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Millennium of the Russian Orthodox Church. Christians in an atheist world. [Music] [ Music ] [ Music ]

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(speaking in foreign language) - For 70 years, Soviet believers have lived in a society dominated by atheism. At best, they faced official restrictions.

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At worst, persecution. This week's celebrations of a thousand years of Russian Christianity have revealed a new vision of harmony between believers and non-believers.

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How deep is this transformation and will it last? (speaking in foreign language) Few things illustrate the gulf between atheists and believers in the Soviet Union more sharply than education.

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In most societies, teaching other people's children Bible stories is normal work for a priest. Here, it's technically illegal. I give children lessons using the holy scriptures, specially illustrated for them and copied

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on a Xerox machine. I give them the books to take home to read. And here I can be charged for illegally duplicating religious literature, for which I could get from one to three years in prison,

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just because I've used a copier. As you know, this is illegal here. My work with the children here in my home is undoubtedly aimed at the future. We're not afraid.

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We're looking confidently into the future. And we know that eventually our work will be understood and recognized, and that we will manage to raise a worthy generation devoted to Christian values and life in God.

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(school bell ringing) In Moscow school number 918, religion is also a subject for discussion. Most of the children take part in the school's atheist club.

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(speaking in foreign language) (speaking in foreign language) The children meet voluntarily after school to discuss atheism and religion.

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It's clear where progress is thought to lie. The club badge portrays the contrast between night and day. Religion, it says, is darkness. Knowledge is strength.

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Outside the family, this is the only way children legally can learn about religion. The teacher lets the children speak for themselves. (speaking in foreign language)

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[ Foreign Language ] I like the culture of religion. It's music about religion. And also different works of art.

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Like painting. Religion is harmful because it leads people into delusion. And they don't believe in us. That's why I think we should do more active atheistic work.

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(speaking in foreign language) - When the children have finished their well-rehearsed contributions, the teacher sums up. She has a view of religion most believers

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would find hard to recognize. (speaking in foreign language) It makes a person humble, submissive to evil, to good,

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to everything that happens on earth, but not to fight. You should remember this. Differences between atheists and Christians

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stem from Russian history. To communists, the church before the revolution was led by a moribund, ultra-conservative hierarchy, propping up an oppressive czarist regime.

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Lenin nationalized church property and restricted publishing and preaching. (dramatic music) In the 1930s, Stalin tried to stamp out belief

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with a virulent anti-religious campaign. Tens of thousands of churches were closed. Many believers died or were sent to labor camps. Today, atheists denounce such repression with embarrassment.

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One could somehow try and explain this immediately after the October Revolution, but it is far harder in the 1920s and 1930s. I would say that it was, to a certain extent, characterized by a kind of immoral attitude,

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which prevailed at that time, towards our own culture. Because ultimately the Orthodox Church is part of our heritage, which we must preserve. And today we really are restoring many of these monuments,

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and this has become a thing of the past. If you like, as atheists, we have started to pay greater attention to the moral approach to life. (choral singing)

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(church choir singing) Two days ago, as part of the church's millennium celebrations, the curtains of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow

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opened to display this new moral approach. Church leaders shared a platform with the wife of the Soviet leader, Raisa Gorbachev and state officials in the latest demonstration of how Church and State

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now wish to transcend their differences. It's a harmony all the more significant because for years the Church lived in a twilight world of mistrust and veiled threats. We really are experiencing something utterly new and remarkable in our life.

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I'll give you a few examples. In the first place, the opening of new monasteries, the opening of new parishes. Not just one or two, but a great many. Most importantly, getting to the essence of it all.

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People are quite openly beginning to speak about belonging to the Church, and are openly visiting churches. You also see how the changes in church-state relations are increasing the number of baptisms and weddings.

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People now feel at home in the church and are no longer frightened that going to church will result in any kind of unpleasantness at work. The whole climate of the country is changing.

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This new climate is strikingly reflected in the media. Last night, this documentary film was broadcast nationwide. Two or three years ago, such a film would not have been broadcast.

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With thousands of churches turned into factories, even discos, this film questions atheism itself. Newspapers, too, reflect the changes. These are the offices of Ogonyok, a weekly magazine in the forefront of Glasnost.

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With the easing of censorship, an adventurous editorial policy has boosted the circulation by 800,000 in just one year. These features about the church are linked to the millennium celebrations. The New York's editor welcomes the new debate about religion.

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Debates? Why not? I think it's a good kind of debate, a fine kind of debate. But those debates are with arguments from both sides, because before it was only one kind of debate,

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that religion is something for old ladies and for old retired people, and religion people, it's kind of fighters against our strong ideology. Now, we understand that it's possible to exist.

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If we start to fight for peaceful coexistence with President Reagan and Mrs. Thatcher was so friendly, invited when she was in Moscow, I think it possible to be friendly with our own church too. Despite the talk of friendship, real problems lie beneath this calm exterior.

