Copyrighted material. For private use only.
by Beverly Nickles in Moscow
Christianity Today
7 December 1998
Four months after Russia's economy began its latest tailspin, 10,000 people are living on the streets of Moscow. Sandra Reid, the Salvation Army's chief of social services for Moscow's 9 million people, sees her budgetary resources fully stretched, even though the Russian winter is yet to hit with full force.
Priorities for her office's care for needy Russians are first the homeless, then pensioners and prisoners. "Refugees and the homeless are the most disadvantaged people," Reid says.
Although Moscow has 10,000 homeless, the city-operated shelters can accommodate only 1,200 a night. And those shelters accept only people who can produce documents proving Moscow residency. Most of the city's homeless live in underground transit passages or sleep in waiting areas of train stations. Russia's recent attempts to reform its state-run economy have led to sharp drops in the value of its currency along with many other economic woes.
GOING TO THE NEEDY: Salvation Army employee Vasili Alexeiev supervises a program to help care for the physical and spiritual needs of Moscow's homeless. Hot borscht and bread are served from the back of a van each afternoon near the city's two largest train stations, where the Salvation Army feeds about 200 homeless a day. Once a week he distributes warm clothing. Alexeiev began feeding the homeless in 1990, the year the Salvation Army began working in Russia.
Late in the afternoon, Alexeiev tries to form relationships with the homeless, handing out soap and socks. Because of increasing restrictions on freedom of religion (CT, Oct. 26, 1998, p. 24), he is forbidden to distribute Christian literature.
An important piece of the Salvation Army's work among the homeless is to help them restore necessary personal documents. Without proper papers that verify identity and residency, they are cut off from receiving any government assistance.
Viktor, Leda, and Luba participate in the Salvation Army's feeding program. All in their fifties, the three share sleeping quarters in an abandoned construction shed under a bridge. They curl up together on a makeshift bed in a feeble attempt to keep warm as winter sets in.
Leda collects discarded beer bottles from trash containers and redeems them for small change to supplement her food supply. She lost her official identification documents in a fire and thus has not received a pension in three years.
The Salvation Army conducts church services in five locations in Moscow where additional spiritual and material assistance is given. Welcoming the destitute to church leads to problems of its own. The Salvation Army must rent meeting facilities, and wherever there is an increasing number of destitute people, building administrators are more apt to evict.
DIRE TIME FOR ELDERLY: The most desperate of Russia's elderly are also aided by the Salvation Army. The current minimum pension, which was about $50 before the economic crisis, is now around $19. The official poverty line is set at $37 a month. Pensioners with no family to assist them receive barely enough money to keep from starving. And in many cases, pensions have not been paid for months.
The financial stresses rocked the Salvations Army's budget and cut into its ability to help the needy. Food intended for distribution as humanitarian aid is purchased in bulk to hold down costs, although costs have tripled.
Currently, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States receive the highest percentage of the Salvation Army's missions budget worldwide, according to spokesperson Jennifer Fagerstrom. Three months ago, the Salvation Army intensified its work to develop financial support within Russia. "Russia must start supporting Russia," Fagerstrom says.
Charitable giving is not yet an established practice in Russia. And Russians are still wary of releasing their money after being burned by financial scams in the early 1990s.
The Moscow city government appears to quietly consent to the Army's work. Salvation Army soup kitchens are the only ones that have operated without problems since the fall of communism, Fagerstrom says. On the other hand, the Salvation Army has received no breaks from the government in advancing its work. The organization pays the same high rents as noncharitable works. "Let's face it," Reid says. "People here want money."
Desperate times also have led to Salvation Army workers being robbed at gunpoint. An additional barrier to the work is the official Russian Orthodox Church position, which considers most other churches to be false faiths. But Fagerstrom adds that, even though the Orthodox hierarchy lists the Salvation Army as a cult, some Orthodox priests work with the group.
Copyright(c) 1998 by the author or Christianity Today,
courtesy of Ray Prigodich
(posted 9 January 1999)
"The Christian girls' shelter 'Island of Hope' may be closed by authorities," according to a voluntary aide in this shelter, Revol Pimenov. "At the beginning of December 1998 workers of the city procuracy announced that the children living in the Island of Hope shelter (Alexander Ogorodnikov, director) will be taken to a special reception center (regardless of their wishes or the wishes of their parents). Since that time, every two or three days the premises of the shelter have been inspected by employees of the Inspection on Affairs of Minors and of RONO, accompanied by police officers. Sometimes agents inspecting the buildings have been armed with machine guns.
"On 30 June of this year the government of Moscow adopted decree No. 500 which essentially closed the shelter. The administration of the shelter took the matter to arbitration court and now the case is under appeal. The shelter conducted all of the legal work since it does not have a regular Moscow attorney. The newspapers "Komsomol pravda," "Kommersant-Daily," and "Kuranty" have published information about the shelter that does not correspond to reality. Support for the shelter has been expressed by the Public Chamber of the presidency of Russia, deputy V.L. Sheinis, the editorial staff of the journal "Zakon i pravo," and others." (tr. by PDS)
FROM CHRISTIAN SHELTER TO SPECIAL CENTER
by Tatiana Ermolaeva
Nezavisimaia gazeta, 4 December 1998
City authorities have confiscated the building from "Island of Hope" and sold it, not heeding public opinion
The last public shelter in Moscow, perhaps, has been closed, which has been fearful for its existence over the course of three years. The Christian girls' shelter "Island of Hope" was formed in 1995 under the Christian Democratic Union of Russia (KhDSR). At first the government of Moscow treated the "children's" problem with consideration, granting KhDSR a long-term lease for an ancient stand-alone building which really became a bond of contention when in June of this year the city authorities cancelled its earlier order by its new order No. 500. Moscow Property then found a buyer and sold the building, which previously had not been subject to sale as a monument to the architecture of the second half of the eighteenth century, to a certain "Strelets Alliance" holding company. The arbitrage court, sitting in October of this year, rejected the complaint of the shelter's director, Alexander Ogorodnikov, that is, it recognized the sale of the building as legal. The main reasons of the Moscow government and prefecture of the eastern district consisted in the claim that the decree by which the shelter was given the building was not binding and the government had the right to renounce it at its discretion. Does this mean that the decisions of the Moscow government do not have any legal consequences?
