Bishop Orekhovo-Zuevsky Panteleimon: Love takes us beyond our limitations

On March 28-29, 2018, the Moscow Region Government hosted an international scientific and practical conference on improving the quality of life of children and young people with severe and multiple developmental disabilities, "The Value of Everyone." The plenary session of the forum was made by Panteleimon, Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevsky , Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service . The main trouble for a person is that he loves himself more than anything in the world. It is the source of all the misfortunes and tragedies of our lives. The main thing in a person's life should be the love of God, which is love. The love of God, who created this beautiful world, should be more love for all that is in the world, there must be more love for ourselves, no matter how wonderful and good we may seem to ourselves. We love God not only because He created this world, but also because He entered into it, became like everything in us except sin, and died for us on the Cross. The second commandment is love for one's neighbor, and we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. And if we want to join the greater joy of love, we must consider our life as our neighbor. Love takes us beyond our limitations, love gives us the joy of empathy, the joy of empathy. The quality of the life of the lover surpasses the quality of life of the egoist, the egocentric. Love is life in others, so that the lover can "live" thousands of lives. But if I love only myself and people who look like me, I do not do much in love. We are called to love not only those who are like us, but also people different from us, in something special. We must love people who have their own world, their language, their thinking. To understand another person means to broaden the boundaries of one's knowledge, one's feelings, this means better understanding of life. People with disabilities are not only limited in something and deprived of something, but they also have something with it that we do not have, which seemingly have no limits. People with health limitations compensate for their limitations, sometimes in an incomprehensible way for us, live a different life, which is not always clear to us. And when we communicate with such people, we enrich ourselves and understand better all the inconsistency of the scale of values ​​of the usual so-called healthy person. Thank God, people with disabilities live among us. It seems to me a crime to isolate people with disabilities. By their presence they give us the opportunity to show compassion, connect us in these manifestations of love and care for those who are in desperate need of it. It is very important to include families where a child or an adult with a mental disability is brought up to a parish community. And how many fine examples are given to us by people with disabilities, when they so courageously, ingeniously, creatively overcome all the difficulties that have fallen to their lot! Blessed Matrona was invalid during her lifetime, but now thousands, tens of thousands of people are gathered next to her! Often in these people we find a lot of spiritual wealth, warmth, light and joy. Restricted in the possibilities, they are not limited to manifestations of love for all who surround them. And we, who received many gifts and talents from God, including health, very often lose our gift - the ability to love. Therefore, these people need us more than we need them. I am very glad that this conference raises an extremely topical topic of improving the quality of life of children and young people with severe and multiple developmental disabilities. In many respects thanks to the support of the organizers of the conference, similar projects of accompanying residence are being created in the Russian Orthodox Church. Today's conference was not accidentally called "The Value of Everyone". People with disabilities in the eyes of God are of the same value as any person. God's love extends to all people, regardless of their bodily perfection or imperfection. For us, the value of human life is indisputable regardless of a person's ability to cope independently with domestic needs and communicate with the outside world. Everyone needs support, warmth and attention. For us, the value of human life is indisputable, regardless of a person's ability to cope independently with domestic needs and communicate with the outside world. Today the Church is trying to develop systematic assistance to disabled people. The country has more than 400 projects to help children and adults with disabilities, hearing and vision impaired people, mental disabled people and people with multiple developmental disabilities. In 2014, the IV All - Church Congress on Social Service was dedicated to helping disabled people. Our Synodal Charity Department has a Coordination Center for working with deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing people. We issue special benefits to help people with disabilities, conduct distance learning seminars, go to the regions and teach church social workers how to properly help people with disabilities. The Church's activities are impossible without the active participation of the parental community, specialists in the field of correctional pedagogy, educational and non-profit organizations. Therefore, our most successful projects are organized in close cooperation with specialized NGOs, charitable foundations. Church projects of the accompanied residence of invalids are very in demand. These projects are working in the Vyborg , Penza , Kineshma , Pereslavl dioceses, and I emphasize that in most cases they are implemented jointly with public organizations. In 2017, in Penza, with the support of the Church, one of the best non-government projects of accompanied residence was opened - a boarding school for young disabled people with severe disabilities, "The House of Veronica". Here disabled people lead an active life: they undergo rehabilitation, study and, if possible, work. This project is an alternative to the psychoneurological boarding school. The land for the construction of the center was allocated by the Penza diocese, it is located next to the church. The Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Russia