Transcript
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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: I want just to say that it is such a blessing that the Lord gave us in using that we can express our love for Him. I remember that when we were in prison the music and the songs which were in our hearts was a lot of comfort for us, because in the darker cell and behind the closed doors where nobody goes, yet the songs and what the Lord put in our heart is always there. Just on instance I want to tell you. The cell where we were,
we were 60 women and one of the girls which was there had a really hard time. She was almost going mentally and she would take her head and bump it to the walls. She didn't have any comfort, and she didn't have hope, any friend, nobody. Sometimes she wouldn't take the water so when you talk with her, but the woman when I could be able to sing to her a little bit this softened her heart. Then she would be receptive. I remember days when
we would take a walk. They would allow us for 10 minutes to go outside and have fresh air before we were under the ground. We would take a walk and I would sing for her. This song was the song which I sang often for her and she would be receptive and she would start to cry, and she realizes the Lord is there watching. I hope that I could bring, or each one of us could bring, hope to her. I know that girl was really strengthened by that and I'm really happy and thankful for how much
the Lord did for us. Special appreciation for the songs because I believe that the Lord is a sensitive person and He really loves that. For us, especially for me, to be able to sing praises to the Lord means a lot because it makes His heart to be thrilled and I'm really happy to be in fellowship with that. I'm thankful to be free and I'm really happy to be here today.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: Continuing on the note of good news, it's good news indeed that you're here. You've come from West Virginia, you've come from Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, and many other places. We're so glad that you're here. Another piece of good news that received yesterday afternoon was about Balys Gajauskas. As you know, we've been interceding for him for a long time and during
this past year there have been three times we'd heard that he'd been released from exile and that he would be allowed to return to Lithuania, and then in turn be able to leave Lithuania to come to this country. Indeed, his relatives in California had hoped that he would have been released in time to come to this conference. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case, but we have learned that he will be
released and this time, this will be the fourth time we've heard of this, but it looks as though it's going to be for real this time and that he will be allowed to return to Lithuania on the 7th of November, which is two days time. All the preparation has been made for his immigration to this country. We can't welcome him now. We certainly can welcome him in the spirit and maybe we'll have him in our
presence next year. Now it's my great pleasure to introduce Father Victor. I've known him for the past 10 years. The first time I met him was on the Princeton campus. We'd had a conference. It was a very ad hoc kind of conference on the university campus on the subject of the challenge of Christianity in the Soviet Union to the West. We never
realized that in the past 10 years that so many good things would have happened along with some of the very bad things. Father Victor is an extremely busy man. He's busy about his task as a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and also as dean of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. Also, for his leadership in the Russian section
of the Voice of America. By the way, we are exchanging our views with those in the Soviet Union through the good graces of the Voice of America. That is indeed the case. It's fascinating to think that we will be reaching out to our beloved brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union through the good channel and through the grace of the Voice of
America. Later on you'll be hearing from a good friend, Bishop [Basil?], who is so well known in the Soviet Union because of his voice. It's good to know that every Sunday morning that his voice is heard by millions of people in the Soviet Union. Now Father Victor, who has just recently returned from the summer in the Soviet Union. Father Victor.
POTAPOV: Since we've been hearing all this good news from Dr. [Gordon?] and John, I would like to continue with a couple of more pieces of good news for you. A little over a week ago the Russian Orthodox deacon, Vladimir Rusak was released from prison. As you know, he wrote a stinging attack
on church-state relations in the Soviet Union. He wrote a three volume history of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1917 to the present day. In 1983 he wrote an open letter to the Vancouver General Assembly of the World Council of Churches. Father Vladimir, who was arrested in 1986 in the
mists of Glasnost and Perestroika, was finally released. I spoke to him yesterday by phone. I interviewed him for the Voice of America over the telephone. I told him that I was coming here to this conference, that I was going also to California; to Los Angeles and to San Francisco to speak before groups of people who played a very important role in his fate by praying for him, by speaking up in his defense. He begged me to
convey his heartfelt thanks to everyone who kept him in his prayers. God willing, maybe at the next conference, Dr. Gordon, we can have him come and speak because he wants to immigrate.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: (inaudible) Maybe next time.