The procuracy general initiated a verification of the "unlawful" activity of the director of the "Island of Hope" shelter. An official commission began work on 24 November in the shelter, but was forced to interrupt its activity on 27 November because of the "complexity" of the work in the presence of the press and an aide to State Duma deputy Viktor Sheinis. In accordance with the established goal--removal of the children from the shelter--the members of the commission composed several documents establishing the impossibility of having minors reside in the shelter. However the most important matter--the actual conditions of the girls' residence--is not mentioned in the document.
The authorities are taking steps for closing the shelter and placing the children in a special reception center. Meanwhile it should not be forgotten that children of Island of Hope are orphans whose parents are still alive. To return them to their "father's home" is the same thing as throwing them onto the street again.
On 25 November the Political Consultative Council of the presidency of Russia appealed to Yury Luzhkov to protect the Christian girls' shelter Island of Hope. Many Russian and foreign public organizations have spoken in defense of the shelter. (tr. by PDS)
additional information: GIRL'S SHELTER UNDER THREAT OF CLOSURE: ISLAND OF HOPE FOR CHILDREN, by Tatiana Ermolaeva, Nezavisimaia gazeta, 9 October 1998
(posted 7 January 1999)
The Council on Religious Affairs of the republic of Tatarstan told a "Radiotserkov" reporter that at the end of 1998, there were 141 registered Orthodox organizations, thirty protestant organizations, and 574 Muslim organizations. Commenting on these figures, the president of the Council of Christian Organizations of the republic of Tatarstan, attorney Anatoly Pogasy, who is a consultant for the Council of Religious Affairs of Tatarstan, said that at the present time protestant congregations, missions, and organizations in the republic are having great difficulties with registration in connection with the provisions of the new law on freedom of conscience and religious associations. "Protestants frequently are being refused rental of premises, which denies them the possibility of meetings anywhere," he emphasized. (tr by PDS)
Russian text at Radiotserkov
(posted 7 January 1999)
Charismatic movements strengthening their influence
by Tatiana Venslavskaia
Nezavisimaia gazeta--religii, 16 December 1998
In recent years in Russia various protestant denominations have begun to spread actively. A special place among them is occupied by Pentecostal movements. In just one of the Pentecostal associations, the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (SKhVE), in the Russian federation on 4 March 1998 there were 1165 churches and groups with a total of about 72,857 members. In 1994-1998, more than 14,000 persons joined SKhVE. In the same years this union built and acquired and subsequently reconstructed 131 houses of prayer. Another 18 buildings are under construction or in planning stages. Such a rate of development of pentecostalism in the country that is traditionally Orthodox forces one to give greater attention to this religious phenomenon.
"We Pentecostals are the oldest Christian denomination; we began our history on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples of Christ," the president of the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (SKhVE), Bishop Vladimir Moiseevich Murza, emphasized at the very beginning of the interview with a reporter from "NG-Religions." However, at the same time Vladimir Moiseevich did not establish the uninterrupted succession over the course of the two thousand years intervening between the event of Pentecost and the time of the official formation of the movement, that is, the beginning of the twentieth century or, more precisely, at 7:00 p.m. on the eve of 1901, in the USA. On that evening the young Methodist Charles Parham began to meditate about a change in his religious life, with which he was dissatisfied because when he compared himself with Christians of the apostolic age he did not find in the protestant religious life contemporary with him those evident spiritual gifts of which the Apostle Paul spoke and which in Parham's understanding should be the only evidences of "true" Christianity: the gifts of healing, prophecy, speaking in other tongues, and miracles.
Thirst for revival.
It is necessary to say that Parham was not original in his religious quests. It is characteristic of protestantism that, rejecting the experience of its predecessors, it strives to achieve the ideals of the early Christian congregations depicted in the Acts of the Apostles. We recall, for example, how the Baptists in the seventeenth century criticized the leaders of the Reformation in Europe and in England, and Adventists, emerging from the Baptist environment in the nineteenth century, in their turn called all protestant denominations "spiritually dead churches."
For many contemporaries of Parham it also seemed that it was time for Christianity to be renewed. This idea pervaded the revivalist movement of the nineteenth century in the United States. It exerted special influence on the Baptist and Methodist confessions. Revivalists called their spiritual predecessors "dead" congregations and set as their goal their invigoration and the restoration of the gifts received on the day of Pentecost. Within the bounds of this movement there arose congregations, which strove to fulfill and realize in this life all that is reported in the Acts and the apostolic epistles about the early Christians, as well theological schools where holy scripture was avidly studied. Parham's school was just such a group in which over the course of many evenings students prayed in vain for the descent of the Spirit. Finally one of the participants of these prayer meetings declared: "Really isn't it true that many of the incidents of baptism described in the Acts were accompanied not only by prayer but by definite actions; didn't someone lay hands, while praying, on those wishing to receive baptism?" Parham laid his hands on a girl and she immediately began speaking in "other" tongues. This was taken by those assembled as the discovery of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which had been lost in Christianity. Pentecostals consider that this was the main event in the life of Christianity since the time of the establishment of the church. Speaking in tongues was interpreted as a sign or evidence of the baptism by the Holy Spirit. From that time it became the distinguishing characteristic of the Pentecostal movement; whence also came the call for all believers to experience personally a "mini-Pentecost," that is, the descent of the Holy Spirit specifically unto them.
