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[Silence] [Music] Calvary is where Christ suffered and died. The concentration camps of Comey represent the ultimate in suffering and death endured by countless numbers of his followers today.

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Galina Bilchinskia is a young Sunday school teacher who knows the full cost of Christian discipleship. Michael and Lorna Bordeaux of Keston College who have lived and travelled widely in Russia and Eastern Europe are here to tell her story. Michael, where does her story begin? Well, 25 years ago. She's only 25 now. Her story begins when she was in the cradle. Her father's church

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in the city called Brest near the Polish frontier was abolished, simply closed down By force under the great Khrushchev persecution and all the Christians from that area Had to go miles out into the countryside to worship in private homes from what denomination was her father?

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He still is he's a Baptist I See and when did she as a young girl actually first fall foul of the authorities well from her teens she began to teach other Children religion which in the Soviet Union is against the law and she began then to organize not only Sunday schools but summer camps for children.

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And her first arrest came when she was taking them away to camp, and all the money that was on her for bringing the children back home and for their food was confiscated from her. She was arrested by the KGB, was she? That's right.

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And what happened to her? She had the most appalling time in prison. We know a good deal about her story because she managed to smuggle letters out, but she describes how for one week the only water she had to wash in was a single bowl.

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She had to wash herself, her hair, her clothes, and even her bed clothes in that one bowl of water. The food at the same time was appalling and she got scurvy. We saw her face, it is still lined from that experience at 25 years old. Many of her teeth fell out because there were no fresh vegetables at all. Was she actually charged with teaching children or was she charged with

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something? Well on this first occasion she was charged with teaching children religion which is against the law as I said but after she was released just three months later she was charged a second time and this time it was a completely trumped up charge she was accused of running drugs and was given it's quite ludicrous a sentence of three years imprisonment only if

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if she'd actually been guilty of the offence that was named a drug charge, it would have been 10, 15 years or longer. So we know she was not guilty. It was simply a trumped-up charge. Lorna, is this kind of thing usual for Christians to face in the Soviet Union?

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Yes, unfortunately this type of charge is quite common where Christians are concerned. We even know some examples of where Christian leaders have been accused of sacrificing children. Sacrificing that means actually killing children. Yes. Yes. It's a really old to that some of the charges are ludicrous and obviously aimed to

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Denigrate Christians in the eyes of the general population and that gets all put in the press of course without the Christians having any right of reply at all What about the impact though of Christians in prison do they go into prison Lorna and then? succeeded preaching the gospel?

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Oh yes, there are many examples of this, and one outstanding one is a man called Vasily Kaslov, who went to prison as a criminal, became a Christian, was converted, was released,

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and became one of the great preachers in the Russian Baptist Church, and three years later he was back in the same prison, but this time for his activities as a Christian. Is there a sense in which people are open to the gospel

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in those awful prison conditions? Oh, very much so, because prison conditions in the Soviet Union are much harsher than anything we know in our country. And in that environment where you're separated from your family and your friends and everything that's dear to you, perhaps you're more open to think about God and more open to the gospel.

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And we have simply hundreds of examples of where people have been converted to the Christian faith in those extremely harsh conditions of Soviet prisons. So there's a sense in which the more you try to repress, the more... The more you persecute us, the more we grow. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

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And of course, Galina, you've mentioned about the prison conditions, but hasn't she got some kind of rheumatoid arthritis as a young girl because of damp cells? Oh, well, the conditions were self-appalling generally. I think it's a general rundown in health.

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in health. All prisoners in the Soviet Union tend to get the most appalling diseases. We've heard of so many eye diseases, blindness, heart diseases, deficiency in the diet leads to absolutely everything imaginable. Aromatism is just one of the many things. Now, mercifully, Galina is out. What's she doing now?

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Well, there's good news about Galina. Of course, it's a very precarious freedom. But after she became free the second time. She married a Christian preacher and they of course now have been able to set up a Christian home together. But she will go on, both of them, will go on preaching the gospel and therefore as they are so keen on bringing children into

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it, they're going to run the risk continually of falling foul of the law. So the threat is still there. Very much so. Well today is Palm Sunday and when Jesus rode into Jerusalem he knew that he was going to

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suffer. And what he said was that his followers would also suffer in their turn. And Lorna is going to read the words of Jesus as recorded by St. Matthew, and then Michael will pray. From that time on, Jesus began to say plainly to his disciples, "I must go to Jerusalem and suffer much from the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law. I will

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be put to death, but three days later I will be raised to life.' Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget self, carry his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his own life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my

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sake will find it.' Lord Jesus Christ, who overcame the bitter chill of death, grant new hope to the oppressed, new vision to the oppressors, and new life for all, by the power of your mercy. Amen.

