A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
|
|
|
| Volume 6 Number 21 - Tuesday, May 25th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
|
• Search
Engine
•
OCN
Website
|
The Orthodox Christian News Service |
|
|
Second-largest church of Moscow consecratedSERVANT OF GOD LIUDMILA MAKES HER COMMUNION IN NEW CHURCH by Mikhail Shmyrev, Andrei Rodkin
Komsomolskaia pravda, 19 May 2004 - The consecration of the second-largest church in Moscow, the Life-Giving Trinity at Borisovo Ponds, coincided with the last day of the forty-day Paschal celebrations. Most religious believers had gathered for the service practically before dawn. By nine o'clock there was no place in the new church for an apple to drop. All who wished were admitted through the central entrance; the two side entrances were reserved for honored guests and the press.
"Christ is risen," the parishioners greeted one another. Many of them had been acquainted from services in the old Borisovo church. It became too small for the microdistrict of 200,000.
--But we will go there all the same," the elderly folk from nearby buildings said. "Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers went there. Although, of course, the new one is more beautiful."
The parishioners liked the iconostasis most of all.
"Look how it looks like marble. Actually it is ceramic," a priest said to me, "One of them told the secret."
Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus conducted the consecration personally. The service moved into a procession of the cross during which clouds in the shape of three crosses were formed in the sky.
-- It's a sign, a sign," the crowd declared.
Honored guests appeared at the time set for the consecration. Among them was especially distinguished the massive figure of the warrior and former leader of "Medvedi," Alexander Karepin. In the improvized VIP section to the left of the iconostasis was the actress Klara Luchko. Oleg Tabakov watched the clergy from a distance at the central entrance. Viktor Sukhorukov mixed with the crowd of believers. People crossed themselves and prayed loudly. It seems that only security guards and our brother reporter did not do this.
Around noon the security guards began to bustle about and Liudmila Putina appeared in the service, dressed in a lilac suit and hat. This was about the middle of the service. Climbing onto the platform for high-ranking guests, the First Lady of the country stood with all the parishioners to the end of the ceremony, crossing herself and bowing to the waist. It was obvious that she repeated after the clergy the words of the "Our Father." After this, as communion began, one of the clergy approached the high-ranking guests. Liudmila Putina took from his hand the communion bread and drank church wine from the chalice. Alexis II approached to bless the spouse of the president, who kissed his hand and returned to her place.
Not long before the end of the ceremony an acolyte approached Liudmila Putina and asked her something. The president's wife nodded. Two cadets came up to her and stood alongside. The acolyte photographed the future officers and the spouse of the president and the young men went away. Several minutes later Liudmila Putina also left the church through one of the side exits. While she walked through the cordon of security guards some woman with a note in her hand nodded. Mrs. Putina walked past mechanically, but then she turned and asked a bodyguard to take the paper. As we learned later, it was a request for help from the mother of a veteran who was killed in the blast in the subway.
After having stood for almost four hours, the parishioners began to disperse. They left very satisfied with the new church. Even Klara Luchko, who is a member of the trustee council for construction, was delighted. "Just look how brilliant it is," she shared her impressions with the KP correspondent. "Here even the air is so pure."
According to Klara Stepanovna, there were very many problems in construction. But the result exceeded all expectations.
The church is in Byzantine style. The architectural group was headed by an assistant of the chief architect of Moscow, Mikhail Posokhin. The 55-year-old Mikhail Mikahilovich is an hereditary architect, a distinguished architect of Russia, and a laureate of the State Prize for his reconstruction of the building of the Kremlin Senate near the residence of the Russian president, and an active member of the Russian Academy of Artists. This was not the first monumental church Posokhin erected. It was he who supervised the restoration of the church of Christ the Savior. The design of the "Okhotny Riad" mall also was Posokhin's.
The church of the Life-Giving Trinity was conceived in Byzantine style. That is, actually an eastern style and it is quite unlike the standards of Russian church architecture as they have developed by the twenty-first century. Critics even are saying that the Trinity looks very much like a mosque, especially from a distance. On the other hand, in the year 988 Vladimir baptized Rus with Byzantine Orthodox pastors. However, even native Russian churches were built in different styles from century to century. One needs only to recall St. Isaacs and the Kazan cathedrals in St. Petersburg, which also are very little like Russian churches.
The construction of this church was a dream for sixteen years. The idea to construct a beautiful church in commemoration of the millennium of the baptism of Rus arose in Moscow back on the eve of that significant date that was widely celebrated in 1988. In that jubilee year the place for the church was chosen, on the rather empty bank of the Borisovo Ponds, and the cornerstone even was laid. But then it was abandoned. As usual, there was no money.
The construction was revived only in 2001. In
accordance with order No. 148 of 13 February 2001
of the government of Moscow and with the blessing
of Patriarch Alexis II builders proceeded to the
construction of the complex of the patriarchal
annex with a church of the Life-Giving Trinity.
But now on a new site, on Kashirskoe Highway,
closer to the parishioners. (tr. by PDS, posted 20
May 2004) |
|
Home • Archives • Search • Submissions • Support Us |
||
|
Orthodox News, PO BOX 6954 |
