of this expression is.
2. Consider if there is some contradiction in it.
3. In what situations is it used?
4. Express your opinion, who is a good person? Who can we call a good person? Who do we call a good person? Justify your answer.
Task number 2.
Group work.
1. Fill in the table. Write down the main qualities:
1st group- good man;
2nd group- a good specialist (professional).
2. Compare the qualities of a good person and a good specialist. Is there something in common that unites these two concepts?
3. Are the concepts of "good person" and "good specialist" identical?
4. Think about what is more important, to be a good person or a good specialist?
Task number 3.
Read the parable.
Once, a steam generator failed in one of the English factories. Whatever specialists the manufacturer invited, but no one was able to fix it. And then one day a stranger came and said that he could fix the generator. Fabrikant was surprised, but decided to give the master a chance.
Carefully and methodically, he began tapping various parts of the machine, listening carefully to the sounds that the metal surface made. In ten minutes, he tapped pressure gauges, thermostats, bearings, and connections where he suspected the damage was. Then he approached one of the elbows and gave a light blow with a hammer. The effect was immediate. Something moved, and the steam generator started working.
The manufacturer thanked the master for a long time and asked him to send an invoice, where all types of work would be scheduled. Here's what was written on the bill: for ten minutes of tapping - 1 pound. For knowing where to hit - £9999. Total: 10,000 pounds.
Now you will agree that professionalism is not just the ability to hit, but the ability to hit exactly where you need it.
1. Express your opinion, is it important good specialist(professional) to be a good person.
2. How to become a good specialist?
Task number 4.
1. Answer the master's question that he asked the worker.
2. Formulate the professional and personal qualities of the first employee and Ivan.
Task number 5.
Read the parable.
Once there was a logging championship. A Canadian and a Norwegian reached the final. They had several hours to determine the strongest according to the principle "whoever chop the most firewood is the winner."
It's time to start. The lumberjacks began to work. As the first hour drew to a close, the Canadian was surprised to realize that the Norwegian had stopped. The Norwegian did not cut trees for 10 minutes, and the Canadian worked non-stop. And so it was every hour. The Norwegian always stopped for 10 minutes. When the competition time was up, the Canadian was absolutely sure of his victory. After all, he worked without interruption, and the opponent spent so much time in vain!
How surprised he was when it turned out that the Norwegian had done more.
“Wait, how is it…” said the Canadian. “I have been working non-stop. How did it happen?
"At the end of every hour, while you continued to cut trees, I sharpened my axe."
1. Think about the meaning of this parable.
2. How would you title this parable? Justify your answer.
Task number 6.
1. Think about what the great Russian teacher K. D. Ushinsky meant when he said: “If you successfully choose work and put your whole soul into it, then happiness will find you itself”? Maxim Gorky: “When work is pleasure, life is good! When work is a duty, life is slavery.
2. What do you need to know and consider when choosing a profession?
3. Think about how the chosen profession can affect the personal qualities of a person. Give examples.
4. Does the chosen profession leave an imprint on a person? Give examples.
Task number 7.
Let's return to the topic of the class hour "A good person is not a profession?". Express your attitude to the meaning of this expression.
Group work. Prepare a presentation on one of the topics.
1st group. A good leader is...
2nd group. A good worker is...
How to find a “job” in one of the closest organizations to the Lord, and what competence means in the Church - tell His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry (Berezovsky) of Kiev and All Ukraine and his “right hand” - Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of Boryspil and Brovarsky, manager of affairs UOC.
– How to get a job in the Orthodox Church?
Firstly, the Church is not a business corporation, and people do not come here to work, but come at the call of the heart. Priests do not have a job, but a ministry. And if a layman wishes to work in any church structures, only one thing will be important for him - the vocation of a Christian. Therefore, the question rests on the personal choice of a person, and the main motivation for making a decision should be exclusively love for God and people.
Metropolitan Anthony: It is customary to say that people do not “work” in the Church, but serve. This applies to both priests and every person who chooses the path of serving God. Anyone who hears in his heart a call to such a ministry can realize it in the Church.
What qualities should the candidate have?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: As one theologian said, in order to become a real Christian, you must first become a real person. And although there is an opinion among ordinary employers that a good person is not a profession, and professional qualities are more important than human ones, from a Christian point of view, everything is just the opposite. The main thing here is the person and the best human qualities: honesty, sincerity, fidelity.