POTAPOV: Maybe next time. The other news that I wanted to convey to you before I come to my formal presentation is that, just a few days ago we received word of the formation of a small group of Christians in Vilnius, Lithuania, Riga, and Moscow who are putting together a watchdog group of Christians who will be seeing that
religious literature which can now be imported into the Soviet Union much easily than it was in the past, that it be distributed equally among all people free of charge. That's something that we have to keep studying, the formation of that group and their activities. They just announced their formation. We don't now exactly how they will concretely be fulfilling their work, but that's
something that will be developing and we should obviously keep our eye on it. As Dr. Gordon said, I recently returned from the Soviet Union where for several weeks I was a correspondent for the Voice of America covering the millennium celebrations in Moscow and in Kiev honoring the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. I would like to tell you a little bit
about my impressions. I was able to gather interesting statistics concerning church life in the Soviet Union. As you know, Soviet hierarchs visiting the West would always, when asked about statistics, they would always, we don’t keep statistics. However, it seems that statistics were being kept and at the General Council the Russian Orthodox Church which
met during the millennium celebrations, these statistics were made public. For example, we now know that from 1971 until 1988 there were 30 million Baptisms performed in the Russian Orthodox Church alone. There's a little difficulty with that figure, because we don't now if
they are counting the unofficial, unregistered Baptisms or not. Most likely they're not, because how can you count Baptisms about which you know nothing? If 30 million, which is the official statistics, is true you can double that, at least. That is not to speak about the Baptists, the Pentecostals, and others. That's a very impressive figure, 30 million,
especially when you take into consideration the fact that the church has no way of proselytizing, of fulfilling their obligation to the missionaries. Notwithstanding the fact, 30 million Baptisms were performed. All of the major church services in honor of the 1000-year jubilee performed by a large number of clergy with the participation of a multitude of
foreign guests and a gathering together of tens of thousands of faithful were truly very impressive. They symbolize in a way a triumph of the spirit over the 70-year attempt of militant atheism to annihilate religious life in that country. Speaking recently before the President of the United States who was visiting Moscow, Father [Lebukunien?]
characterized this period as an unprecedented 70-year experiment to turn our state into a country of total atheism. During this tragic period more than 50,000 clergy perished, tens of thousands of churches were closed, destroyed, or turned into warehouses, circuses, public toilets, etc. A numberless multitude of rank and file
believers were subjected to extremely harsh repression, as you all know very well. In this year of the celebration of the great jubilee of the Russian Orthodox Church we are witnesses of a pivotal event for the Soviet Union. An atheist state that set as its final goal the building of an areligious society that subjected the church and its faithful to unprecedented persecutions
is changing its attitude towards the church. In a recent interview in the popular Soviet weekly, Ogonyok, which is sort of like our version of Time Magazine or Newsweek. The chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs, Konstantin Kharchev, said and I quote, "Thanks to Glasnost the climate of
relations between believers and nonbelievers has changed in many respects." What has caused this change to occur? In late March the same Konstantin Kharchev in a speech in a meeting of instructors of the Higher Party School in Moscow; his speech was published in a Russian (inaudible) weekly which is printed in Paris. He
tells the teachers of the school that apparently nothing can be done about religion and religious feelings. "In spite of a 70-year effort," said Kharchev, "they still exist. It will be necessary to live with them for a long time still," continues Kharchev. "Force," in Kharchev's words, "leads not to their destruction, but to their strengthening. Therefore, it is necessary to change the state's policy towards religion.