Baptism by the Holy Spirit, in the opinion of Pentecostals, is a fulfillment of Christ's command, "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved and whoever does not believe will be condemned," and it is considered the completion of the process of salvation and communicates to a person the "power of the future age," that is, the gift of speaking in new tongues, to handle serpents without harm, and to heal the sick. Voronaev, the founder of one of the Pentecostal movements in Russia, wrote in this way about baptism and its consequences for the believer: "All Christian organizations have deserted this rule, the Roman Catholic church and the Orthodox church, as well as Old Believers, Lutherans, and sectarians. Take, for example, the sectarian congregations of Adventists, Subbotniki, and Baptists. Do they have genuine baptism with those signs which accompanied it in the days of the apostles? In not a single one of these sectarian congregations do we find genuine baptism by the Holy Spirit. None of them have received baptism by the Holy Spirit."
Pentecostalism met a stormy hostile reception in many revivalistic congregations. One of the leaders of this movement, White, called Parham "the ruler of spiritual Sodom," and glossolalia, "satanic gibberish." In a number of places Pentecostals were beaten up. Nevertheless the proclamation of the doctrine of Parham began finding adherents in USA, Canada, and later in Europe.
The first Pentecostal organizations appeared in the territory of Finland, a former portion of the Russian empire, in 1907. Among the first who sided with this movement were Evangelical Christians, whose teachings are extremely close to the Baptists. In 1908 the magazine "Khristianin," published by Evangelical Christians of Russia, warned its readers about the appearance of pentecostalism and about the danger of falling into this heresy. The onset of activity of Pentecostals in Russia was achieved through Baptist and Evangelical congregations. Pentecostals who joined these congregations in time created schism and formed their own groups on the basis of it. In Russia pentecostalism was represented by several streams who called themselves after the family names of their leaders: Evangelical Christian in the Apostolic Spirit, Smorodintsy; Christians of Evangelical Faith, Voronaevtsy; Christian of Evangelical Faith, Shmidtovtsy; Evangelical Christian Pentecostals, Leontievtsy; Evangelical Christian Holy Zionists, Murashkovtsy; Sabbatarian Pentecostals. They all caused havoc with evangelistic activity not only among Baptists and Evangelical Christians, but also among other Russian denominations, Molokans, Dukhobors, Khlysty, and Skoptsy.
Union of Pentecostals and Baptists
In 1944 the Church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (TsEKhB) was formed, uniting Baptists and Evangelical Christians who had consonant doctrines. The Council on Religious Affairs of the Council of Ministers of USSR suggested that the Pentecostals join this religious novelty. Although such a unification presented a rather complex situation, some of the Pentecostal leaders, in order to maintain a centralized administrative structure and not leave congregations without direction, agreed to enter into the union that was being imposed upon them with EKhB on condition that they reject the fundamental provision of their doctrine, "speaking in tongues," inasmuch as the theologians of the Evangelical Christians and Baptists disapproved of it. In joint conferences in August 1945 both sides agreed to recognize that unknown tongues without interpretation was fruitless. Pentecostals were required to refrain from praying in tongues in public meetings in view of the possibility that in meetings various phenomena could occur alongside the work of the Holy Spirit, which could violate good order; "speaking in tongues" was permitted only in prayer at home. Pentecostals who united with Evangelical Christians-Baptists, became known as Baptists.
But despite the prohibition of Pentecostals' "speaking in tongues" in meetings, they violated this requirement; besides, they preached the necessity of the baptism by the Holy Spirit. This irritated Evangelical Christian-Baptist leaders. In April 1946 the leadership of VSEKhB (All-union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists) sent to all senior presbyters the following letter: "We have received information about direct violation of the August Agreement on the part of KhVE both in the sense of the use of unknown tongues in public meetings as well as in the form of intense propaganda of the washing of feet. . . . Such deliberate and often persistent violation of the August Agreement threatens schism within our united ranks and sows discord, disagreement, and misunderstanding in the hearts of God's children. We did not open the doors of hospitality to our KhVE brothers and sisters so that they, in coming into our home, could begin establishing their procedures and break up our united family." Another letter said: "We cannot overlook several sad phenomena . . . . We ask that such 'missionary' work in our united brotherhood cease and that questions about other tongues and washing of feet not be raised. We have information about several simply disgraceful phenomena throughout the country, which are ascribed to the Holy Spirit but which have nothing in common with Him."
The wave of conflicts among believers placed in doubt the very possibility of union of congregations of KhVE and EKhB. For many Pentecostals such a union represented an impermissible compromise equivalent to rejection of Christ. In connection with this over the course of many decades in Russia there developed in parallel two branches of pentecostalism, registered and unregistered.
The changes taking place in the 1990s in the social and political life of the country permitted the legalization of the activity of the formerly prohibited congregations. At the beginning of 1991, on the foundation of a number of unregistered churches of Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals) there was created the Russian Associated Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith--Pentecostals (ROSKhVE). These congregations, previously having undergone official registration, created several large Christians associations and missions which in 1995 united in the Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith--the Church of God. In 1997 extreme disagreements arose in ROSKhVE over the religious views of the movement: Presbyterians, Charismatics from the church "Dew" (Rosa), as well as representatives of "New Generation." The question naturally arose: what serves as the unifying platform for these groups? The doctrinal basis has ceased to serve as a foundation and all that remained was the "juridical" basis. Many of the movements that had joined ROSKhVE would not be able to achieve reregistration in accordance with the requirements of the new law on freedom of conscience, adopted in 1997. Therefore these groups entered into a compromise in order to get around the law. Obviously, a formal declaration by ROSKhVE of a wish to unite with the union headed by Vladimir Murza, which was made at the third congress of the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith Pentecosals of the Russian Federation by the president of ROSKhVE Sergei Riakovsky, could hardly be foreseen in the near future on a theological basis. It is possible that we will become witnesses to the formation of still another religious union that pursues primarily nonreligious goals. We note also that at the present time the leadership of SKhVE is much more open to communication with representatives of the press than are representatives of ROSKhVE, which, in all likelihood, is to be explained by the more "traditional" orientation of the Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith.
