Very Rev. Fr. Gabriel Makarov, Rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brisbane Queensland will be attending Syezd as a speaker. He will be touching on one front of the apocalypse – how the world is making the church irrelevant.

Abstract – Intro

The Great Flood of Noah’s time and its effect on those who lived at that time serves as a powerful prefiguration of the Apocalypse. For any individual, the most imperative issue at the onset of that Old Testament cataclysmic event was whether or not he or she was safe on the Ark.

In spiritual commentaries the Ark of the Old Testament is seen to represent the New Testament Church, of which we are members. If our membership is true, then we are assured safe passage on this Ark through the danger-frought sea of our earthly life, as it sails to safe-Harbour in Heaven.

Each Orthodox Family is called to be a mini or home-church, an individual spiritual cell of the parish community, with each family member – father, mother and children – contributing in a unique way towards the process of salvation of that family.

Therefore, each Orthodox Family is in fact a small version of the Ark of Salvation that is the True Church.