A SURVIVOR OF THE REVOLUTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3191, 15 September 1917, Page 7

A SURVIVOR OF THE REVOLUTION

THE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

SWINGS INTO LINE

One imperial institution survived the Russian revolution—the Greek Orthodox Church (writes Mr. Henry Suydam in tho New York ."Evening Post"). There are 87,000,000 communicants in Russia, and the Provisional Government hopes ■that the Eussion priesthood will riee to tho splendid chance of educating these tremendous masses of ignorant mystics into decent citizens. The Christian Church has seldom had a botttr opportunity for service—in a direct and simple way—for the good pf the world. The Russian Church was swung into revolution in a manner that seems rather amusing, when ono reflects on the devastating quarrels of the seventeenth century, over 6uch matters as whether the priest should say "Alleluia" twice or three times after, the euchanst, and whether the sign of the cross should be made with two fingers or three. The workmen of PetroErad arrested the Metropolitan Ptirim and locked him up in Peter-Paul Tortress, across the Neva, while the Tsar—the eupreme Bead of the Russian. Church—was deposed. The Holy Synod issued a decree abolishing all invocations for the imperial family, and a. new liturgy was prescribed by the eimplo process of. a secretary sitting down at a typewriter and composing it. The orthodox precedents of centuries were rudely smashed. The clergy kept discreetly quiet, and said nothintf, except prayers. Nevertheless, the Greet Orthodox Church, remained. One Prayer Instead of Five. Q It was customary during vespers, for example,- to recite five different series of prayers for the imperial family, and . for .various sisters, and ' cousins, and aunts. These prayers took up more than half, the service. The clergy recite one prayer now—for Russia and the Provisional Government. There is always a breathless pause when the priest begins to ask God to watch over the Ministers of New Russia, for the naive folk who compose the congregations speculate on what would happen if the priest should forget and pray for the Tsar and the Tsarina and the little Tsarevitch, who rei»ned for twenty minutes. A T o pnest has forgotten, yet. 'Whatever other modem or semi-modern doctrines the Russian revolution fostered, atheism or agnosticism or anti-religion in any form was not among them. The people of Petrograd stuck closely to their churches during those eostatio days, when tho entire structure of their life was euddsnly demolished by an ■ incredible eerj.ee of events There never was such an Easter in Russia as the Easter of IM7. It wu3 an Easter of thanksgiving and dedication -an Easter that sa-w the entire proletariat and soldiery of Petrograd crowding into the cathedrals, .standing in close-packed masses in corners of the sanctuary, where only diplomats in evening clothes had boen allowed to sit under the old regime. I stood outside Kazan Cathedral, on the Newski Prospekt, in Petrograd, on Easter Eve, with a crowd of 10,000 people holding tiny flickering candles, llmfc semi-circular patch of park had seen bloody deeds in 1905, and the revolution of 1917 had begun in that ykce of publlO protest. The crowd was very silent, and their faces were stern in the candle clow I had the curious sense that I uas' standing on sacred ground, performing some sort of epic ritual, i bought a candle and lighted it from a.; soldier's. , , ... "The hot grease on my hand feels liko tears," he said, and I understood. A Church of Ritual. , It has been charged with some degree of fairness, that the Russian Church has becomo a Church of ritual rather than one of spirit There are as many bad priests as there were inefficient officers in the army or prpvocators in the secret police. The Russian Church needs hotteecleaning, liko many other things in Eussia. The priest-or "pope , —was regarded with reverence merely because he was the servant of the parishioners, 'he man who performed for them tho functions or formally worshipping God. Ihey were by no means blind to the disqualifications of his private life. Ho was usually-es-peciallv iu country districts-dirty, unkempt," slipshod, selfish, and uninspiring. He was frequently seen, drinking vodka, even after national Prohibition was decreed by the Tsar. It was only the Russian? pennant's intense mystical To»ard for the Biissian ritual that kept the Church together as a moral force in the community. The priests influence was usually negative, if not downright derogatory. . . Russian nriests arc paid no stated salary, but. liko tho clergy in rural Ireland, bargain with their parishioners.for life-amtfteath fees. .Sometimes 25 or 30 roubles (from M?. to 405.) was chnrijed Tor a marriage. There is somethin? .paihelic about, the eagerness with which n. croup of Siberian pnns.ints in ;i village near .Tomsk throw off the autocracy of tho priest as «xm. as news of tho Revolution renin. Their first net ;va3 to hold a' vlllapo mooting, and tho first resolution passed was one fixing Iho permanent marsirij" fee at a, maximum of 3 ranMes / (4s.V The Church supported tHe Russian Empire at< long ns there tm any hope of savin? the whole Butocratic structure. -The Tear lrne the titular Tiead, nnd the interests of tho dynnntv nnd thn Church were largely coincident. While- Ptirim, Metropolitan nf Petrotrrnd, who, with the Jfotropo'litnns of Moscow nnd Kiev, was pcclp.swsticftl liefid of (lio Russian Church, has boon nut inlo prison for treason, the evidence is not yet clear oil the amount of pro-Govei'nTiiniiT: intrigue that went on within the Church pslnblishnienl.