Questions of education and new congregations
In the words of the president of SKhVE, Vladimir Moiseevich Murza, the number of Pentecostals who are members of his union has grown since 1995 by 25 times. Although the leaders of SKhVE are convinced that such growth is based mainly on the action within the world of the Holy Spirit, there is reason to suggest that not merely prayer has been helping Pentecostals to swell their ranks. At least even they mention, not without pride, their educational instutitions, three theological institutes with three-year curricula (in Moscow, Siberia, and Kareliia) and fifteen Bible schools. The Bible schools include a large circle of attenders and provide basic education for members of congregations. Sometimes in these schools methods that are not quite usual are used. Thus, the Bible school in St. Petersburg conducts classes for new converts in such a way that they live and study over the course of two weeks in a specially prepared building thanks to which "these two weeks in isolation from worldly life produce enormous changes in their lives."
Among the educational institutions at a higher level of training, the first, opened six years ago, was the Moscow institute which, according to Deacon Paul Din Boldvin, trains ministers for work on the territory of the former Soviet Union. At the same time there is no need for students from Siberia and the Far East to travel to Moscow inasmuch as in 1994 a theological institute was opened in Irkutsk, the academic side of which also is directed by a foreigner, a missionary from the Assemblies of God, Alan Alge. According to a report from a teacher of this institution, Tom Wespetal, in 1998 the three-year curriculum should be replaced by a two-year program "in order to bring the institute into harmony with the strategy of the development of Bible schools in the CIS."
On the whole, while reading issues of the magazine of the United Eurasian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith, "The Reconciler," one gets the impression that the educational program of the Russian Pentecostals is under the control of their fellow believers from USA and other western countries; the greater part of the pastoral exhortations, testimonies, and theological explanations are written by foreigners. According to SKhVE data, there are 53 congregations in Moscow. Although this figure is not so small, the number of members of each such church is not large, which perhaps could be explained by the rather boring structure of the meetings themselves. The unctious and pious sermons, testimonies from "brothers" and "sisters," and the prayers in elevated tones, interspersed with the singing of hymns about Jesus in contemporary beats, can hardly attract very many people. It should also be noted that the majority of Pentecostals manifest, in Dostoevsky's words, a "certain illiteracy." There are many incorrect expressions and mispronunciations of words in their speech, spoken in foreign accents. For example, in a sermon from the pulpit one can hear several times the repeated "I was lost and was found." Obviously, people will be attracted to such services only with the help of active missionary activity. (tr. by PDS)
(posted 5 January 1999)
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
by His Holiness Alexy II Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
To All Bishops, Priests, Monastics And All Faithful Children of the Russian Orthodox Church 1998/1999
Thou has shone forth, O Christ,
from a Virgin,
the wise Sun of Righteousness,
and a star has shown Thee
to be in a cave,
accommodating the Boundless.
Thou didst teach the Magi
how to worship Thee,
and we with them
magnify Thee:
O Giver of life, glory to
Thee!
Troparion for Great Vespers of the Feast Day
Beloved in the Lord your graces archpastors, reverend pastors and all church servants, honourable monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters, children of our Holy Church living in Russia and in many countries of the world on all continents!
It is with a sense of profound spiritual joy from all of my heart, overflowing with the most elevated feelings, that I congratulate you, my beloved, with today's great feast day of the Nativity in the Flesh of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The first testimony to Christ's Nativity were the words of the angel of the Lord to the shepherds of Bethlehem, who were keeping night vigil by their flock. 'And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord... And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased"', - is how the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke narrates the great event of Christ's Nativity (Lk 2:10-11; 13-14).
During the days when we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour, the Church of Christ calls us to pious reflection, good deeds and joyful prayer of thanksgiving. Our Nativity prayers are a continuation of the doxology which the angels sang on Christmas night and through which the whole world - both heavenly and earthly - was brought to faith: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased'.
In the hymns of the feast day the Holy Church calls the Nativity of Christ a mystery revealed by God to mankind in the Incarnation of the Son of God, for 'today God has come to the earth and man has ascended into Heaven'. She compares the Coming of Christ the Saviour with the radiance of the Divine Light illumining all creation; the Church praises Christ's Nativity, calling it a 'great and most glorious miracle', for 'a Virgin has given birth to the Maker of all', for 'today the condemnation of Adam is overthrown and Paradise is opened up to us', and henceforth 'Christ reigns for all eternity'.
My brother archpastors, pastors and children of the Church, all dear to my heart! As we celebrate the Nativity of Christ, let us offer on this great day praise and thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour for the mercies He has granted us in this past year, while all of the trials that have visited us we must accept with the belief and hope that the almighty succour of God will help us to overcome them. Today we ask for the Lord's blessing on the coming year, adding our voice to that of the great fourth-century ascetic St. Ephraim the Syrian:
'On this day, O Lord, shed Thy mercies upon us in abundance!'. In the past year many deeds have been accomplished by our Church and people of God, in many things our many labours have been crowned with success. I became convinced of this during my pastoral visits to the dioceses of Tambov, St. Petersburg, Tobolsk, Minsk, Polotsk and Vitebsk, as well as the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, which occupies a special place in my life, the Monastery of St. Nicholas in Vyazhischsk near Novgorod and the Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God on Konevits Island.
