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Church Life

Why do men need structure and hierarchy in a church?

In the Orthodox Church we have this solid entity that we are part of, Christ's Church, and we are united under the hierarchy of the bishops, we are united under the guidance of the priests, we are united in accountability. And all of this structure and form gives us the safety to be ourselves. You know, in my own parish we have no problem with brotherhood. All of the men go to the same priest, myself, for confession, so there's a unity, there's a harmony there. Men can open up about their problems with each other because they know they're not going to get judged, because they know their brothers in Christ are opening up about their problems as well. There's going to be structure in everything that we do, and the brothers know that there's a hierarchy within the church, and so that gives us as men a sense of safety, a sense of structure. We desire these things naturally. This is how God created us.

Edited from his answer on camera. The clip has the full thing.

Watch him answer it (04:32)

From “Why Brotherhood Doesn’t Exist in Modern Culture

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