Metropolitan Anthony: First of all, devotion to Christ. A person who decides to serve God must be willing to give up everything to follow Christ.
– Is it prestigious to serve in the Church?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: It is very symbolic that the concept of "prestige" comes from a Latin word that means illusion, deception of the senses. Indeed, for many, the search for prestige turns into the pursuit of mirages. And if in the worldly sense the word "prestige" means recognition and some kind of respect, then in the Church all this is achieved through a positive mutual attitude towards the world and people. As St. Maximus the Confessor said, “only what I have given is mine.”
Metropolitan Anthony: If we recall the apostles, one can hardly say that they chose "prestigious work" for themselves. Almost all the closest disciples of Christ ended their lives with martyrdom. We are all heirs of the apostles and must be ready to lay down our lives for Christ. In the eyes of the world, this is madness, not prestige.
– Do you have a concept of healthy careerism? If yes, what is it?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: A career is an indicator of how successful a person is in the implementation of a particular professional activity. And the main engine of professional success should be a person's interest and love for the business he is engaged in. If work brings pleasure and joy, is a priority in vital interests, then the result - internal and external - will be appropriate.
Metropolitan Anthony: If by careerism we mean the desire to gain as much power as possible and wealth such careerism is alien to the gospel. At the same time, every Christian, and even more so the one who comes to serve in the Church, should strive to reveal the talents given to him by God. If a person buries talent in the ground without revealing his talents, he falls under condemnation. The vocation of man is to strive for perfection.
– How do you take care of staff development?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: A few years ago we held advanced training courses for teachers of theological schools. In addition, conferences, scientific symposiums and round tables for representatives of our clergy and employees of church departments are regularly held in Ukraine and abroad.
Metropolitan Anthony: The Church has educational institutions that prepare candidates for both clergy and other church positions. The Church encourages priests to also receive secular education so that they can serve with even greater success. Those who feel able to do this can engage in theological science.
What are you being fired for?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: This doesn't happen often. Mostly in connection with the transition to another obedience or moving to another diocese.
Metropolitan Anthony:"Professional unsuitability" usually has a moral dimension in the Church. A minister of the Church, no matter what place of service he is placed in, must remember the high rank: a Christian. This obliges us to live in accordance with the moral standards that we preach. If a person does not respond to a high calling, the Church may forbid him to serve.
- What do you think about the competition? Do you compete with other churches?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: There is not a single mention of the Church in the gospel plural. On the contrary, Scripture teaches us that “there is one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:5). The Holy Orthodox Church has been serving the salvation of human souls for two thousand years since the day of Holy Pentecost, and her saving actions are limited to only one thing - personal choice. The Lord brought the Expiatory Sacrifice for all of us, and everyone decides for himself whether to accept it or pass it by. The salvation of man is a matter of Truth, not competition.
Metropolitan Anthony: As for relationships within the Church, the apostle Paul said that there can and should be differences of opinion among Christians, so that the most skillful ones will open up (1 Cor. 11, 19). In a sense, this can be called healthy competition. As for relations with other confessions, we do not seek to compete with them. We seek unity in Christ. As St. Gregory the Theologian said about those Christians with whom we do not have unity: “We seek not victory, but the return of brothers, separation from whom torments us.”
– What are the most important innovations that have taken place in the Church over the past hundred years?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: The main innovation took place two thousand years ago, when the Savior came into the world and revealed to people a stunning message - we are not strangers to each other and to God, and the main law of life lies in sacrificial selfless love. The fact that today this question is more relevant than ever in its acuteness suggests that the main innovations should be carried out not in the Church, but in the person himself and in society. Perhaps that is why the Testament in which we live is called the New. It will always be new for us, requiring inner renewal, for a person is born in the fallen state of the Old Testament and requires correction and sanctification.
Metropolitan Anthony: The Church remains identical to itself in all ages. Therefore, there are no innovations in the sphere of doctrine in our Church. As for the external forms of life of the Church, they are constantly changing. New liturgical texts appear, church composers create new works, icon painters develop new iconographic subjects. The status of the Church is also changing different countries. Today the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is self-governing with the rights of broad autonomy. A century ago, the Church on the territory of Ukraine did not have any autonomous rights.