At the end of August there was the six-hundred year anniversary of the founding of the Stavropegic Monastery of St. Savva of Storozhevsk near Zvenigorod in the diocese of Moscow. The relics of St. Savva were translated from St. Daniel's Monastery in Moscow, where they had been kept, to the Monastery of St. Savva of Storozhevsk. The highlight of the remarkable jubilee of this ancient Russian monastery was the return of the relics of the saint who was pleasing to God to his own monastery.
Brothers and sisters! We are drawing ever closer to the great jubilee of 2000 years since the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The jubilee will be widely celebrated throughout the Christian world. Russia, which has now revived her national sacred treasure of the Church of Christ the Saviour, will offer this majestic cathedral as a gift to our Lord on the occasion of His Most Glorious Nativity. God willing, we hope that in the jubilee year we will be able to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the main sanctuary of this majestic Moscow church and consecrate it as before to the Nativity of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
My dears! 1999 is a year of remarkable anniversaries. I will note but one outstanding Russian jubilee, the meaning of which extends beyond national boundaries - the five-hundred year anniversary of the Gennadian Bible, so called after the holy hierarch St. Gennadius, Archbishop of Novgorod. At the turn of the fifteenth century he brought together in a single compilation all of the books of the Bible, giving us the Slavonic Bible. It became the prototype of all Bibles published in Russia from during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Gennadian Bible was the foundation of all other Bibles in the Slav countries.
With God's help in the coming year we must complete what we have left unfinished, bring to perfection much of what we have already done and in all things strive for the maximum benefit of God's Church, for all of those near to us and far away from us, for as St. Paul teaches us: 'Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour' (1 Cor 10:24). From each of us there are required constant efforts and serious work on all areas of church life. Parish life is to develop, it is essential to revive and strengthen the monasteries, set up new ecclesiastical institutions of study on all levels, especially Sunday schools. A most important task is the formation of the Orthodox Christian family and Christian upbringing of children, work with youth, soldiers, care for the sick, invalids, the elderly and the infirm, extra help for prisoners and much, much more.
Need I speak of how there should be greater organization of all aspects of church life, of unity and cooperation between clergy and laity, between parish and bishop? For it is with one mind that St. Paul calls us to 'strive side by side for the faith' (Phil 1:27). The strengthening of the unity of our Church and of all Holy Orthodoxy, the creative, tireless building up of inter-Orthodox relations is the work not only of bishops and priests, but of the laity too.
In His High Priestly prayer for Christians our Lord called to the Heavenly Father , 'I do not pray that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them form the evil one... As Thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world' (Jn 17:15, 18). The Church is not of this world, yet the cares of every person living in the world are exceedingly dear to her. That is why she strives to transfigure and beautify earthly life, consecrate it with the moral norms given to us by God and arrange all of this according to the will of God. It is on this path that we are open to cooperation with people of all kinds of world-views and convictions.
In extending her active love to people, society and the entire human family, the Holy Church rejoices at peoples' success and commiserates at the woes that unfortunately are no less than before. Terrible poverty, the failure to pay people their well-earned salaries, the excessively high level of crime and immorality in society, interethnic strife, the crisis in education, culture and the health service are all problems constantly encountered by people who are spiritually sustained by our Holy Church. But let us not fall into destructive despair because of these troubles - let us pray for those who suffer and labour for the attainment of a better life. And may God grant that the state authorities, society and every person of good will do all that they can to overcome the present chaos.
I would again take this opportunity to remind everyone that it is our Christian and civil duty to abide in harmony and good-willed cooperation with each other, to be tolerant of each other and render all assistance and support to those in need. My beloved, I wish all of you patience and wisdom in solving the difficult problems of society, which can be overcome only by peaceful means. Yes, today the multimillion flock of our Church lives in different countries, consists of various peoples and cultures, yet as Orthodox Christians we are one, and the strength of our unity comes from the fact that we abide in a single Mother Church. Your graces the archpastors, esteemed fathers, dear brothers and sisters! Again and again with all of my heart I congratulate each one of you with love in the Lord on this radiant holiday of the Nativity of Christ, overflowing with truly royal majesty. I also offer you my sincere greetings for the coming New Year, a new year of the Lord's goodness.
St. Ephraim the Syrian, turning to the Lord with a humble and yet joyful, radiant petition, called out: 'Receive now the voice of our prayer and what we pray for in words may Thou accomplish in deed!'. May all of our prayers and labours be such. And I with all my heart desire that the mercy of God accompany each of you, my beloved, on all the paths of your life.
+Alexy II Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
The Nativity of Christ 1998/1999
Moscow
courtesy of Fr Victor Sokolov
(posted 5 january 1999)
Regarding terrors of the twenty-first century
There are many indicators that permit one to predict the appearance of new terrors, not merely those based on illusions but those that are fully justified. Thus, for example, the present development of the world economy is increasingly leading to a situation where the heavy labor of hundreds of millions of people in countries of the "second" and "third" world is doomed to ineffectuality and the enormous income made by means of financial speculation is consistently enriching the population of the "first" world. Another danger, which also is completely real, arises in the case of the irresponsibly interference of humankind with nature proper. Cloning, various devices for manipulating the genetic code and consciousness, and perspectives on the phenomena of beings in which human nature is treated from the point of view of technology can have a powerful effect not only in dividing society but also in bringing irreversable harm to inheritance and degeneration of the humanity of the individual and the human race as a whole.