It is necessary to use everything positive that the state and the regime can get from the church." The speech which Kharchev gave at this Higher School of Communist teachers was a very interesting speech in that it shows the cynicism which still remains in the hearts of atheistic professional atheists in the Soviet Union. There was an interesting
little story I can tell you about this speech and my trip to the Soviet Union. As I was preparing to go to the Soviet Union, and since I was going to spend two and a half weeks there, I had to scramble and prepare in advance several of my religious broadcasts which I do over the Voice of America. I had prepared all of my broadcasts and was ready to take off and all of a sudden we get this speech that Kharchev gave at this Higher School of Learning
for teachers in Moscow. It was such a bombshell because it was intended to be secret. Someone from Kharchev's office made a copy and smuggled it to the West and it was published. I felt that it was extremely important that believers in the Soviet Union, especially the bishops who were about to convene in council for the first time in 17 years, hear the speech. I quickly
changed the format of my program. I threw out one of the materials that I was going to broadcast and included the speech in its entirety. Anyway, to make a long story short, at the end of the millennium celebrations the Soviet government organized a press conference in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Two metropolitans were in attendance, Konstantin Kharchev, of course Billy Graham was there and
several other people who were participating in the press conference. I came late. I came dressed like this with my VOA press card on. As you asked the question you would have to introduce yourselves. It came time for me to ask a question and I introduced myself. Kharchev, who knows me personally through a trip that he took to Minneapolis a couple of years ago and I met him
there for the first time, was surprised that I was in Moscow. When the press conference was over; I asked a question about prisoners of conscience. I asked a question about church schools which I can get into later. After the press conference was over a group of Soviet journalists who were flabbergasted that a person like me was there, was present at the press conference, that I was allowed to be present at
the press conference, encircled me and one of them said, "You know, you came late to the press conference." I asked a question of Konstantin Kharchev and I quoted his speech at this School of Higher Learning and I said that I heard it over the Voice of America. Kharchev, before answering my question, made the following comment. He said, "You mean there are spies in that school, too?
A man can't even speak frankly anymore these days." To get back on a more serious note. Kharchev said in that speech that the government and the regime need to get as much as they can from the church, as much positive things that they can from the church. As you know, Stalin did the same thing during World War II. This leads to certain questions.
Is this new policy of the regime a permanent one? Will it change next year in 1989 when the jubilee of the millennium, the Baptism of Rus, will have become a sweet memory of the past? What will the long-promised new legislation of religious associations be like? All of these questions are being pondered
by many of the clergy, the laity, not only of the Moscow patriarchy, but of all religious denominations in the Soviet Union with whom I had contact during my two-and-a-half weeks in that country. Undoubtedly while Mikhail Gorbachev rules the country the Russian Orthodox Church will be given new opportunities for the rebirth of its life. It was permitted to convene a local council at the Trinity Sergius Lavra,
the first one since 1971 as I had already mentioned. New statutes were adopted at this council for the church overturning the decisions forced upon the church in 1961 which deprived priests of leadership of their parishes. No priests have been reinstated as leaders of parishes. They are no longer hired hands who sign a contract with the church warden and basically are
at the mercy of the church warden and the so-called (Russian) or council of 20 who were often infiltrated by people placed there by the state and by the Council for Religious Affairs. Many people with whom I spoke in the Soviet Union say that if parish life is revitalized, that will certainly mean the revitalization of church life in general. Because in the Soviet Union
there are no parishes like parishes here in the West where people get together not only for prayer, but also to have social gatherings, to be able to participate in acts of charity, and so on. There, they only get together for prayer and leave as total strangers almost. Now that is changing and that is a great hopeful sign. The
council of the church canonized nine new saints: Prince Dmitry Donskoy who was the great Russian warrior who defeated the Tartars and began the exodus of the Tartars from that country. The great icon patron, Andrei Rublev, who painted the famous Old Testament Trinity of the three angels. You've probably all seen that great work of art. Maximus the Greek who was a Greek
monk who came to Russia to correct, edit the liturgical books and who was unjustly repressed many centuries ago. Metropolitan [Macardi?] of Moscow, a sixteenth-century saint. Blessed Xenia of Saint Petersburg who was a fool for Christ. She lived at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Elder Paisius Velichkovsky from
Moldavia who was the one responsible for the revitalization of the movement of [starets?], or spiritual elders in Russia. He's the one who translated the famous Eastern spiritual classical work, The Philokalia into Slavanic. The Elder Ambrose of Optina who was the prototype of the Elders Zosima in Dostoyevsky's Brothers
Karamazov. Bishops Theophan the Recluse and Ignatius Bryanchaninov are the great church writers who wrote many commentaries on Jesus prayer and the Gospels. The council decided to seek possible new forms for extra liturgical [catechisms?]. In other words, teaching of the Law of God, catechism. This is very interesting. The church in its final document
wrote down 19 points which they wanted to study and introduce into church life. I won't go into all 19, but this one particular one which I think is article six of the final document, seeking possible new forms to teach religion outside of the four walls of the church. This is extremely important. This reflects, in my opinion, the future law or legislation