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[Music] Calvary is where Christ suffered and died. The concentration camps of Comey represent the ultimate in suffering and death, endured by countless numbers of his followers today.

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[Music] This Pentecostal community living in the small Siberian village of Chiguvka has learnt the full cost of Christian discipleship. [Music]

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Michael and Lorna Bordeaux of Keston College, who have travelled widely in Eastern Europe and Russia, are here to tell their story. Lorna, as I understand it, these folk had travelled 3,000 miles across Russia from Kazakhstan to their new home. Did they find the peace and tranquillity they wanted?

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Well, life was very difficult for them because they weren't very well off materially and they had to start by building their own homes, but they did manage to find jobs and were hard-working members of the community. The problem came when they started to worship as a Pentecostal community in their own homes.

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the authorities started to interfere with their services and to demand registration. Now what does registration mean? Well, it's a very complicated issue, but boiled down to its simplest, it means that you have to have a state license to worship as a church,

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and if you don't have it, then what you're doing is illegal. And this is something that all churches have to have? Yes, yes. But up to four years ago, the Soviets banned Pentecostals altogether,

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So it was only suddenly they began to demand this registration. And what does registration mean? Well, you have to hand over a list of all your members to the Soviet authorities. Then those people on the list can be discriminated against,

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the children at school, the men at work, the bottom of the housing list and so on. So it's no wonder that they objected to being registered forcibly by the state. So the list is used as a basis of harassment, But no, specifically, what kinds of harassment did these group in the Siberian village get?

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Well, the authorities wanted to find out where the services were being held so that they could stop them. Yeah, they didn't have their own church, of course. No, of course. It was in the private home where they were working.

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So it could be in anybody's home. Yes, and in order to prevent the authorities from finding out, they changed the venues and the times. But the militia men simply used to drive round the town on a Sunday morning and wake up the neighbours and try to find out where the services were.

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And it's interesting actually that the local people didn't inform on the believers, which they could have done, and I think that shows that they had respect for this particular community. What were the penalties for the believers when they were caught? Well, the ringleaders, the organizers of the service, would be taken in by the police and interrogated,

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and very often held in prison for 15 days and fined very heavily. But then when these men returned to their jobs after two weeks, they were fined again by their bosses for having been absent without leave. It's a catch-all situation and typical of the kind of harassment. So you mean to say that they were fined by the court, what, a week's wages, a month's wages?

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Oh, 50 roubles. That would be a whole week's wages, yes. And then although the employers knew they'd been in prison, they ignored it? It's hard for us to believe isn't it because it's so totally out of skew with anything that we can believe as justice but that is the kind of thing that goes on under the Soviet system

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for believers that the Soviets are trying to to persecute. There are some people who managed to get away without such harassment but for small independent groups like the Pentecostals and some of the Baptists this is going on the whole time. Now weren't they particularly vindictive towards the children? Yes, this was a matter of great concern, particularly to the mothers. Pentecostals

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tend to have large families, so there were a lot of children at school, and they were victimized by the teachers. Sometimes they showed atheist films, which portrayed the believers in a very unfavorable light. And of course, the other children picked up the nicknames and started telling tales on the Christian children and making fun of them.

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And there were even some cases of physical violence where they were beaten up and sent home crying. And things became so bad that eventually quite a number of parents decided to withdraw their children from school altogether.

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And then to withdraw themselves from Soviet citizenship. Yes, they had it in their passports and said, "We want to emigrate." Now, wasn't there a hunger strike? In order to reinforce their demands to emigrate, they went on a hunger strike.

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And that, what we saw in the film, a man coming and pulling down a poster, the poster actually was announcing the number of days that the hunger strike had gone on inside this little house. And even that was interrupted by the militia, and they were told to stop their hunger strike.

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But on one occasion, when they tore down the poster, the length of time had been stenciled underneath on the wall, so the police action was ineffective. Now the reason for going for small Pentecostal groups, do they get particularly persecuted because they are small, they're independent, they're diverse, with a large church, if you influence the leadership, you influence the lot.

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But with these small groups, are they a kind of grand elder, a pinprick to the system? Well, you see, these independent groups are particularly well adapted to Soviet society. They haven't got a big central leadership that can be lent upon, and the small groups are extremely effective in teaching the Christian faith to young people,

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which is against the law. They're very effective at setting up secret printing presses and producing Christian literature secretly and distributing it. That kind of activity, which is so brave,

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is undertaken all the time by these small groups. Have they got a hope in hell of getting out these people? Well, I think it's going to be very difficult for them. A hope in hell, there is always a hope.

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But that is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that they are keeping their Christian faith going under the most trying and difficult circumstances. Well, this is Holy Week, and as we know,

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there was a time when Jesus wanted to get out of Jerusalem, but God willed otherwise that he should stay there, and that he should die. And so he knows the experience of these people.