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One legacy of the old repressions is that millions of Soviet citizens have only negative ideas about religion. Many visitors to this monastery near Moscow view the monk's life here at Zagorsk as merely a relic of past superstitions. To atheists, prayers for the salvation of the world are just substitutes for effective action that would change things for the better. (singing in foreign language)

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Outside the monastery's walls, an educated young man who chooses to be a monk is likely to be regarded with astonishment. - So far in our country,

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there are not many believers with a higher education. I hope there will be more, But that is not yet the case. It's commonly believed that education allegedly frees a person from his religious views.

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And some young people had never had to deal with believers with a higher education. So they were astounded. With Glasnost, the social stigma of being a believer is beginning to fade. But Christians still have the problem of obtaining religious literature.

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State bookshops do not sell it. Vladimir Ereshkin and Natalia Babasyan are believers, though not regular churchgoers. Vladimir wants a Bible. Books on Lenin are not what he has in mind.

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Unfortunately, the Bible is very expensive, half my monthly pay. And besides, it's impossible to buy one in shops. It can only be acquired on the black market.

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I can't afford one. Sadly, religious literature is not sold in shops either, and it's practically impossible to obtain it. One can buy atheist literature, but that's hardly suitable for religious purposes.

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It is atheist literature after all. For instance, there is an atheist dictionary from which you can learn something about religion. That's the only source, that atheist literature, for a Christian in the Soviet Union,

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for the average Christian. As part of the Millennium celebrations, the state has let the church print 100,000 Bibles and import half a million as gifts from churches abroad.

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But in a nation with over 40 million believers, that's not enough. Bishops distribute some copies privately. The rare copies on sale in churches

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can cost well over 100 pounds, beyond the means of believers like Vladimir and Natalia. So with a new positive mood towards believers, why is religious literature still not sold in the shops?

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- Well, it was supposed to be a religious propaganda at all times. Maybe, maybe that's why, that's why. But right now, right now, well, nobody is afraid of Bible.

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And the fact that there isn't enough to buy or to have, or to disperse of the Bible, it's a technical problem. You cannot buy, for example, even Pushkin here so freely. - But what technical problem?

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- Problem, not enough paper, not enough printing facilities. And as a matter of fact, the church doesn't have any printing facilities of its own. But there are always enough works of Lenin published.

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Sure, that's different. That's different. It's more important. You know, every state has its priorities to set,

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even in this respect. We cannot set, let's say, the Bible before school books and before Lenin. It's quite understandable.

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(choral music) (choral singing) (choral singing) (choral singing)

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[music] Another great difficulty for Christians is getting churches reopened. This cathedral is a center of a dispute

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between believers and non-believers. (speaking in foreign language) The argument is about the future of a cathedral in Lomonosov near Leningrad.

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The believers want to restore and reopen it. The town council, which has neglected it for so long, wants it to be a museum. (speaking in foreign language)

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Why not the Museum of the Land? Why not the Museum of the Land? It's a museum of the land. - It's a museum of the land. You've already started. I'll start when I start. We know the laws of the faith. - What laws?

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Freedom of religion. - Freedom of religion? Even the Constitution protects freedom of religion. - Right. (speaking in foreign language) The believers have been trying for years

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to get this church open. Zoya Tikhonravova, an art historian, and her fellow Christians know that the first step is to register officially as a group

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with the local authority. A petition raised 600 signatures of support, but it took eight years for the authority to agree to register them.

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Why do you need a church in Lomonosov? Because in our region, Petrodvorets, there is no open Orthodox church. There are about 125,000 people living in this immediate area. Moreover, next to Lomonosov, there are several big towns like Sosnovibor and Kronstadt,

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where there are no working churches either. So we're talking about a total local population of 250,000 people. Lomonosov is very well placed and right in the center of this huge area. Moreover, this particular church is next to the station.

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So why did it take eight years to register the group? With Glasnost, such questions may now be asked. Answering them is a new experience for most Soviet officials. The council chairman was rather nervous.

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At that time, in my opinion, I consider that that group of believers were made up of a specific circle of people who, in my opinion, I consider were not a properly formed group. They were all isolated. During a certain period of time, that practically turned out to be eight years, the lists were

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examined and some of the people from those lists simply withdrew from the from that idea which had been put forward by the list. As a result, as a result there was no point of contact between the group of believers and our group.

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(speaking in foreign language) - Zoya and the other believers are angered and frustrated and Mr. Yashkov claims that they changed their minds about wanting a church.

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They say they are being denied their rights. They are insulted by the small wooden church offered as a compromise by the council. (birds chirping)

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- If there are 20 believers who want to register as a group, they have the complete right to do so without any interference and be given a place of worship. Unfortunately, our local authorities

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were able to bend these laws and not actively put them into practice. (people chattering) The government body that settles such disputes

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is itself housed in former church property. Once the arm of a repressive state, the Council for Religious Affairs now has a much more restrained political ideology.