Regarding belief in God and atheism
There is no contradiction between belief and knowledge. However all times and peoples have disputed whether scientific data can confirm mystical experience. This is a dispute not of religion with science but rather with the ideology of scientism which assumes the role of speaking in the name of science. I submit that it never will be completed: some will interpret scientific discoveries as evidence for God and others as justification for agnosticism. However, in itself the dispute does not have strong effect upon the religious choice of the individual. Faith arises and strengthens not because of rational conclusions; it is mysteriously given to the individual by God. It is possible to believe even though one has frequently been persuaded of the absurdity of religion from the point of view of reason. It is possible to prove for one's self the existence of God and to see miracles, but not to be a believing person. It is not said idly that Orthodoxy is not proven but is demonstrated.
Regarding brutality and tolerance
Whether there will be less brutality in the world depends on the extent that people learn to coexist and to display tolerance to the cultures, beliefs, convictions, and national distinctives of each other. After all, violence usually does not arise in a vacuum; it arises as the consequence of injustice and the expansion and clash of various interests, indeed of any attempt to impose the will of one person upon another. Contemporary relations between states and nations have not become less harsh nor void of contradictions; conflicts have begun to occur not immediately on the field of battle but in the sphere of the most brutal political, economic, and informational competition, as a result of which many people are doomed as before to deprivation and suffering and even to destruction. If behind the facade of democracy there is concealed the attempt to establish or strengthen the dominance of some people, groups, or nations over others, then in the end this will lead to new revolutions and wars which could even be global. The only way, in my view, to improve relations between human communities is to reject decisively any attempt "to remake" one another and to make races, traditions, and ethnicities equal not merely in minimal rights but also in the possibilities for real participation in the adoption of decisions on any level. Without respect, or at least tolerance, for the laws and customs of various people we shall not escape new conflicts.
Concerning attempts to create paradise on earth
The dream of creating paradise on earth periodically seizes people with various degrees of intensity. The idea of building communism was one of its variants. In itself the dream of paradise on earth, in my opinion, testifies only to the limitless potential for good that God originally placed within humanity. At the same time, attempts to accomplish it testify to ignorance of the divine revelation to people. Knowledge about it and opposition to the will of God is an extreme form of evil. This dream has subsumed various systems of thought, including Marxism and the related sinful power-hungry bolshevism. The irrefutable laws of divine providence resulted in the situation where attempts to realize the communist dream engendered first totalitarian violenc and subsequently, as a result of the natural fatigue of the ideological empire, the idea of the building of communism (i.e. paradise) "in a single country." In doing so, as a final alibi for the insubstantial idea it was necessary to use all those same commandments of God, which were reformulated into the "moral code of the building of communism." The Lord always has disgraced the attempt to substitute self for God and to become masters of the fate of the world, humanity, or even the separate individual. He will also disgrace any new such attempts and they, of course, will be undertaken. On whatever basis--political, nationalistic, technocratic, economic--a new tower of Babel may be constructed, it will again be destroyed by human sinfulness which we are powerless to conquer without God.
About dictators
It would not be appropriate to declare any country or any governmental figure as potentially dangerous, as frequently is done nowadays. May God grant that the threat to peace never come from Russia. However, neither in our country nor anywhere outside its borders has the possibility for the appearance of national or even global figures or groups who aspire to the right to impose their will disappeared. Persons who try to restrict the God-given freedom of others exist, as they have in the past. Their main difference from the dictators of the past, it seems, is that the means by which they try to reach their goals have changed. If earlier they used armies and the apparatus of repression, now they can do so effectively with new economic and informational technology, abuse of the achievements of science, and the like.
About boredom
I think that people will suffer from this in the coming century. Boredom even now is the lot of various social strata, primarily in the well-to-do countries. To consider that at the beginning of a new century, or even by its end, the problems in the world will become many times fewer is rather naive. History knows of many societies that have imagined that they have accomplished everything and overcome all difficulties and contradictions. At that very moment the most complex period has begun for them. It is not in vain that the Bible states: "When they say 'peace and security,' then suddenly destruction will come upon them. . ." (1 Thess 5.3).
About the unknown
Rationally the most important things will remain unknown to the end: the supreme meaning of the existence of the individual and one's fate in eternity and relationship with God and, to a certain extent, with other people. We can only advance in our understanding of these aspects of life to the extent that we accumulate information, formal life experiences, and scientific knowledge, but we never can say that we have learned it all. As a Christian and a pastor I believe and know that the answer to these questions can be revealed to a person only by the Lord himself.
Relations between men and women
Unfortunately the passing century rejected many calls for divinely inspired moral values on which honorable relations between the sexes and a strong family always have been built, which is the only basis for full-fledged education of children. The obtrusive propaganda of corruption and debauchery, the horrifying number of divorces, abortions, and children abandoned by their parents, the recent disputes about so-called alternative forms of the family--all of this forces one seriously to consider the maintenance of a worthwhile life for future generations. If humanity does not manage to get rid of these destructive tendencies--and any sin destroys not only the individual but also the family and society--civilization will inevitably come to an end. The teaching of the church and historical experience of various nations warn us about this.
Sources of human joy
Monastic solitude is the portion of the chosen, but the ministry of people who have forsaken the world for the sake of prayer for the world and for the sake of solitary contemplation of eternity is very important for people who are "in the world." I hope that there will be more of those people for whom faith and a religious motivation for conduct will become the principal contents of their lives. All the rest--family, striving for business or other creative success, means of spending free time in an interesting activity--I suggest will continue to be present in people's lives as they always have. The main thing is that in every sphere of existence people fulfill the eternal moral law upon which the worthy and full life is based.