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And Michael is now going to read that account of the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and then Lorna will pray. Jesus left the city and went, as he usually did, to the Mount of Olives.

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and the disciples went with him. When he arrived at the place he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." Then he went off from them about the distance of a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed. "Father," he said, "if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done."

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An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. In great anguish, he prayed even more fervently. His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Rising from his prayer, he went back to the disciples and found them asleep, worn out by their grief. He said to them, Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation.

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Lord Jesus Christ, who overcame the bitter chill of death, grant new hope to the oppressed, new vision to the oppressors, and new life for all, by the power of your mercy. Amen. Calvary is where Christ suffered and died. The concentration camps of Comey represent the ultimate in suffering and death endured by countless numbers of his followers today.

00:16:29.800 - 00:16:55.280

The threat of internal exile and imprisonment is not the only thing that daunts Christians in the Soviet Union today. There are other things which remind them that they live in a state which denies the existence of God. With me is our Michael and Lorna Bordeaux of Keston College,

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who travelled widely in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Now, we're used to seeing posters and tracks encouraging us to be Christians, but in Russia, Michael and Lorna, there are posters which encourage people not to be. What's the meaning of this one, and what's being said here, Michael?

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Well, this is an amazing poster. Perhaps it depicts, as they would like to think, my next visit to the Soviet Union, should it ever take place. The poster is in two halves, and the top half shows a rich tourist, probably an American actually, approaching the Soviet frontier with a very thick and voluminous overcoat on underneath his cameras. But when

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he arrives at the Soviet frontier, he's apprehended physically, caught on the bar across the road, and when it picks up his coat, all the Bibles are shaken out and they fall on the road beneath, which is actually extremely ironical because it's not against the law either to produce Bibles in the Soviet Union, there are some printed officially, and neither is it against

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law to import Bibles, so that the whole thing is actually raising the temperature against Christians but in an illegal way. Lorna, who are behind posters of this kind? Well, they come from a state agency called the Knowledge Society, which is for the enlightenment

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of the people. So-called. So-called. Well, let's just have a look at another example of their work.

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This is very garish, these things. But Lorna, what's happening with this one? Yes, well, this is trying to make the point that atheist propaganda is actually having some effect because although this dear old man is still praying before the icon, his

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attention is mainly drawn to the ice hockey match on the television. That's one of the most popular sports in the Soviet Union. So really the point is that religion is dying out and leisure pursuits are becoming more and more popular and people are no longer interested in going to church.

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And I think later on in the series we're going to see the exact opposite proved within another poster. Mind you we've all been tempted from our prayers by the television I have but I don't know what's going as a business commercial transaction I think the one of going on at the top there isn't there? Yes, that's right in the top half

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these young people are depicted as Buying and selling icons and crosses and of course, we we know that some of the icons are extremely valuable But this really is to denigrate people church people Yes, and then they use the proceeds to get drunk with.

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Yes. Which again is most ironical because with Gorbachev's campaign against alcoholism going on in the Soviet Union, the only group of people who are clearly against alcohol abuse are Christians, and especially evangelical Christians. They will not touch strong drink.

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And so it's most peculiar to have the church being shown as a hotbed of drunkenness. The Coca-Cola campaign was in fact a fight against alcoholism, wasn't it? Yes, it was. And you've seen these processions of rather deadly looking people queuing up for...

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Oh yes, when I was in the Soviet Union, I saw people queuing up for what I thought was for their groceries, and I got quite a shock when I realised that it was for the opening hours for the vodka shop. So Christians are being condemned for something which in fact they could do a major thing

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to cure. Yes, you see, if only the Soviet state could revise its ideas and work together with Christians for the social benefit of society. But that vision is absolutely denied to the Soviet leaders at the moment, and it really

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is a tragedy. And of course, it's not just a Christian vision which is denied, is it? Because here we've got another example. Well, Islam is the second largest religion after the Russian Orthodox faith.

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about 40 million Muslims in the Soviet Union, and they are ridiculed in exactly the same way. Here is an Islamic mullah with a noose, and the caption says, "a captor of souls," and he's simply out to fish for the human being. So anyone who has a sense of God is game, but the atheists don't seem to be doing that well,

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if this one is anything to go by. Well, that's right. The top half shows this chap asleep, in fact on top of a pile of atheist books, so he's not doing his job as an atheist propagandist very well. And the caption says, "The atheist is asleep, but the service is in progress."

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And below we see the Orthodox priest and a couple of young people in the congregation. Yes, immediately. You see, the current Soviet myth, which is repeated thousands of times in the press, is that religion is only for the old people. and yet here we have one of their own posters showing young people in church.

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Well now this is an absolutely marvellous poster that you've brought with us from Keston. I think this is the strongest of the lot. You see the young lady with her little son has gone to the club. The words above the door say 'club'. Now they expect to find some brilliant activity going on. It's locked and barred.

