A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 32 - Tuesday, August 10th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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Stand-off over Moscow church building
PARISHIONERS SEIZE
CHURCH BY FORCE
(Komersant, 3 August 2004) - Yesterday parishioners of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi seized the building of the church in which for the past forty years the Grabar All-Russian Artistic Scientific Restoration Center has been located. Believers posted a guard and declared that they would not leave for anywhere until the church is transferred to the ownership of the Russian Orthodox church. Police still have not intervened in the conflict. Before yesterday the demands of believers to return to RPTs its property, which was confiscated in 1918 by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On separation of church from state and school from church" over the signature of Vladimir Lenin, were restricted to petitions to the government and suits in the Arbitration Court of Moscow. The suit for the return to believers of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi was accepted by the Moscow Arbitration Court in June of this year among other suits about the return of church buildings. On 14 July Moscow Arbitration Court Judge Irina Belozertseva refused to satisfy a similar suit of parishioners of the church of Elijah the Prophet on Vorontsovoe Field, where the storehouse of the State Museum of the East is located. Parishioners of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi did not intend to wait for the court's decision and took the building themselves, in which the Grabar Restoration Center is located, and they demanded that the Ministry of Culture relocate the restorers. "Around fifty parishioners sealed the doors of the church, posted their own guard, and did not allow us to enter," the assistant director of the Grabar Center, Svetlana Vigasina, explained to Kommersant. Meanwhile, she said, around 500 works of art remain in the church "not counting the archive, which is generally priceless." "The parishioners are praying and lighting candles, which could harm the furnishings of the church, sculptures, pictures, and ancient banners of Don cossackdom," the assistant director of the center said with alarm. Attorney Mikhail Voronin, representing the interests of the believers, explained to Kommersant that the parishioners of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi "about eight years ago sent a petition to the government of the Russian federation following the established procedure requesting the return of the church building to them." "Since the period for a response to citizens on such matters is two months, we decided that all periods had passed and, having warned the administration of the city and the police that the artists did not have a juridical right to occupy the building, they seized the church, blocked the door, and placed their own guard around the perimeter of the building, employees of private security firms," the attorney stated. "We are ready to move to other premises, if the federal ministry present them to us," Svetlana Vigasina says. "But according to law, an institution of culture cannot be evicted without being granted other premises." "So that the seizure of the church building is pure provocation," the assistant director of the Grabar center stressed. She said that the restorers have already written a request to the Ministry of Culture and to the federal agency for administration of federal property, for the assignment of new premises . Vicar Bishop of Egorievsk Mark Golovkov told Kommersant that the Moscow patriarchate did not know about yesterday's seizure of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi, since "many things happen and it is impossible to stay informed of all." "But the position of RPTs in principle is this: all church buildings should gradually be returned to the church's ownership," Master Mark told Kommersant. The police still have not intervened in the conflict. The No. 2 security force of the Department of Internal Affairs, on whose territory the Grabar Center is located, told Kommersant: "You understand that all agents now are maintaining order for the celebration of the Day of the Paratroopers. The chief of the department went personally to the church and there now are two men sitting there, maybe security guards and maybe not. Everything is calm." (tr. by PDS, posted 3 August 2004) MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE CONDEMNS SEIZURE OF CHURCH OF RESURRECTION OF THE LORD (Portal-credo.ru, 3 August 2004) - At the Moscow patriarchate the seizure of the church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Kadashi, which was carried out yesterday by representatives of the Orthodox public after they expelled employees of the Grabar studio, was condemned. "It is necessary to solve the problem in a civilized way," a vicar (aide) of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, Archbishop of Istrinsk Arseny, told "Interfax" on August 3. He recalled that the Grabar Center is a unique scientific institution, which has been engaged in the main in the restoration of icons and other works of art. "It turns out that they are proposing that we suppress those who have always helped the church and who possess our sacred objects. It won't work that way," the archbishop said. (tr. by PDS, posted 3 August 2004)
PARISH MILITARY COUNCIL (Vremia novostei, 3 August 2004) - Early Monday morning workers of the I.E. Grabar All-Russian Artistic Scientific Restoration Center (VKhNRTs) arrived for work, but they were not able to get to their studios, which are located in the building of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi. On the gates hung a lock and next to it a large sign: "We warn you that access to the territory of the parish of the church by outsiders is forbidden."
The Grabar Center has existed since 1918. At that time the restorers managed to save from destruction the building of the Arsenal, the belltower of Ivan the Great, and the church of St. Basil. In 1934 the organization was disbanded and the majority of its workers, descendants of icon painters, were repressed. The center's work was reestablished in 1944 by order of Molotov, in order to restore buildings and cultural treasures that had been destroyed during the war, which required master artists. And since 1964 the center has been allotted premises in buildings of four Moscow churches, including the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi, where previously had been located a storehouse of the KGB of USSR. The restorers liberated the premises from a heap of boots and safes and restored the church by their own efforts. With the adoption of the law on freedom of conscience and religious confession, the federal and Moscow governments issued orders for returning ownership to the church and the parish of the church in Kadashi received the use, without cost, of the land of the church parish and several adjoining buildings. However the authorities were not concerned with granting new premises to VKhNRTs, despite numerous requests from its workers, and divine services have, until now, been conducted in a small wooden building, a former coach house. "We have always tried to cooperate with the parishioners, because we sincerely believe that the church should belong to the believers. Since 1992 we have voluntarily left the church of Saint Catherine and the Presentation cathedral. But now we simply have no place to go. We have often nearly gotten new premises from bureaucrats, but each time the transfer is for some reason postponed--there is not some necessary signature--and everything goes around in a circle," the historian Pavel Semechkin, an archival worker, told "Vremia novostei." Parishioners got tired of waiting for the Moscow authorities to decide the fate of the artistic studios and wearied of interminable judicial processes. In their opinion, the conflict could be decided only by forceful methods. At the same time, in order to protect themselves from possible violent confrontations with the police, they hired a squad of agents of one of the Moscow security firms for guarding the territory and maintaining order. Around ten strong men in white shirts and black pants are carefully seeing that no "outsiders" penetrate the territory of the church. The "invaders" justify their position by saying that, first, the land of the church was allotted for use without cost to the parish back in 1992 by order of the mayor, Second, although the mayor also ordered that workers of VKhNRTs be allowed access to their studios across this land, this right was not registered, in accordance with the Civil Code, with the Moscow Commission of Registration, and thus it is void. That is, members of the parish have the right to decide themselves whom to admit into the church and whom not. "The artists' studios will not work here. And VKhNRTs will receive all of its property by a special arrangement which will be drawn up in the near future," one parishioner, Vasily Boiko, declared. And the property of the studies is extremely valuable. At the present time an enormous quantity of picture and sculptures are there for restoration and expert study, and the church contains a unique archive of old photographs. "Maintaining the security of the territory and the treasures located in the church building is our basic task. Most of all we are now afraid of provocations on the part of the authorities and we do not want to repeat the mistakes of the bolsheviks, to whom nothing was valuable. The conflict should be resolved by the government, and we only want to hasten it. At the same time we understand that the restorers also are hostages to the situation that has developed, as are we," thinks attorney Anton Zeldovich, who is responsible for deciding possible disputes of parishioners with workers of VKhNRTs and the police.
Yesterday it was
expected that for storming the church at least a
squad of OMON would arrive, but only three agents
of an independent security firm made a visit. They
checked documents and passes of both sides and
were satisfied that all premises of the studios
were secured properly, and returned to where they
came from. (tr. by PDS, posted 3 August 2004) |
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