MN note: The most holy patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus, Alexis II, is the fifteenth primate of the Russian Orthodox church since the inception of the patriarchate in Rus in 1589. Patriarch Alexis (secular name, Alexis Mikhailovich Ridiger) was born 23 February 1929 in Tallin, Estonia. He has long experience of work both in the parish, and as administrator of a diocese, and as the administrator of affairs in the central church administration, as well as in inter-church and international relations. He was elected and elevated to the seat of the Moscow patriarchate in June 1990.
Patriarch Alexis has devoted great attention to the establishment with Russia of new interrelations between the state and church. In so doing he has persistently maintained the principle of the separation between the mission of the church and the functions of the state and their mutual noninterference in each other's affairs. At the same time he considers that the church's ministry to people and the state's service to society require mutual and free cooperation between ecclesiastical, publich, and state institutions. The patriarch has continually called for prevention or cessation of violence, calming of passions, and recognition of personal responsibility for one's own fate and the fate of society.
He is not only the head of the whole Russian Orthodox church but also the bishop of the city of Moscow. Patriarch Alexis has devoted much attention to matters of the unity of all Orthodox churches for a joint testimony to the world for the truth of Christ. Patriarch Alexis considers practical cooperation among various Christian confessions for the needs of the contemrporary world as a Christian duty and a means of fulfilling Christ's commandment about unity. Peace and concord in society, to which Patriarch Alexis has insistently called, necessarily includes respectful human relationships and social cooperation among adherents of various religions and world views.
Moscow News has received answers to its questionnaire from many well known people.
(tr. by PDS)
Russian text at Moscow News
(posted 3 January 1999)
The Moscow city organization of the party "Russia's Democratic Choice" (MGO DVR) and one of its leaders Sergei Yushenkov advocated the "immediate prohibition of the 'Russian National Unity" (RNE) party and of other nazi and extremist organizations in Russia," as well as their periodical publications. In a resolution "On the threat of fascism," adopted by the conference of MGO DVR, there also is the demand for "immediate arrest and trial of the head of RNE, Alexander Barkashov. MGO DVR called attention to how "the leaders of KPRF have openly adopted a position of nazism and are arousing the basest feelings, xenophobia and antisemitism, and are demanding the restriction of freedom of the press." The conference demanded that authorities "initiate and take to court" criminal cases with regard to political extremists and antisemites in the State Duma, the deputies Albert Makashov and Viktor Iliukhin. (tr. by PDS)
COORDINATING COUNCIL OF CENTRIST FORCES
Segodnia, 25 December 1998
At yesterday's session of the coordinational council of centrist political forces the following members were confirmed: Egor Gaidar, Boris Nemtsov, Boris Fedorov, Anatoly Chubais, and Alexander Yakovlev. The membership of the coordinating council also includes Tver governor Vladimir Platov and leaders of the political parties and movements that have joined the coalition and have the right of participating in the 1999 elections, including Sergei Kirienko, Konstantin Borovoy, Lev Ponomarev, and others. The coordinating council of the coalition expressed "profound concern" over recent commentaries and versions regarding the murder of Galina Starovoitova. The declaration noted that "efforts are being made to work up public opinion and consequences of the murder whose political nature is obviously to everyone." The council also adopted an appeal "To citizens of Russia" in regard to the antisemitic declarations of a number of deputies from KPRF. It contains the demand that the procuracy general bring Albert Makashov to criminal account for inciting national enmity. (tr by PDS)
(posted 2 January 1999)
Political results of the year [second half of article]
. . . The failure of the liberal ideology is nothing in comparison with the complete clinical impotence of the ideology of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF). At the "moment of truth" these "communists" manifested an absolute "existence of the absence" of any ideas--economic, governmental, social, politics proper--and a pathological fear of any kind of responsibility.
Thus there inevitably occurred the final move to a position of antisemitism. As is known, popular and political antisemitism always has constituted the favorite (in essence, the only) hobby of the Russian bureaucracy--whether tsarist, soviet, or antisoviet. This spirit has always pervaded the "bathhouse conversations" of leaders of KPRF. But there is an enormous difference (although its abstract significance often is not understood) between a "hobby" and the principal public political slogan. For example, drinking and debauchery are loved by the nomenklatura even more than conducting judeophobic conversations. But it is hard to imagine that drunkenness and debauchery could become the principal public slogan of the party. These activities "supposedly" are concealed. Up to now antisemitism also "supposedly" has been concealed. But in 1998 came the "moment of truth" and the party openly embraced the slogan "beat the zhids."
This is the sign of the final intellectual and moral capitulation of KPRF. It is the final refusal to evaluate the policies of one or another minister and government or some oligarch, and a refusal to answer the question of what policy could replace it. Instead of all this they simply go over to total condemnation of the other; they endlessly revel in the identity of this minister's (or oligarch's) grandmother. From the world of bitter reality they go over to the world of judeophobic fantasies, from "supposedly adult" existence to the existence of angry infantilism. Having taken a seat "in the corner" of judeophobia, the party has finally gotten a new name--KPRF, the "xenophobic party of the Russian federation" [in Russian, "xenophobia" begins with the letters "ks...", tr. note]
Sitting in the corner is easy. Getting out of it is hard. Flying from the contemporary world into the medieval world with its witch hunts and scapegoating is the most dangerous course for politics in reality. One decides for such a course only under conditions of total hopelessness. When one has nothing to say about some question all that remains is to take up ventriloquism. After all, strictly speaking there can be only one conclusion for KPRF: either to become marginalized in politics or finally to marginalize the country and seize power. Either course of action is something like death for Ziuganov--who is by no means a Hitler!--and the despondent bureaucrats of his milieu.