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And to the left-hand side of the door, the poster says, "Plan of Atheist Propaganda." But it's absolutely blank, nothing happening whatsoever. And across the space falls the shadow of the cross, the shadow of the church, which must be somewhere in the background.

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So this, in fact, is something which would be of encouragement to Christians. Very definitely. Well, the mocking of Christians, of course, is not something which is peculiar to our own day.

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in Holy Week approaching the crucifixion of Jesus. And as we know, prior to that crucifixion, Jesus was taken aside and mocked by the soldiers. Michael now reads Mark's account of that mockery,

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and then Lorna will pray. The soldiers took Jesus inside to the courtyard of the governor's palace and called together the rest of the company. They put a purple robe on Jesus and made a crown out of thorny branches,

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and put it on his head. They began to salute him, "Long live the King of the Jews!" They beat him over the head with a stick,

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spat on him, fell on their knees, and bowed down to him. When they'd finished mocking him, they took off the purple robe

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and put his own clothes back on him. Then, they led him out to crucify him. (gentle piano music)

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- Lord Jesus Christ, who overcame the bitter chill of death, grant new hope to the oppressed, new vision to the oppressors, and new life for all, by the power of your mercy.

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Amen. [Music plays] Calvary is where Christ suffered and died. The concentration camps of Comey represent the ultimate in suffering and death

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endured by countless numbers of his followers today. [Music] Gleb Yakunin is a Russian Orthodox priest, one of the many who has learnt the full cost of Christian discipleship.

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[Music] Michael and Lorna Bordeaux of Keston College have travelled widely in Russia and in Eastern Europe and they're here to tell Gleb Yakunin's story. Lorna, who exactly was Gleb? Father Gleb is a very dedicated priest of the Russian Orthodox

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Church. In fact he's an exact contemporary of Michael. His birthday is this month, they're the same age. So he's a young hero of the faith. Michael, tell us more. >> Well, he's a remarkable man. At the very beginning of his ministry, 25 years ago, he began collecting information

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about the persecution of the church, which was especially strong and severe at that time in the early 1960s. He documented all this and wrote a letter about it to the Soviet authorities. And because he'd exposed this, and the letter gave all the intimate details of the closure

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of churches and the imprisonment of Christians, he was lent upon, not first of all directly by the authorities, but they instructed the Patriarch of Moscow to remove him from his church in Moscow. So from the mid-1960s, he's not actually been able to operate as a priest at all.

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Now is there very strong pressure on the leaders of the Russian church to fall in with the state? afraid, tragically, only too often somebody falls out of line and the initiative against them is taken not by the state in the first instance, but it's taken by the leaders of

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their own churches. And this is particularly tragic because it shows discord and misunderstanding. It's a sign of the weakness of the church leadership. Now did Gleb Yakunin, he established some kind of committee, I think, didn't he? Well, that happened a bit later, yes. For ten years he did nothing at all except carry

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on quietly. He obeyed the church. Yes, that's right. But then the persecution got worse again and he sent a letter to the World Council of Churches when they met for their assembly in Nairobi in 1975. And this letter was not only published at the assembly, but it was actually debated. And as a result of that, Father Gleb thought that he had the support

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of world Christian opinion behind him from this great assembly. In fact, he was tragically mistaken. But what he did was to set up a committee in response. He called it the Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers' Rights, which was going to gather together documentation about the current situation of all religious denominations in the Soviet Union.

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So there's a sense in which he was let down by his own church, and he was let down by the worldwide church. Then later on, by the worldwide church, because he thought he was doing this work for us, you and me and for the church leaders.

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And then when he'd set up the committee, nobody acknowledged him. Now when did the axe fall and he came to trial? In 1979, he was arrested and given a 10-year sentence. So he's still serving that 10-year sentence, actually the first five years in imprisonment

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and then five years exile. But the years of imprisonment were especially important and tragic and sad for him. he was treated most appallingly, deprived of his Bible, given a diet which he could hardly live on.

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But appalling conditions in prison, but Lorna, wasn't the trial rigged? Well, yes, it was rigged because he was not guilty of any crime. He was guilty of being a loyal and dedicated Christian. And he behaved with great dignity at his trial.

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Every condemned man has the right to give a final speech, and Father Iaconin's was very brief. He said, "I rejoice that the Lord has sent me this test, and as a Christian I accept it gladly."

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And it was in that vein that he went to prison, knowing that great suffering was ahead of him. And when he suffered in prison, he went through all that, but without any loss of his faith, And he even managed to smuggle a letter out at one stage which was addressed to me personally.

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And this letter asked for the return of his Bible. We have it here in his own hand. This is a letter to the authorities asking for the return of his Bible? Well, no, it's a letter to me.