– Is the Church a progressive organization?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: It is with Christianity that the concept of the all-round progress of human civilization is connected, since without Christ and His teachings, all mankind would have remained in the primitive state of the pre-Christian era. Despite the constant problems in the human race, Christianity still played a decisive role in the formation of a new developed civilization, a special culture, and a system of moral values. And if a progressive person is a person who seeks and thinks, then it is the Church that gives that impetus to a new life and that path, without which no progress, whether personal or social, is possible.
Metropolitan Anthony: The Church has always been open to accepting the best that humanity creates, but it is a rather conservative institution.
The very idea of progress as a process that leads mankind from a dark past to a bright future does not correspond to the Church's understanding of history.
The New Testament clearly states that at the end of time, mankind in moral attitude will come to complete destruction. The development of science and technology does not yet mean an increase in morality. And for the Church, the main thing is precisely the moral dimension of life.
- Whom do you obey? Who is your top management?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: The head of the Church is Jesus Christ Himself, Who promised that He would not leave us until the end of time (Matthew 28:20). In the sense of managing the earthly church structure, our Church is Catholic. The patriarchs of Ecumenical Orthodoxy are equal among themselves in their dignity, and decisions are made on the basis of the general mutual agreement of hierarchs, priests and laity. This is a matter of principle for us, since the place of the head of the Church belongs to the One Who created it with His Blood - the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Local Churches, which are so named after the place of their earthly sojourn, are led by the Local Councils and the Primate.
Metropolitan Anthony: It is customary in the Church to call everyone "servants of God." To external people, this seems strange and even absurd. But this just means that our whole life is subordinate to God. He is our "High Authority".
As for the earthly dimension of the Church, here the order of governance in the Church is determined both by the ancient canons and the modern charter. In our Church, the highest authority belongs to the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the intervals between Councils, the supreme power belongs to the Council of Bishops, and in the intervals between Councils of Bishops, to the Holy Synod and the Metropolitan of Kiev.
– How does the church hierarchy fit in with the idea that everyone is equal before God?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: The church hierarchy does not imply the division of people into castes. Before God, indeed, everyone is equal, and the Lord clearly indicated main principle interactions between Christians: “whoever wants to be first among you, let him be your slave” (Mt. 20, 27).
The principle of hierarchy is embedded in the universe and is an expression of a special Divine harmony, without which the world would turn into chaos.
Man himself is hierarchical - in him the body must obey the soul, and the spirit should dominate the soul and body. Problems begin when the hierarchy is broken and the personality breaks up. It is the same in the church body: hierarchy is a guarantee of unity and harmony, in which mutual subordination is manifested not in power over others, but in responsibility for them before God, serving them and mutual respect.
Metropolitan Anthony: Yes, everyone is equal before God, but in the Church everyone carries out his ministry in accordance with the gifts that were given to him by God Himself. The Apostle Paul clearly says that already in the first decades of the existence of the Church, some were apostles, others were teachers, others had the gift of government, and someone was engaged in charity. So the ministries in the Church are different, but they are performed by one Spirit. Therefore, the difference in ministries does not mean a violation of the principle of equality of all before God.
- How do you feel about design? Is it needed in your field?
The transformation of the outside world is a reflection of our internal state. Equip everyday life making it beautiful and attractive is an important and necessary task.
Metropolitan Anthony: As far as I know, today design is very broad concept. It includes almost the entire environment that surrounds a person. The design is also in demand in the church environment. After all, we publish books, magazines, newspapers, create Internet sites, build or equip buildings for church needs. In all these areas, it is impossible to achieve a high-quality result without the participation of professional designers.
What do you think about the architecture of temples? Should they be built according to ancient canons, or can the authors bring in the trends of the present?
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry: There are many examples modern solution temple architectural complexes, and personally I do not see anything wrong with such new creative approaches. The main thing is that the architect should have a sense of proportion and an understanding of the lofty purpose that the House of God serves. The temple is a piece of Heaven on earth, and the most important thing is that the architecture should reflect this idea. Therefore, shocking in this area is inappropriate.
Metropolitan Anthony: Canonical forms Christian churches are of earthly origin. They grew out of the traditions of pre-Christian architecture. And during the two thousand years of the life of the Church, it was constantly enriched with new architectural forms. The temples of the 17th century are not similar to the temples of the 18th century, which, in turn, differ markedly from the temples built in the 19th century. This process of borrowing new forms by temple architecture has never stopped and, probably, will never stop. I think church architecture will always develop in a creative interaction between tradition and innovation.
Loading...