But Ziuganov is not worried. He is sure that antisemitism, like everything else, will peacefully sink into the quicksand of Russian politics like the aimless ranting of fools.
And so I wish you happy new year, and new political luck! The mire of 99 will replace the mire of 98. (tr. by PDS)
(posted 2 January 1999)
On 23 December in the Department of External Church Relations (OVTsS) of the Moscow patriarchate, on the initiative of the chairman of OVTsS, there was a meeting of heads and represenstatives of the traditional Russian religious associations--the Russian Orthodox church, Islamic societies, Judaism, and Buddhism. At the meeting the question of strengthening in Russia interreligious dialogue and cooperation directed toward the coordination of efforts of traditional religious of our country for the spiritual rebirth of society was discussed.
It was decided to create an Interreligious Council of Russia, in which representatives of the four tradition religions, who have maintained dialogue since the beginning of the Soviet Union, will be able to discuss together problems facing contemporary Russian society in an attempt to work out on them a common position for a testimony before the face of the authorities and people. The council will have a permanent executive secretariat, supported by all four initiators of the process. In the near future it is planned to make the council open for participation of other religious associations that have been in Russia traditionally, as well as for cooperation within the boundaries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and in a broader international context.
One of the first practical tasks of the council will be convening a peacemaking forum of traditional religions of Russia and organizing interreligious mutual action in connection with the upcoming celebration of the 2,000 anniversary of the birth of Christ and the start of the third millennium. (tr. by PDS)
Russian text at Moscow patriarchate
(posted 1 January 1999)
Russian Orthodox church suspends participation in the World Council of Churches
The Russian Orthodox church has suspended its participation in the work of the World Council of Churches, the chief citadel of the world wide ecumenical movement (some understand this to mean the maximal drawing together of the existing Christian confessions, while others see it as the possibility for attracting protestants to the truth of Orthodox doctrine). The decision for the suspension was adopted at the last session of 1998 of the Holy Synod of RPTs under the chairmanship of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus. The moratorium will be in effect until the completion of the work of a reconciliation commission for overcoming the disagreements, which includes representatives of the Orthodox church and WCC. Its work is expected to take about three years.
The crisis in relations between the protestant majority and the Orthodox minority in WCC, which unites 325 Christian denominations from 100 countries, has grown over three decades. Thus, in 1968 in Upsala, Sweden, the ecumenical majority viewed the refusal of Orthodox to concelebrate and to take communion together with Anglicans and protestants as inability to adjust to the spirit of the times. In 1975 at Nairobi, Kenya, the Orthodox protested in vain against a resolution on ordination of women as priests. In 1991 in Canberra, Australia, disagreements arose over the question of the theological recognition on the part of WCC of "spirits of local culture," pagan indigenous cults. And the last straw was the agenda of the assembly of WCC in December 1998 in Harare: review of the possibility of blessing same-sex marriages and ordination of homosexuals as priests.
The patriarchate claims that the suspension of participation of the Russian Orthodox church in the work of WCC should not be viewed as the triumph of antiecumenicism or a victory of isolationists and fundamentalists (insistence on suspension of participation of RPTs in WCC has come from representatives of Orthodox monasticism more than from others). RPTs hopes that inter-Christian dialogue will be renewed after the "ecumenical economy has been somewhat improved." However these hopes can hardly be expected to be fully realized, since the farther they go the more distinctly appear the contradictory goals which Orthodox and protestant participants in WCC are pursuing. (tr by PDS)
HOLY SYNOD APPROVES ORTHODOX NEGOTIATIONS WITH WCC
from press
release of Moscow patriarchate, 29 December 1998
On 28-29 December the Holy Synod met in regular session under the chairmanship of Patriarch Alexis II. . . .
...The Holy Synod heard a report from the chairman of OVTsS [Department of External Church Relations] Metropolitan Kirill regarding the participation of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox church in the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held 3-14 December 1998 in Harare, Zimbabwe. Having approved the position of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox church and adherence on the part of the delegation to the decisions of the Inter-Orthodox conference in Thessaloniki (29 April - 2 May 1998), the Holy Synod expressed its satisfaction that the summary document of the Inter-Orthodox conference in Thessaloniki was jointly and unanimously presented by the Orthodox delegations to the WCC assembly as an agreed-upon pan-Orthodox position with regard to the World Council of Churches. The Holy Synod welcomed the decision of the eight WCC assembly to follow the recommendation of the Inter-Orthodox meeting in Thessaloniki for the creation of a special commission of WCC and representatives of Orthodox churches for working out new structural forms for WCC which would be acceptable for Orthodox and would reflect the ecclesiastical self-conception. On the basis of the results of the special commission's work and pan-Orthodox agreement, the Holy Syod will hold a discussion regarding participation of the Russian Orthodox church in the World Council of Churches. (tr. by PDS)
REPORT OF ROC WITHDRAWAL FROM WCC
Religion Today, 31 December 1998
The Russian Orthodox Church has withdrawn from the World Council of Churches, the Russian news service Itar-Tass said. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, chaired by Patriarch Alexy the Second, confirmed the action Dec. 29. The Church said it was suspending participation until problems discussed during a conference in Greece last spring are resolved. A commission is expected to take three years addressing the problems.
...Orthodox churches have repeatedly called for withdrawal from the World Council of Churches because of theological and moral differences with Protestants. The Orthodox churches "are shocked by the appearance in Protestant churches of clergymen belonging to the sexual minorities, as well as of women clergymen," Itar-Tass said. Orthodox churches, which make up about 25% of the WCC membership, also have protested their inability to make an impact on decisions in the world council, which sets policy by majority vote. - from Religion Today, December 31, 1998
courtesy of Ray Prigodich
(posted 1 January 1999)
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