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Yes. Asking if I would actually influence world opinion, and they in their turn should influence the authorities to get the Bible. Because he tried to influence the prison authorities by a hunger strike, hadn't he, to get his

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Bible back. That's right, and they actually tipped boiling liquid down his throat during the hunger strike so that he lost his voice. It's a miracle he's still alive, but he did survive.

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And not only that, he actually got his Bible back. It shows that public opinion can influence for the good the situation in the Soviet Union. You mean the fact that you were rooting for him at Keston? Yes, we made a lot of publicity about this, and it actually secured what he was asking

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for. Didn't he also get a visit from a priest and communion in his cell? Yes. Curious enough, that ties up with the World Council of Churches again, because that was

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done as a propaganda ploy by the Soviet authorities immediately before the next meeting of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver. So world press headlines, "This priest in prison has been visited by a fellow priest and been given communion."

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Well, now, what about Gleb Yakunin? Where is he now? Well, now he is in exile. He's serving the second part of his sentence.

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And he's living in far eastern Siberia in the most dismal conditions in a dreadful little hut. But he keeps cheerful. His family managed to visit him.

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We've actually recently received a photograph showing him being visited by a couple of his children and an aunt, and they met up with a local child. So here we have got a man who is heroic for the faith and refusing to be subdued. Well we heard Lorna, we asked you about that trial which you say was rigged against him.

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But then of course a rigged trial is nothing new in the annals of Christianity. And Lorna is going to read the trial of Jesus before his crucifixion, and that too of course was twisted. And after that reading then Michael will pray.

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The chief priests and the whole council tried to find some evidence against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they could not find any. Many witnesses told lies against Jesus, but their stories did not agree. Then some men stood up and told this lie against Jesus.

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We heard him say, "I will tear down this temple which men have made, and after three days I will build one that is not made by men." Not even they, however, could make their stories agree. The high priest stood up in front of them

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and questioned Jesus. Have you no answer to the accusation they bring against you? But Jesus kept quiet and would not say a word.

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(gentle piano music) - Lord Jesus Christ, who overcame the bitter chill of death, grant new hope to the oppressed, new vision to the oppressors, and new life for all, by the power of your mercy. Amen.

00:32:20.880 - 00:32:53.560

Calvary is where Christ suffered and died. The concentration camps of Komi represent the ultimate in suffering and death endured by countless numbers of his followers today. Valery Barinov is a Russian rock musician who has learnt the full cost of Christian discipleship.

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Lorna Bordeaux met Valery Barinov in her student days and she has written his biography. She's here tonight with her husband Michael from Keston College, and they both of them travelled extensively in Russia and in Eastern Europe. Michael, whereabouts is Valery Barinov today?

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Well, we've been hearing in this series about Komi in the far north of Russia. It's a complex of prison camps where conditions are very harsh, and Valery Baranov at this moment is in one of the worst of these Komi camps. It's called the Death Camp by its inmates.

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And it's in Siberia. It's actually European Russia rather than Siberia, but the far north beyond the Arctic Circle. Now, Lorna, you met him. When did you first meet him?

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I met him first of all in 1977 when I was studying in Leningrad through going to the Baptist Church which he's a member of or he was a member of at that time and I got to know him and his family very well over a period of about three months. Were you at a youth club when you first met him?

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No actually I met him first of all in church but then I began to find out about some of his activities which included working with young people unofficially in youth clubs and one of One of the things that he did was form an amateur rock band just to entertain them. But this was always linked with proclaiming his faith to them at the same time.

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I think it was a point of principle, wasn't it, that he would never go to a youth club to perform without at some stage reading the Bible or introducing at least one Christian song. That's right.

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Yes, the young people all knew what he stood for. What sort of chap is he? He's a very extrovert personality, very likable. He's the sort of person that would do anything for anybody.

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And I think he has a particular sympathy with people who are down on their luck because actually when he was much younger, he was what you might call a juvenile delinquent.

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He had a serious drink problem and he was always getting into trouble. And he managed to overcome these problems through really through his faith.

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And so he has a particular sympathy for helping those who are a bit down and out. about his family and friends you met them? Yes he's got a lovely wife called Tanya and two now teenage daughters aged 15 and 16 and I suppose some of his

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closest friends are musicians because that's one of his great loves in his life is rock music and in particular Sergei who later joined up with Valery to record some music. And Sergei is still at liberty? Well actually Sergei has been in prison, but he's just, we hope, we haven't had confirmation yet, but we hope that he's

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free now. He was due to be released at the beginning of this month. >>Now tell us about Trumpet Call. >>Well, Valery got the idea of setting the gospel to music quite early on in the '70s. He heard Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, and he was very, very impressed

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by it, and he thought that he would do something similar for young people in the Soviet Union. Of course this was a very risky thing to do because Christianity can't be proclaimed publicly, least of all through rock music, because the authorities disapprove of that anyway, because of its decadent Western influence.