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In the new era of rapprochement, the council is now backing believers' rights against dogmatic local officials. Practically, local authorities understand the appearance

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of any new church community, any new church there as sort of ideological defeat because they are supposed to be in charge of ideology there. So it's wrong, completely wrong.

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But that's the way, I mean, this feeling makes it difficult for the local authorities. Even if the law is on the side of the believers, they tried some bureaucratic tricks just to postpone it.

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- What are you going to do about local authority officials who obstruct such requests for churches? - Well, we are going to apply the law. - But the law itself is still the cause

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of many problems for Christians. on Moscow's huge impersonal estates, a priest is a rare, even extraordinary sight. Father Alexei agreed to be filmed by us

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because he doesn't want the splendor and the importance of the Millennium celebrations to obscure what the everyday life of believers is like. He's 36, a former electrical engineer and atheist.

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He's bringing up his son to resist the atheism he's come to regard as anti-life. In the last three and a half years, Father Alexei has baptized two and a half thousand people,

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but he says his work as a priest is still obstructed and frustrated. - A priest, a believer, does not feel a complete person in an atheist state.

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A preacher of atheism feels secure in anything he does. while a priest is rated as a second-class citizen. Our fathers built this state. Our fathers built this great country.

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But now power is mainly in the hands of non-believers. And understandably, we find ourselves in a very difficult situation. [ song is sung in Russian ] in a small town outside Moscow called Pushkina.

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His work here is still controlled by restrictive laws introduced by Stalin. He's not allowed to use church funds to organize any kind of charitable work.

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He's not allowed to hold a religious discussion group, nor to run a library of religious literature. He cannot even arrange parish outings. Because of this, he feels himself almost powerless

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to care for his parishioners' welfare. The government is now reviewing those laws. Well, it's outdated, it's overhauled already. We admitted it because it's dated as far back as 1929.

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It reflected the situation and connections between state and church at that time, but now it doesn't. It's completely different. The law was supposed to suppress the Church as one of the political enemies of the Soviet

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state. That was good enough for that, but now it cannot practically be implemented because the relations changed and the situation is quite different right now, completely different from before.

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Now the Church isn't the enemy, isn't the political enemy of the state. Why shouldn't it be suppressed after all? But this change is very new. Only eight years ago, Father Gleb Yakunin was jailed

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for campaigning against legal restrictions. (singing in foreign language) Father Gleb is one of over 300 dissidents released in the new atmosphere of Glasnost.

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He was jailed and exiled for anti-Soviet propaganda, but he was also the symbol of a dispute within the church itself over how to deal with these state controls.

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Father Gleb believes in protest. In 1976, he was secretly filmed conducting an unauthorized memorial service for believers persecuted since the revolution.

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The year before he had smuggled out of Russia, a much publicized appeal for support for greater Christian freedom. Most bishops felt his actions were likely to cause trouble

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rather than help solve the church's problems. Today, Father Gleb has been reinstated as a priest and given a parish some 25 miles outside Moscow. Far from being cynical after his painful experiences, he's now a firm supporter of Glasnost.

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But he's bitter at what he sees as the bishop's past cowardly compromises with the state. In those terrible years when we were jailed, sent to psychiatric hospitals, put in labour camps and exiled, we spoke aloud about human rights violations. But sadly, for many decades, 50 years or so, our church leaders never admitted any oppression

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and never admitted that there were any serious problems or any religious persecution or any incidents when believers were victimized for their faith. I think that this criticism comes from people who do not understand the nature of the relations between church and state in the difficult years of our history.

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It is always easier to be a critic than a performer. I must say that the relations between church and state were not always brilliant. I don't think that the position of the hierarchy was always something to be admired. But I think that in all probability, history will soon have its say in the matter.

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But did the years of accommodation with the Kremlin serve the church or betray it? After the war, the patriotic stand of church leaders was rewarded by the reopening of thousands of churches. The policy of not rocking the boat seemed to be working.

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The bishops were grateful. A few medals came their way too. This year, our homeland celebrated the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution. - This same year, our church celebrates

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the 40th anniversary of the reestablishment of the patriarchy, which was possible only under Soviet government when the church obtained freedom in its internal affair.

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- That same year, Khrushchev greeted church leaders warmly. Little did they know he was about to launch a new attack on the church, enlisting the services of the bishops themselves.

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In 1961, the bishops met and took a decision helped close two-thirds of the churches reopened after the war. They voted away a priest's day-to-day control of his parish. To free him, they said, for more spiritual matters.