Maxim Topilin noted at the opening of the center that, in terms of design, convenience and comfort for people, "Veronica's House" is by far the best in Russia such a project. Also in Penza, with the support of the Church, there is another rehabilitation center for the accompanying residence - "Quarter Louis". After the creation of such a house, a printing house was created under the Penza diocese, where the wards of the project were employed. Also in the building of the former seminary an inclusive café was created, where disabled people work, while alcohol is excluded from the cafe. Another project of accompanied residence is organized in the village of Razdolye of the Vyborg diocese. There, the priest Boris Yershov, together with the charity organization Prospects, arranged for the pupils of the PNH and disabled people who have families living in a rural house together with a group of social workers, teachers and volunteers who provide them with the necessary assistance. At the same time, social workers do not fully take care of them, but, on the contrary, create all conditions for disabled people to show maximum initiative, independence, solve domestic issues and even work a little. Hieromonk Meliton (Prisada), rector of the church in the Kineshma diocese, so that the graduates of orphanages do not fall into psycho-neurological boarding schools, also created the project of accompanied residence: in a large rural home, people with disabilities of different ages live as one family: working together, resting, and take care of each other. It is important that there are as many projects as possible and that people who are unlike us are limited in some way, would not be driven into a ghetto in which they would live invisibly for us, and we would forget that they need our help. The priority task of all church social activities is to help families. We believe that children and adults with disabilities should not in principle live in a hospital system. The most natural situation is a person's life in the family. And it is from this that we proceed when we are helping people with disabilities. In our School of foster parents, which is a project of the Orthodox service "Mercy", in each training course for future adoptive families, classes on the family structure of disabled children are included. In each stream there are families who take care of children with disabilities. And in the autumn of this year, the Adoptive Parent School plans to organize a unique program of studies aimed directly at those people who want to take a disabled child into the family. In different regions, the Church creates short-term and day-long groups for disabled children, family clubs, at temples and monasteries, summer holidays are organized for families raising children and adults with disabilities. Together with the Martha and Mary Convent in Moscow, our Orthodox service "Mercy" opened the "Elizabethan Garden" - one of the few Moscow kindergartens for children with moderate to severe cerebral palsy. Here the specialists are engaged with children: teachers, psychologists, speech therapists. For parents of these children, this is an opportunity to devote time to solving everyday problems. Almost all the students of the Elizavetinsky Garden notice improvements in their condition: many begin to orient themselves in space, some develop speech. The second important task of the center is targeted psychological assistance to parents and relatives of disabled children. The psychologist advises families on parenting and interaction with children. Such projects are not only in Moscow. In some dioceses ( Alatyrskaya , Samara , Yoshkar-Ola , Pyatigorsk ), rehabilitation centers for children with disabilities are working. In these centers, the Church often provides the assistance that no one - neither the state, nor society - can provide disabled people for now. For example, the Alatyr church center for disabled children is located in a city with a population of 35,000 people. Neither the city itself, nor within a radius of 150 kilometers from it, there is no such center. But it is important to help not only families with disabled people, but also people in boarding schools. In the Church there are projects in which we are trying to build a quality comprehensive support for special children on the basis of state boarding schools. In Moscow, in the Orthodox service "Mercy" there is a pilot project to support special childhood "Children.Pro". We have implemented our employees in the heaviest branches of the Center for the Promotion of Family Education (MSCI) "Kuntsevsky" and JRSV "South Butovo." Some of the employees entered the staff of the boarding schools: the "Mercy" service pays 50% of their rates, the other half took over the boarding school. The "Mercy" service sends about 15 million a year to this project, of which 12 million are spent on salaries of specialists and about 3 million on medical equipment and hygiene products. Our defectologists, neurologists, physical therapists conduct consultations for each child and help him individually. Our employees and volunteers build relationships with children in such a way that every child has a significant adult. It is necessary to say about the problems. Unfortunately, many people with disabilities, especially in the regions, are not able to use modern rehabilitation technologies, an "accessible environment", there is an acute shortage of qualified specialists in this field and volunteers ready to accompany people with special features in everyday life. Many people abandon their disabled children. They can not cope with the care and care of the child on their own, there are not enough projects to support such families. Therefore, it is very important systemic participation of the state in solving these problems. First of all, state social assistance should be aimed at supporting families with children with disabilities - so that parents do not give their children to boarding schools. Also, the state is called upon to develop projects of accompanied residence, to support socially oriented NGOs implementing projects on accompanied accomodation. And I am very glad that these issues are given a lot of attention at this conference and in the work of the organizers and participants of the conference.