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And then of course he did a very daring thing, didn't he, in trying to spread it over Russia. That's right. Well, the first daring thing he did was actually to record it in secret, which required tremendous Skill in getting a group of musicians together finding the equipment finding a secret place to record

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I'm well They never could get the whole of them all of them together at once they had to do it in little bits and Put in one instrument on top of the other in different sessions And then he wrote a letter on top of that that's right when the recording was finally finished

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He wrote to the Soviet authorities and said look we are a Christian group We want to proclaim Christian values which can only benefit our society, so please give us permission to perform publicly What was their response to that? Predictably immediate harassment, discrimination.

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Well, they tried to register him as insane. And so he finished up in psychiatric hospitals. Was it six times or more? I don't know how many times, but like so many other Christians, instead of immediately taking him to court for allegedly breaking laws,

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they tried to break him down psychologically, and they subjected him to appalling drugs and injections injections which debilitate the personality and the idea was to break down his resistance and to get him to recant his behavior. One thing they did

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succeed in doing was to get him to try to flee the country. That's right well that really came after more than a year of this constant harassment not only the psychiatric treatment which Michael's mentioned but things like his family, the children being followed on the way to school, people being sent

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round to interrogate him. He decided to try and leave the country, partly because he wanted to record some more Christian music abroad. Already his first rock opera was written in English as well as in Russian. He wants to proclaim the gospel to the whole world.

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Marjorie, this must be said, of course, it is a crime for any Soviet citizen to try and leave the country. Well, that's true. It's a crime in the Soviet Union, but it shouldn't be because the Soviet Union signed the Helsinki Agreement which is supposed to allow its citizens

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to travel freely to and from their own country. And Michael has said of course he is in Comey. Have we any other news of him now? Yes in fact recent news of him has been quite encouraging. His wife was able to visit him at the beginning of February and that was her first visit in ten months and she reported that he

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looked in much better health than when she'd seen him previously and also we hear that Valery in true Valery style hasn't been able to keep his mouth shut and there are lots of converts in this so-called death camp. He's been put into the isolation cell and had his Bible taken away and so on,

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but still there are people studying the gospel and praying together in that prison. Well, we've moved now into the early hours of Good Friday, the day on which Christ died, and we do know that the crucifixion of Jesus is something that's been a great inspiration to Valeriy Barinov, and Michael is going to read the account of the crucifixion,

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and then Lorna will lead us in prayer using words from Valery Baranov's trumpet call. So they took charge of Jesus. He went out carrying his cross and came to the place of the skull, as it's called, in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him and they also crucified two other men, one on each side with Jesus between them. Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the

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cross, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" is what he wrote. Many people read it because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. Look up to Golgotha, look up to Golgotha, his innocent blood flows down from the cross.

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Look up to Golgotha, look up to Golgotha, your heart will find peace there in the Lord. If your soul is downcast, if your strength cannot last, if each day brings you closer to death, If in your despair you've said you don't care, come to Jesus.

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In him you'll find rest. Look up to Golgotha. Look up to Golgotha. [Music]

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Christ died upon the cross because he spoke God's truth. In our day, others have sought to do no more than speak according to their Christian conviction. Father Jerzy Popiewuszka was a Polish priest who loved God, a patriot who prayed for his country,

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a preacher who spoke directly to the hearts of his people. [Music] Michael and Luana Bordeaux from Keston College have travelled widely in Russia and in Eastern Europe, and they're here tonight to talk about Father Jerzy.

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Luana, how old was Father Jerzy Popiewuszka when he died? In fact, he had only just celebrated his 37th birthday, so he was only a little older than Christ was when he was crucified. Tell us a bit more about him, Michael.

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Well, I'm almost in tears here watching this wonderful man on screen, watching his ministry in its fulfillment. He was, I suppose, the man who made the Christian aspect of the Solidarity movement best known. Solidarity was a kind of social workers' movement for the independence of the worker over against

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their bosses in Poland, which began in Poland in the early 1980s. But it was a Christian movement because Poland is a Christian country. And he established what he called a mass for Poland every month after the Solidarity movement was ostensibly crushed by the Soviet authorities.

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Who came to the mass? How many? Oh, thousands, tens of thousands of people. Probably even over a period of time, millions of people.

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He became a national hero. When you say a mass for Poland, what was he actually praying for? Well there were three main points that he would bring out in his message, and of course there were many sermons over the years before he was stopped.

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He said that solidarity is a movement for national unity, showing Poland as a Christian country. It's like a gigantic tree, he said, and if you cut off the branches, the roots are still there and they will even grow deeper and more effectively.