on religious associations in the Soviet Union because everything that was said and done at the council obviously had the backing and blessing of the Council for Religious Affairs. These new statutes, the new church statutes, strictly speaking violate many of the laws and regulations which are now still on the books. The Council for Religious Affairs would not allow the church to violate
anything if it itself was not going to change these laws and regulations. This seeking of possible new forms for the study of religion is a very important, and very promising, and very hopeful sign. I myself was as witness of how the church was given the opportunity to use the mass media, finally. During the celebrations of the millennium each day bishops and
priests appeared on television. The remarkable documentary which is called (Russian) which means, the church, was broadcast all over the Soviet Union on Central Soviet Television with scenes showing the destruction of the great cathedral, Christ the Savior. I should probably say a few more words about this film. I do hope that one day you
will all be able to see this film. I have a copy, unfortunately it's in Russian, but hopefully it will dubbed into English one day. It is incredible because you cannot watch this film and not be moved by it. Not only are there scenes of the destruction of this great cathedral; you all know what cathedral I'm talking about. It was a cathedral which was built literally on the pennies of peasants gathered all over Russia
to commemorate the heroes who fell during the war with Napoleon of 1812. It was the largest church in Russia. I think it could hold standing something like 15 to 20,000 people. It was on a high hill overlooking Moscow which is now called the Lenin Hills. It was destroyed to build a communist
Palace of Soviets. Interesting that this huge church which was a great monument was destroyed with great difficulty and this palace could not be built because apparently the Soviet engineers would say that the ground could not hold the weight of even the foundation of this palace. The ground held not
only the foundation, but the entire weight of that great cathedral. Anyway, they tried to build something else and they couldn't. Finally, they built a huge swimming pool on its site. The steam and the humidity of the swimming pool is destroying the paintings of the neighboring museum. Not only is the destruction of this cathedral shown,
but in the commentary, the man who reads this commentary says that there was a time when we destroyed everything in our path. He says, this was wrong. Then there are scenes of a discothèque in an abandoned church. A church which was turned into a discothèque and you hear the roaring of motorcycles
driving up and past the motorcycles you see young people dancing in the former altar. The screeching and this noise of this contemporary almost satanic music, and then the scene changes where someone is interviewing an old priest and you feel the inner peace of this man. Then the scene
changes back to this discothèque again, and then he changes back to an interview with a young monk, an icon painter. Father [Xunon?]. Then he changes back to this discothèque again. The comparison, you cannot but compare the two worlds, if you will. One of destruction, one of nerve-wracking noise,
and one of inner peace, of solace. Then finally there's a section again where they show the discothèque and then the camera slowly goes down and you see a grave which was vandalized. My friends told me in the Soviet Union that this film when it was shown in the theaters, there was a not a dry eye in the theater. Things like that are going on. The feature film, Mother Maria, telling the story of an immigrant nun living in Paris,
Maria Skobtsova, who sacrificed her life in a Nazi concentration camp in order to save a young Jewish mother and her child, was also shown on Central Soviet Television. This again shows people who were raised to think that religion's for ignoramuses. That priests and nuns are basically parasites of society. It shows that these people are truly heroes of the Spirit that are willing to give up their lives for something,
to achieve a higher goal. This obviously makes people who have no religious background to begin to think, maybe there's something more to religion than I had thought all these years. On the Soviet radio there were daily broadcasts of church music, and interviews with clergy, including interviews with me. A number of churches and monasteries have been returned to the church. Material on the church and religion are constantly being
published in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines. Incidentally, in one of the latest issues of the weekly magazine which is called (Russian) which means family. It's sort of like our version of Family Circle, but without all the advertisements. It carried an interview with the great academician Dmitry Likhachev. Likhachev is not to be confused with Ligachev who was
Gorbachev's opponent, ideological opponent. This man, his name is Likhachev; not with a G but with a K. I greatly suggest that you remember his name because this man has been doing a lot for the church, and for culture, and for freedom in that country. In this interview which was published in this weekly magazine,
he informed the readers of this magazine that this particular publication is about to embark on the publication of a series of the lives of the saints; not as historical monuments of literature, but as an attempt to show an example for good living. You can find books in the Soviet Union where
lives of the saints were published as monuments of literature, basically. In this case, not as monuments of literature, but to show and display a model for a moral life. I must say that several of these lives already have been published. During the celebration of the millennium a new church was -- the
foundation of a new church was laid in Moscow. The first in Moscow since the revolution of 1917. All of this may seem only as external as well as insignificant manifestations of the state's new policy towards the church. This may be so. In any case, it all the same is exerting a definite influence on many in the Soviet Union. It's even being perceived by some as religious propaganda
of a distinctive type. This is precisely how many interpreted the reading by the famous Soviet actor, Sergei Bondarchuk. Those of you who saw the Soviet version of War and Peace, he's the one that put that film together. He read a fragment on the choice of faiths by Prince Vladimir. You know that story when Prince Vladimir called the various delegations of different religions to choose a faith.
