There is no shortage of complaints and accusations against the Orthodox Church. One of the main claims is the payment that is taken in temples for the performance of certain sacraments and rituals, in particular, for the sacrament of baptism.
The prosecutors are not only sure that everything should be done in the church for free, they even refer to such episodes of scripture as the Savior's expulsion of merchants from the Jerusalem temple or the case when the apostle Peter refused to baptize a person who offered money for baptism. Of particular indignation is the sum: it seems that they take too much for baptism.
Why not baptize for free
People who demand that everything be done in the temples for free, do not understand or do not want to understand that the temple is a material object that needs to be maintained, repaired, that from time to time it is necessary to purchase new vestments for priests, church utensils and books, you need to buy oil and incense. All this costs money.
The clergy understand that visiting the temple should not turn into a paid service, because then it will not be available to everyone. In no church do they take money for confession, communion, and even more so for the very presence at the service (for comparison: you have to pay for talking to a therapist or attending a concert). But there are events that happen in a person’s life only once: baptism, wedding, funeral service. Once it’s quite possible to pay.
In essence, payment for the sacraments and rituals is a donation to the temple. It would be logical not to set a price, but to offer people to give money as much as they wish. In some temples they do this, but sometimes this situation creates an awkwardness: it is difficult for people to decide how much to give, and they ask them to give a specific amount. Pricing helps to avoid this awkwardness.
