Greetings from Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan to the organizers and participants of the conference dedicated to the protection of traditional moral values

On March 16, 2024, the international scientific and practical conference “Traditional Family Values in the Modern World” was held in Almaty. The Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, addressed the organizers and participants with a welcoming speech:

Your Eminence,
All-honorable fathers, dear brothers and sisters!

Today’s event, which we are holding within the walls of the spiritual and cultural center named after Metropolitan Joseph (Chernov) on the eve of Lent, is dedicated to the protection of traditional moral values in modern society and, above all, those related to family, childbearing and raising children. The topic of our meeting is truly relevant, since the family is the most important pillar of the harmonious development of society and the fundamental basis of life for any people. This circumstance allows us to talk about approaches that largely unite representatives of various religions and people of good will - all who are aware of the need to resist the destructive sinful ideology that is increasingly being propagated in the Western world, where the family as a social institution is under threat of collapse and degeneration. Hiding behind the struggle for so-called rights and freedoms, the secular world actually refuses the high dignity of man, created in the image of God. This worldview puts at the forefront a different image of man - a being who has renounced Divine destiny, wholly turned to the fallen world and who is captive to his passions.

Both private and public life are impossible without a system of values - stable ideas about the goals that a person should strive for for his own good and the common benefit. Only a society that has a clear system of ethical guidelines is viable and can develop. From an Orthodox point of view, a person is called to focus his life and activities, first of all, on evangelical religious and moral ideals, trying to ensure that his material needs and interests do not darken his mind and darken his spirit. “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Matthew 16:26), the Lord warns us.

Modern society is often called post-Christian. On the one hand, such a turn of civilization from the Gospel to pagan moral indifference is upsetting and alarming, on the other hand, it pushes us towards serious work in the field of spiritual enlightenment. Once again, as in ancient apostolic times, we see how great the harvest is and how little strength the workers have, but we are convinced that the Lord, in response to our indifference, to our modest efforts, will send “laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2 ).

Therefore, it is important for all healthy forces in our country and like-minded people in friendly countries to take every possible care to ensure that traditional spiritual and moral values return to people’s lives and become a fundamental factor for building a family and the progressive development of society. In this situation, the Orthodox Church is called upon to actively pursue its position - both within the framework of interreligious and church-public dialogue, and in the context of its social activities, internal mission addressed to people who, by virtue of birth and upbringing, belong to the Orthodox culture.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly pointed out that the most important task of cooperation between the Church, the state and public organizations is to find a new balance between religious and secular views of the world and people in this world - an approach that would take into account both the standards of modern society and the norms of religious tradition .

In our time, there is a kind of cult of so-called freedom, which is essentially permissiveness, moral laxity. The growing spiritual ill-being from this becomes one of the main reasons causing the breakdown of the family. It can be stated with regret that today a large number of married couples, for the sake of momentary comfort, selfishly reject the blessed gift of childbearing and neglect seemingly such indisputable truths as caring about raising their own children. From the point of view of Orthodox Christianity, true human freedom is inseparable from moral responsibility. It is obvious that challenges and threats to the family and family values in their deepest foundations are directly related to the destruction of traditional morality. The current family crisis is a manifestation of the spiritual crisis of modern humanity.

In Orthodoxy we call the family “Small Church”. It is in the family that a child receives moral education and learns basic values and norms of behavior. Family is the best school of life and the school of love. It is in the family that one gains experience of communication, mutual support and assistance, self-restraint and compassion. The family ensures that a person is introduced to the traditions of his people and the continuity of generations. The destruction of the institution of family, the erosion of family values poses a great threat to the well-being of both individuals and the entire society and state.

The document called “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church,” which sets out the basic provisions of church teaching on a number of significant contemporary problems, speaks of the importance of preserving traditional family values: “Belittling the social significance of motherhood and fatherhood in comparison with the successes of men and women in the professional field leads to the fact that children begin to be perceived as an unnecessary burden; it also contributes to alienation and antagonism between generations. The role of the family in the development of personality is exceptional; it cannot be replaced by other social institutions. The destruction of family ties is inevitably associated with a disruption in the normal development of children and leaves a long, to some extent indelible, imprint on their entire subsequent life.”

The famous philosopher of the twentieth century, Ivan Ilyin, wrote: “Great collapses and disappearances of nations arise from spiritual and moral crises, which are expressed, first of all, in the decomposition of the family.” In the context of these alarming trends, the Orthodox Church sees its urgent task as supporting the institution of the family. And other traditional religions are reliable allies, like-minded people and comrades in this struggle for us. Today, everyone who professes the most important civilizational principles: faith in one God the Creator, a common understanding of the fundamental principles of human life, deep commitment to age-old traditions, the perception of the family as a union of a man and a woman, the desire for goodness and justice, love our good allies and co-workers. Every year it becomes more obvious that if all these destructive processes are not prevented, then the very existence of human civilization will soon be under threat.

I would like to wish that our conference becomes another good contribution to the unification of all healthy forces of Kazakhstani society for the sake of preserving traditional moral values and countering the negative processes and challenges of our time. I wish the conference participants successful and fruitful work.