This was written down in the ancient Russian chronicles. He read this excerpt which is a very moving excerpt at the Bolshoi Theatre during the concert which was put on in honor of the millennium of the Baptism of Rus. I watched that concert as many people in the great hall of the theater listened with tears in their eyes to the excerpt read by the actor with genuine feeling.
Father (inaudible) in an interview that he gave me which I broadcast in my weekly religious program on the Voice of America told of how he baptized several families that came to him directly under the influence of this new policy towards religion. All that they had heard about the religion from the various magazines, publications, and films which I had already mentioned. Other parish priests also told me
how the number of baptisms in the USSR had increased sharply as a result of all the activities connected with the celebrations of the millennium of the Baptism of Rus. The last Sunday I spent in Russia I went to an ancient village just outside of Moscow. It's actually not even outside of Moscow anymore. It's part of Moscow, (Russian). There was a medium-sized ancient church
and the church had three altars. In the middle altar the liturgy was going on, and the left one there were mass funerals, and in the right section of the church, Baptisms. I was invited into the central altar and during the service the priest from the right-hand chapel came into the middle altar and we got to know
each other. I asked him, Father, how many Baptisms did you have today? He says, only 80. In one morning, can you imagine? This is summertime already, you see, and people go out to their (Russian) and this is the slow period, but come fall there will be anywhere from 120 to 140 each Sunday. However, for many hierarchs of the Moscow patriarchy who are used to living in
conditions of persecution, compromise, and servility the new religious freedom is regarded as a kind of threat to their accustomed way of life. They don't know how to deal with it. I'm not saying, I'm not generalizing. There obviously exceptions to what I am saying. Hopefully the majority of the cases are exceptions, but the top echelon are sort of confused as to what to do, in my
humble opinion. One cannot but agree with the New York Times correspondent Serge Schmemann who wrote during those days of the millennium in the New York Times. Patriarch Piman, 77 years old, seemed happier lauding the state than seizing the new opportunity. The numerous appearances and speeches of the hierarchs at the various celebrations, it was often stated that the church welcomes Perestroika.
Rarely could one hear the words, the church joins in Perestroika. This may have changed. I hope it will change. During my stay in the Soviet Union I came to understand that everything that is taking place there in the realm of religion and relations between the church and the state cannot be judged by a single standard. There are many contradictions. In the church itself a whole multitude
of serious internal problems has accumulated after 70 years of existence in the Soviet Union. I, for example, mentioned the problem of parishes, parish life. When you have no experience in parish life; just because the priest becomes the head of a parish, that doesn't mean automatically that things are going to work out. You have to learn, you have to develop a parish life. That's only one aspect. There are many other difficult
problems which have to be resolved in order for the church to live a full-blooded Christian life. In any case, a great event took place, a significant feast of faith and one calling the Russian people to a spiritual renewal. I certainly hope that we here in the West will do everything we can to continue to support not only prisoners of conscience and people suffering for their faith, but also people
who are living within the church and seeking our experience at social activism which the church now is beginning to embark. For example, in the area of charity. The state has finally acknowledged that it cannot cover all aspects of social needs of their citizens and is now calling upon the church to use its moral authority to somehow get Christians to become involved in charity life, charitable works, which were by law forbidden for these 70 years. I think that there was an Episcopal priest who recently went to the Soviet Union and has formed an Alcoholics Anonymous organization in Moscow, the first of its kind.
I think that not only should we try to help, as I already said, prisoners of conscience but also show what we can do, what examples that we can give these people to work with alcoholics and various other forms of Christian activity. I will stop there because I've gone over my allotted time. I will be glad to answer questions either now or later.