18/05: Another Cold War Wall Torn Down
Category: America and the World
Posted by: an okie gardener
This story from the BBC.
After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, and set about creating the Soviet Union, they had to consider the problem of the Russian Orthodox Church. After initial attempts to crush Christianity failed, they adopted the strategy of exerting control over the Church (the Bolsheviks were, after all, totalitarians) and hoping that through continued indocrination in the schools Christianity eventually would wither away.
Some Russian Orthodox, fearing State influence over the Orthodox Church, formed a Russian Orthodox Church in exile. Today good news. The two churches are reuniting. Another Cold-War era wall comes down.
It gets better.
At the ceremony on Thursday the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexy II, joined the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Lavry, in celebrating Mass at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. It was blown up by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and rebuilt after the collapse of communism.
Tempering the celebrations are memories of suffering under communism.
On Saturday, the two will jointly consecrate a new church on a site in southern Moscow, where the Soviet secret police shot thousands of Orthodox priests.
As always, the Christian church has survived its oppressors. Thanks be to God.
After the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, and set about creating the Soviet Union, they had to consider the problem of the Russian Orthodox Church. After initial attempts to crush Christianity failed, they adopted the strategy of exerting control over the Church (the Bolsheviks were, after all, totalitarians) and hoping that through continued indocrination in the schools Christianity eventually would wither away.
Some Russian Orthodox, fearing State influence over the Orthodox Church, formed a Russian Orthodox Church in exile. Today good news. The two churches are reuniting. Another Cold-War era wall comes down.
It gets better.
At the ceremony on Thursday the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexy II, joined the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Lavry, in celebrating Mass at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral. It was blown up by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and rebuilt after the collapse of communism.
Tempering the celebrations are memories of suffering under communism.
On Saturday, the two will jointly consecrate a new church on a site in southern Moscow, where the Soviet secret police shot thousands of Orthodox priests.
As always, the Christian church has survived its oppressors. Thanks be to God.
