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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Patriarchate defends sit-in parishionersMOSCOW ARBITRATION COURT TO DECIDE FATE OF CHURCH OF RESURRECTION (Portal-credo.ru, 5 August 2004) - The future fate of the church of the Resurrection in Kadashi, which recently became the object of a bitter dispute between the parish society and the Igor Grabar All-Russian Artistic Scientific Restoration Center, will be decided by the Arbitration Court of Moscow. "This is now the second day that the judicial investigation has been going on. The court will decide what to do in the situation that has developed," a vicar of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, Archbishop of Istrinsk Arseny, told RIA Novosti. According to him, "all rights to possession of the church are with the parish and for more than ten years now it has been waiting for the restoration center to be given premises into which it can move." "Unfortunately, bureaucrats have not been concerned about this and they brought the situation to the point where the parish and restoration center have butted heads," the archbishop said. He noted that believers have been forced for many years to worship in a small "carriage house church" and he thanked the parish "for its courage and patience." The actions of believers, who seized the entrance to the church and since 3 August have not permitted the workers of the center into the building, the archbishop characterized as having been "provoked." As the legal consultant for the parish, Vladimir Solomonov, told RIA Novosti, the session of the Moscow Arbitration Court on this question is scheduled for 12 August and 21 September. However the leadership of the parish has proposed to all interested parties, including representatives of the Ministry of Culture, to begin immediately a dialogue on specific suggestions for correcting the situation. "We have not posed the question of the expulsion of the restoration center, even if the church were completely turned over to the parish. We are talking about giving believers a part of the premises and freeing the altar," Solomonov said. According to him, "at the present time the building of the church does not have an owner." "The restoration center has no right at all to be located here, since the lease contract ran out on 21 March 2001," the attorney of the parish noted. "In 2002," he added, "a recommendation came out from the Ministry of Culture for the restoration center to have joint use of the premises of the church." Now members of the parish are located in the church and do not intend to leave the building. According to Solomonov, "Today for the first time in the last 70 years two newborns were baptized in the vestibule, the situation is calm, and divine services are being conducted." "They are continuing to stretch barbed wire along the perimeter of our territory. We have strengthened our security in order to avoid provocations (theft and the like)" the attorney added. An aide of the rector of the parish, Natalia Stepanova, stressed that "believers are no longer able to be reconciled with the fact that in the place where worship services are conducted and prayers are raised, afterward they smoke and use foul language." Therefore they demand a clearly determined date for the return of the church to the parish and until that time the allotment of a place in the church especially designated for worship, with a separate entrance. The parish society of the church of the Resurrection in Kadashi has existed since 1992 and comprises about 200 persons. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 August 2004) MOSCOW CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION SURROUNDED BY POLICE (Portal-credo.ru, 5 August 2004) - The Moscow church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Kadashi, where one of the premises of the Academic I.E. Grabar All-Russian Artistic Scientific Restoration Center is located and which recently was occupied by force by representatives of a Orthodox parish, around noon today was surrounded by police, attorney of the society Mikhail Voronin told the Interfax news agency. "Prior to this, water and electricity to the church were cut off, despite the fact that a baptism of a newborn infant had been conducted," the agency's informant added. At the present time, according to Voronin, an OMON squad has been dispatched to the church. At the same time Interfax still has not obtained confirmation of this information from other sources. The problem of the return of the Resurrection church to its parish has been going on for eight years. That was when the parish filed suit requesting the restoration of its rights to this church, which was confiscated by bolsheviks in 1918. In recent years, in the church has been located one of the premises of the Graber Center, which, as Interfax notes, could not leave these premises for want of another where it would be able to locate its apparatus and other technical equipment. As already reported, the Moscow patriachate condemned the violent seizure of the church. Vicar Archbishop of Istrinsk Arseny declared that the Grabar Center is a unique scientific institution, whose basic activity consists in the restoration of icons and other works of art. "It turns out that we are told to suppress those who have always helped the church and who possess our sacred objects. This affair will not work," the archbishop said. In addition, Elizabeta, abbess of the Martha-Mary convent, spoke out in defense of the Graber Center. One of the departments of the center also is located in the premises of a church in the cloister. "We and the 'Graberites' are hostages to the same situation," the abbess thinks. However, "we do not have the right to act by means of