wfn.org | Russian Orthodox delegation greets new presiding bishop

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98-3003
Russian Orthodox delegation greets new presiding bishop

By Michael Barwell
	(ENS)  Leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church are encouraged that "our mutual cooperation will be renewed at the highest level" following a meeting in New York with Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold on February 9.
	Archbishop Clement of Kaluga and Borovsk, a leader of external affairs for the Patriarchate of Moscow and All Russia, said he was "greeted with great warmth" and was returning to Moscow with "the best impressions one could get" following two days of planning meetings in New York. The brief meeting with the new presiding bishop renews "our relationship in the right way," he said.
	The Russian Orthodox and Episcopal churches have engaged in decades of  "mutual respect and recognition," Clement said. Russian affections for Anglican churches dates back to the early 18th century when Czar Peter the Great introduced significant western reforms into Russian culture after he spent time in Western Europe as a young man.
	Clement joined Bishop Roger White of Milwaukee in planning a theological conference to be hosted in the United States in 1999. Clement and White, who co-chair the Episcopal-Russian Orthodox Dialogue Committee, agreed on 16 proposals in an ongoing program of "mutual understanding" which will include training in communications and administration.
	Since the fall of communism in the early 1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church has emerged from nearly 70 years of persecution in which many of their churches and institutions were closed, and many clergy and religious murdered. The Episcopal Church has been especially helpful in renewing social ministries in Russia, Clement said.
	"We lost so many ideas during those 70 years," Clement said in an interview. "The Episcopal Church helped support us during our persecution and now during our economic difficulties. We are now experiencing social work in the church and you are sharing your knowledge with us."
	Clement cited projects supported by the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, the Diocese of New York, other dioceses and Episcopal congregations that have supported emerging social programs throughout Russia. The communist regime had disbanded most Orthodox hospitals, orphanages, schools and service programs until 1992 when perestroika allowed the church to rebuild.

Rapid growth, clergy shortage
	Clement said the Russian Orthodox Church continues growing at a fantastic rate. 
	In the diocese of Kaluga, 14 churches have been reopened or built since 1992 when only three church buildings had survived intact.
	"The problem, of course, is to bring to Word of God in all cities," Clement said, noting that Kaluga has grown tenfold since before the Russian Revolution. He said that 60 to 70 percent of Russians now consider themselves to be Orthodox Christians, "but not all participate actively." 
	Part of the difficulty is due to "distance from the churches," Clement said, noting that surviving churches generally are in the centers of cities, while the growing population is in surrounding suburbs.
The other problem is a severe shortage of clergy. Estimates are that nearly 45,000 Orthodox clergy and religious were murdered under Stalin's regime in the 1940s and '50s.  The archbishop said that church seminaries are attempting to recruit and train clergy as rapidly as possible to fill the needs of the church. 
In Kaluga, Clement said the 17 congregations are serving an estimated 840,000 Russian Orthodox parishioners. Nationally, church leaders estimate that nearly 80 million people now identify themselves as members of the Russian Orthodox Church.