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RUSSIA: ANGLICAN PARSONAGE RETURNED

From Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>
Date 27 Feb 1997 02:44:48
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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 15:43:08 +0000
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Jan. 17, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
The Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.1.3.9]

RUSSIA: ANGLICAN PARSONAGE RETURNED

(Andrei Zolotov ENI) People unfamiliar with the historical,
architectural
and religious landscape of Moscow are often puzzled by the sight of a
distinctly Western-looking, neo-Gothic, dark-red brick church in a quiet
street in the centre of the city, flanked by two typical Russian
Orthodox
churches.

Even some Muscovites mistake the church for a kostyol (Roman Catholic
church) or kircha (Lutheran church). But the building is in fact the
Anglican Church of St Andrew, where, every Sunday, British, American,
Canadian, Australian, African and Russian Christians attend a Eucharist
service which includes a unique ecumenical prayer. Led by their priest,
the
congregation of 150 to 200 people pray not only for the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, to whose
diocese
this church belongs, but also for Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei,
Pope
John Paul II and the heads of Protestant Churches.

The dean of St Andrew's, Canon Chad Coussmaker, told ENI that Anglican
services in Moscow dated back to the time of Ivan the Terrible in the
16th
century, when trade between Britain and Russia was controlled by an
official "Russia Company" which included chaplaincies.

By 1825 the British community in Moscow was big enough to be able to buy
a
gentleman's residence on Voznesenski Pereulok, a lane in the city, and
convert the house into an Anglican chapel, dedicated to St Andrew. In
1882
the house was pulled down and a church was designed by a noted British
architect, R.K. Freeman, and completed in 1884.

In 1920, after the Bolshevik revolution, the church was closed down and
the
Anglican priest ministering to Moscow's Anglicans was expelled. After
housing Estonian and Finnish legations to Moscow and then serving as a
boarding school for girls, the building was given to the Melodia
Recording
Company in 1960 and converted into a sound studio.

However, as it had official status as a designated landmark, the
exterior
of the church remained virtually unchanged.

In 1991, when the massive changes to Russia's political system brought
an
end to communism and to official repression of religion, Tyler Strand,
an
Anglican priest who had for several years regularly traveled to Moscow
from
Helsinki to minister to the British Embassy staff, was given permission
to
hold occasional services in St Andrew's Church.

Two years later Canon Coussmaker, the first Anglican priest permanently
based in Russia since 1920, started a regular weekly service, thus
signaling the start of a full parish life which now includes three Bible
study groups, a nursery class and ministry to Sudanese refugees.

When Queen Elizabeth II made her first official visit to Russia in
October
1994, a brief service at St Andrew's was part of her schedule. During
her
visit the Russian Prime Minister, Victor Chernomyrdin, signed a decree
ordering the transfer of the building to Moscow's Anglican community by
the
end of 1994. The transfer has not yet come into effect, because, as in
the
case of many former church buildings, long-standing occupants are having
difficulty finding new accommodation. Melodia and St Andrew's are now
official "joint users" of the property. Melodia was recently offered new
accommodation elsewhere in Moscow, and is seeking funds to restore its
new
premises.

In November 1996 the community marked another milestone in the
rebuilding
of its parish life - the three-storey parsonage, adjacent to the church
building, was returned to the church and given an official blessing. A
British construction company is to start restoration work there soon.

"I would claim to be chaplain of everything British in Moscow", Canon
Coussmaker told ENI in his characteristic light-hearted manner. As well
as
holding the rank of first secretary at the British Embassy, he ministers
to
an international and interdenominational English-speaking congregation,
and
also serves as a link between the Church of England and the Russian
Orthodox Church.

One of his many titles is Apocrisarios (envoy) of the Archbishop of
Canterbury to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Relations between
the
two churches have historically been particularly close and cordial since
the 18th century when the High Church movement in the Church of England
first saw the Eastern Orthodox Churches as an avenue for unification.
They
have much in common: they are all liturgy-based national Churches which
belong to the apostolic tradition but are not subject to the Pope, and
they
have never perceived any threat from each other. The Russian Orthodox
Church, apart from its close relations with other Orthodox Churches, for
many years looked upon Anglican Churches as their closest spiritual
neighbours in the Western Churches.

However, that close relationship has changed in recent decades as
Anglican
Churches around the world began ordaining women priests. Inter-communion
between the Russian Orthodox Church and Anglican Churches now appears
unlikely.

"We certainly suffered a regrettable cooling of relations when the vote
of
November 1992 [to ordain women as priests in the Church of England] took
place," Canon Coussmaker told ENI. He said that in 1991 Patriarch Alexei
traveled to Britain "virtually begging the Church of England not to take
this decision".

For Canon Coussmaker, who voted against it as a member of the Church of
England's General Synod because of his relations with Roman Catholics
and
Orthodox, that initiative by the Church was a "totally untraditional
decision taken by one branch of Christianity without consultation with
the
others". Canon Coussmaker said that over the past four years relations
had
improved, and this was evident in the way he was treated in Moscow.

St Andrew's parish, unlike some of its Roman Catholic and Protestant
counterparts, feels that it is very welcome in Moscow, a predominantly
Orthodox city. According to observers, the main reason for the
benevolent
attitudes of many Russian Orthodox Christians towards the small Anglican
community is that their presence is not seen as linked to proselytism.

"We have no plans to introduce a Russian service," said James Connell,
an
American Embassy official who is secretary of the Church Council at St
Andrew's. The several Russian members of the congregation are "people
who
love English language, Anglophiles and Russians of Scottish descent".
"When
Russians talk to me about baptism," said Canon Coussmaker, "my response,
which comes from my heart, is that the Russian Orthodox Church is the
Church of the Russian people, and they should examine its doctrine very
deeply before choosing against it."
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