seizure. The church has icons and other works of art; are you going to throw them out onto the street?" she said. The only way to resolve this difficult situation, in Abbess Elizaveta's opinion, is providing the center fitting premises. "The problem is that the best premises today have been sold off. The problem is that for ten years now, any fitting premises have been made into a restaurant or entertainment center or some other similar enterprise," the abbess said. The leadership of the scientific center itself has frequently stated that it is prepared to let go of the church, just as soon as a workable building is found. Meanwhile, the director of the federal agency for culture and cinematography, Mikhail Shvydkoy, said yesterday that the conflict between Orthodox believers and the restorers over the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi is close to a resolution. He said that "there is a large building available for the restoration center on Radio street; all that remains is the final agreement of the Ministry of Property." In addition, Mikhail Shvydkoy stressed that a criminal case must be opened in regard to the seizure of the church. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 August 2004) TVTsentr DENIES REPORT ABOUT OMON ARRIVAL AT CHURCH OF RESURRECTION (Portal-credo.ru, 5 August 2004) - A cordon of police and a squad of OMON were sent to maintain order on the territory of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi: these headlines came out today in almost all news agencies, "TV Tsentr" reports. Barbed wire, iron gates, and an admission pass system. This was not a top secret object but a church in the center of Moscow. The question of who owns the church arose after President Yeltsin, in 1992, transferred these lands to the ownership of the church parish. And everything would have been fine if only the building itself at the time were not occupied by the Grabar All-Russian Restoration Center. Since then the art experts have sought new premises, and the parishioners have waited. Until last Monday. "Responsible persons of government offices, who have the competence to resolve this situation, have not resolved this situation for many years now, and thus the parishioners took resort to this form of the defense of their rights, which is fully permissible," says Vitaly Veremshchuk, an attorney for the church society Whether permissible or not is a disputed question. On 2 August, when the parish occupied the church, there was nobody inside. Since then employees of the restoration center have not been able to get to their workplaces, and they consider all that has happened vigilantism. For help they have turned to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Central District. "We received a call for expelling the believers, worshipers, but it would be interesting to contemplate how police wearing helmets and armed would drive praying old women into the street. After all a person who is praying is not disturbing the peace, and we do not have a law that would be the basis for forceful measures against these people," remarks Elena Perfilova, the press secretary of the Department of Internal Affairs. About the arrival of OMON, nobody at the press service of the department or of the restorers themselves knows anything.They say that they are hearing about this for the first time. The main question that bothers workers of the center is the preservation of the priceless exhibits that remain within the church. "We now have there a unique exhibit from the Pskov museum, altar cloths from the sixteenth century with gold thread, pearls, and precious stones, which were donated to one of the Pskov churches by the wife of Ivan the Terrible. I very much fear, I fear for its condition," declared the director of the Graber Center, Aleksei Vladimirov. Who benefits from spreading rumors about OMON intervention and encircling the church with barbed wire is still not clear. The restorers are perplexed about why the church, for whom they have restored priceless icons and rarities, have driven them from their workplace. The final fate of the building should be decided by the Moscow Arbitration Court. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 August 2004) NO POLICE CORDON AROUND CHURCH OF RESURRECTION (Portal-credo.ru, 5 August 2004) - Reports by Interfax news agency that the Moscow church of the Resurrection in Kadashi has been surrounded by police do not correspond to reality. This was stated by the assistant director of the E. Grabar All-Russian Artistic Scientific Restoration Center, Svetlana Vigasina, to a reporter of Portal-credo.ru. "Several persons have called us with similar questions. We went to the site and looked," Svetlana Vigasina said. "Nothing has happened there. This is a pure provocation. Everything remains as before." The Interfax report also was denied by the press service of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Central Administrative District of Moscow. "We officially cannot confirm this information," the press service told Portal. Thus, the report distributed by the attorney of the parish, Mikhail Voronin, turns out to be a regular attempt to put the attackers in the role of victims.
An official of
the Department of Internal Affairs also denied
reports about police interference in a ritual of
baptism that was conducted in the seized church.
This was obviously an attempt to put pressure on
law enforcement agencies on the part of persons
who are continuing to harm the activity of the
Grabar Center, connected with the statement by
Mikhail Shvydky, the head of the Federal Agency
for Culture and Cinematography, about the
illegality of the actions of "Orthodox
aggressors." (tr. by PDS, posted 5 August 2004)
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