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Essentially, the Bishop's Convention of 1961 made the priest equal in rights to, say, any any worker hired by the parish, to a glazier or an icon painter. In other words, the priest was put in the same category

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as any temporary employee of the parish. He shared their status. He became one of those who could be hired or fired at any time. The church was forced into a situation in which it had no choice.

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It is difficult for someone who did not live through these things to understand the complexity of the situation. And we can say in all seriousness that there was no option. It was not merely conformism, a step backwards or colorless.

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It was a conscious decision on the part of the Church to salvage at least something of what it longed to preserve. and what she hoped to preserve. (singing in foreign language)

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- 10 years later, again under intense state pressure, a major church council confirmed the transfer of the priest's power to a committee of three lay people led by a church warden.

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In an opening speech, a government official denied state interference. (speaking in foreign language) I warmly welcome the participants of the local council,

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the honorable guests, the heads and representatives of foreign churches and international religious centers. There are quite normal relations

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between the state and the church. The state does not interfere in the internal affairs of the church. Delegates were not taken in. Father Segay Hakel was there representing Russian Orthodox clergy from the British Isles.

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You couldn't but describe it as a tense atmosphere. Anybody who tried to speak about 1961 was given minimal opportunities to do so, and if it was known that they would speak on that subject, they were even prevented right from the very start.

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Some people would have wished to speak on it who were local bishops, bishops, one we know about, a good, dedicated man, a little man crippled by his experiences, who had prepared very well alternative statutes, reforming the 1961 statutes without doing too much damage to the phraseology. In other words, not much face lost if they were accepted.

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These had been ruled out of court long before. He sat silent at this council. He had nothing to say on the subject. When asked later why he had kept so silent, he said, "Twelve years I had of the camps, and you must forgive me, I cannot take any more." For Father Alexei, that crucial 1961 decision means he's had no real control of his church.

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He's had no say in the choice of the person who does have control, the warden. He says some wardens are not even believers. This is my third parish, and I've never had a warden that I could get on with. Most of them are people who pursue their own goals.

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They're usually not church people, and they completely misunderstand spiritual life. Let's take my first parish of the Saviour, near the town of Volokolamsk, where I served for three and a half years. When I started, the priest's salary was minimal, because the parish was tiny.

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But when I left, we had 60 to 80 christenings on a Sunday. Would you believe it? It all ended in tragedy, because the warden constantly informed on me. This conflict ended in my transfer.

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I was bluntly told that it was because of the warden's constant complaints, the fact that we couldn't find a common language. By God's grace, the year of the Millennium celebration is also a time which has brought the hope of a new freedom and of new possibilities for the Church of Russia.

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The millennium is not an act of historic remembrance alone. Four days ago, an international meeting at Zagorsk gave new hope to parish priests throughout the country. Watched by the world's press and the chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs, the

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Russian Orthodox Church was at last able to throw out the 1961 decision. Parish priests can now be reinstated at the heart of local Christian communities. The very climate of the country is changing, and changing so radically that I don't think that there could be a return to the bad times.

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Everything is in the hands of God, but we pray that the changes which are taking place will be irreversible. Father Gleb Yakunin is also optimistic, but he still sounds a note of warning to his bishops. We believe that Gorbachev and Perestroika will overcome our present problems by revitalising

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the community, including of course the Church. However, a Christian must be aware that there are other possible outcomes. This is a unique moment. If we lose this chance, if the enemies of Perestroika suddenly regain the upper hand,

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then the Church will once again be in a vulnerable position. God and history will never forgive us if we lose this wonderful opportunity. (Singing) Today, leaders of both Church and State are concentrating in public on what unites,

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rather than what divides them. The church has been isolated for years. It's now beginning to re-emerge in the mainstream of Soviet life. Atheists are revising the old sweeping condemnations of religion.

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A sense of new shared discovery is growing between believers and non-believers. But the divisions and misunderstandings of painful times will take years to disappear. This is their world, the Bible, prayers, the church service.

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If, of course, you are only preparing yourself here on earth for life after death, then religion suffices. In my view, I would define atheism as optimistic, and I would define religion as pessimistic. [singing in Russian] [speaking in Russian]

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Our experience of living in an atheist state has brought about all that we're witnessing now. The human soul robbed of its faith is like a bird without wings.

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[singing in Russian] [singing] [singing in Russian] (singing in foreign language)

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[chanting] [singing] [speaking in Russian] Next week, a new series of Heart of the Matter begins when Joan Begwell visits the parish of St Agnes in Andersonstown,

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where horrific violence took place following the killing of three IRA members in Gibraltar. How is this beleaguered community coping now? Heart of the matter is at 5 past 10 next Sunday. Later this evening we have highlights of two of today's major sporting events.

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In half an hour the Canadian Grand Prix and at midnight the final of the International Tennis Championships at Queen's Club London. First on, one, Sukuk continues the series about... [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]

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