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And secondly, he said that a Christian is always living in crisis. A Christian in the world is a sign of contradiction in the world. He will always be taking a stand against evil, against violence, against lying, against hypocrisy. Could he in any sense have been charged with preaching anti-government propaganda?

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He was very careful not to. He was preaching the Christian gospel as interpreted, or as interpreting, the life around him. And there was never any overtly anti-communist call in this gospel, but by the way he proclaimed it, he was showing that the gospel is first, second, and last in the priorities of our life. There was a third point I think you were going to mention in his preaching.

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Well, there was indeed a third point, quite remarkable, when he began to think spiritually about the future, the long term. And he saw quite clearly that he was going to lose his own life in this cause, which is amazing when you think of it, because there was not that much physical persecution of

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religion in Poland. It's not like the Soviet Union, where it's going on all the time. And yet he foresaw his own death, he foretold it in the most moving way in some of his sermons. So like Christ going up into Jerusalem, he knew full well exactly what lay ahead of him.

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It says that Christ turned his face resolutely towards Jerusalem, knowing he was going to die at the end of it. Father Józef Poporuszko did exactly the same thing. But he would be praying for General Jaruzelski, wouldn't he, and all the government?

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He would be praying for everybody. The whole of the Polish nation, indeed the whole of the world, was encompassed in his prayers. What was it precisely that the authorities were scared of?

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I think they were afraid because they had abolished solidarity officially, got rid of all the officials who'd set it up and its network. And yet here it was through the churches showing that it was still not only a vital force, but the vital force.

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Look at those young people as we saw them raising their hands in the sign of victory and the pro-solidarity movement. And that is after solidarity has been abolished. So what began as an exercise for a free trade union, the same spirit, could have been expressed

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through the church. was being expressed through the church and Father Jerzy was the leader of this and of course there are many followers and I believe that in his death he's more effective than he ever was in his life.

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But did the state kill him because they did institute a trial of those who actually shot him? Well, there's some mystery attached to this but it's almost certain that the orders for his, what became his torture and then his murder were given on a very high level, maybe

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even in the Soviet Union rather than in Poland. Then the state tried to cover up on this and bring to justice those who had ostensibly caused his death. But we believe they got only the middlemen, not the top men.

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Lorna, what has been the impact of his death? Well, I think as Michael said, Father Jeschle has probably had more influence since his death than he had when he was alive because he's become known by Christians now all over the world.

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but in Poland for the Polish people, he has given them the determination to stand up for the values that Father Jerzy died for. He's given them a new impetus to live out the truth that he proclaimed. So he's an inspiration in Poland, an inspiration beyond that,

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an inspiration presumably in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. Yes, of course, not many people know so much about him in the Soviet Union, But the Soviet authorities are afraid of this kind of influence spreading and they try to stop it. So as the death of Jesus on the cross, in fact, built the reputation of Jesus, if we can put it like that, so it's been with him.

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Well, it took some time for the Gospel to go around the Mediterranean, even. It's going to take time for the message of people like Father Jerzy to go around the communist countries, but it is going around with increasing strength. Well, today is Good Friday and the day in which Christ died.

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And when Christ died, there were those like the army officer who recognized that a good man had died. And the mass of the people began to be disturbed by the death of Jesus.

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Lorna will now read part of St. Luke's account of the crucifixion. And then Michael will read as a prayer, the words of the Russian rock musician, Valery Baranov,

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from his trumpet call. - It was about 12 o'clock when the sun stopped shining and darkness covered the whole country until three o'clock. And the curtain hanging in the temple was torn in two.

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Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Father, in your hands I place my spirit." He said this and died. The army officer saw what had happened

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and he praised God saying, "Certainly he was a good man." When the people who had gathered there to watch the spectacle saw what happened, they all went back home, beating their breasts in sorrow.

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- Listen, my dear friends. Turn your eyes, turn your eyes, turn your eyes on Christ. Don't pass by, turn around, don't pass by. Who can say how he suffered for our sake?

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From his lips there came no complaint. For he sorrows not for self, but for us, who, uncaring, do not look at the cross. Is it so, my friend?

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Can it be true? Are you so blind that you'll pass by too? Can't you see that he loves you today, that he's willing to show you the way? Listen, my dear friends.

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For countless unknown Christians, Comey in Arctic Russia is synonymous with cruelty, desolation and death. But beyond its terrors there is the glory of new life abundant and exciting in Christ. Nowhere is the power of the resurrection more apparent

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than in the Easter liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Those are the words of Michael Bordeaux, who is with us tonight with his wife Lorna. They've travelled extensively in Eastern Europe, and tonight they bring us a story from Lithuania.

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It's the story of the Hill of the Crosses, and that has been the inspirational background of our talks in this Holy Week. But Lorna, first of all, where is Lithuania? Lithuania is just across the sea from Sweden. It's next to Poland.

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It's really a very tiny country, about the size of Wales, with about 3 million people. Michael, tell us about the Hill of Crosses. Well, it's now Lithuania's incorporated into the Soviet Union against its will. its will. There has been hostility between Russia and Lithuania over many years. And

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the story goes that in the early 19th century, during a battle, the Lithuanian people enclosed themselves, locked themselves inside a church as a defense against the attacking Cossack cavalry. The Russians heaped earth on the top of the little chapel until the roof fell in and that explains the dip in the middle between the two parts of the hill and then

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this hill was made into something permanent as a memorial to those people who died in that tragic episode. And so what then happened? Where did the crosses come from?

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Well when it became a memorial and a hill of earth, people began to make pilgrimages from all corners of Lithuania carrying crosses and in their own words they would plant the the crosses, like something living, like a plant, on the top of the hill, and they would put dozens of them there, as we've seen in this backdrop.

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And then what was the reaction of the authorities to this? Well, in recent years, this offended the Soviet authorities greatly, because it stood for Lithuanian nationalism and for rebirth of religion and so on. So they brought in bulldozers and literally razed the whole hill to the ground.

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But overnight, in dead secrecy, Christians came back and first of all they raised the hill to its former proportions and then began planting the crosses again. And you know, this has happened literally dozens of times since the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, and still the hill is there with its crosses on top.

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They're swept away and then it comes back. That's right. A real story of the resurrection is just there. Lorna, you've got a story about a bus.

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Yes, that's right. As Michael has said, the authorities don't like this sign of the Christian faith still being alive. And there was one incident when a group of parishioners, led by their priest, a man called

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Father Tamkavagis, who incidentally is also in prison at the moment, they hired a bus for two days to go on a pilgrimage to some holy places in Lithuania. They arrived near the Hill of Crosses, parked the bus, and set off in their procession with with a cross to go and say the mass.

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When they got back, the bus had disappeared and it was getting late and beginning to rain and there were a few militia men around and traffic police, but nobody seemed to know

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where the bus had gone and they were just told to go into the nearest town. - So did they have to walk home? - Well, in the end, they were able to find

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alternative means of transport. They couldn't have walked 'cause they had several hundred kilometers to go, but they arrived home in their own village at about midnight,

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straight to church to say the mass and to thank God that they'd arrived home safely. And the mystery was revealed the next day. The bus driver had been interrogated

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by the local traffic police and told to leave, to drive the bus into the town and abandon it. And they'd held him for three hours, even though the believers had actually paid

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for the hire of the bus. - Michael, what does this symbolize about faith behind the Iron Curtain? - Well, I think it tells us a lot,

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kind of petty harassment which is going on the whole time, but much more strongly the way that faith can overcome not only petty harassment but even major persecution as well. And if one had one story, it would be the proclamation of the rebirth of the faith. It's absolutely the essential of the Easter story.

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Having gone through Calvary, the Russian church, the churches in the communist countries are experiencing a real resurrection. Now you've experienced their Easter worship, haven't you? I've celebrated Easter with Russian Christians, and it's the most uplifting and revealing

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experience. As you look at the face of the worshippers in church, all of them holding their Easter candles, and gradually the light goes from one to another, and it becomes more and more illuminated, and they begin to shout, "Christ is risen!

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Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!" But as that is going on, you can see their faces, the lines of suffering etched on their faces and that suffering turning to joy. Every single one of them has known some kind of

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suffering in person or within the family for the Christian faith and you see the faith triumphant on their faces. Do you see Easter hope in young people in Russia? Oh very, very definitely. I think the story of Valery Barinov illustrates this very well

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that there is a tremendous thirst for religion among young people and this is true in all the denominations that there are people turning to the Baptist Church, to the Orthodox Church, and there's lots of evidence of this happening. Now both of you, you know Eastern Europe and you know Russia, and you've been monitoring this, Michael, for 25 years, the situation in Eastern

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Europe. What does it actually say to you at this Easter? It says to me that the whole church throughout the world has a lesson to learn from that very country, the Soviet Union, where religion is supposed to be on the way out, an affair of old people only. If you want to look for real Christian inspiration about the eternity of the faith in the world today,

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you have to look to where it is most persecuted. Let the whole world turn its eyes to the experience of the Russian church. Well, you've experienced fear, you've seen it in hope, and let's take now a story from the Gospels on Easter Sunday of disciples in fear,

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but invigorated by the presence of the Living Lord. Michael and Lorna read it now, and after that they give the Easter proclamation of the Russian Church. It was late that Sunday evening and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors

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because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. Peace be with you, he said. After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side.

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The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you." Christos vos kries, Christ is risen.

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Vaistanu vos kries, He is risen indeed. Alleluia. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]