Home Roses Interview by Father Georgy Edelstein. Archpriest George Edelstein: If we honestly go to the Lord, our path is correct

Roses

Interview by Father Georgy Edelstein. Archpriest George Edelstein: If we honestly go to the Lord, our path is correct

Archpriest George Edelstein: "I tried to reason with the Pope"

Questions were asked by Sergey Shevchenko

S.Sh .: On the prospects and current state Orthodox-Catholic dialogue with us today, Father George Edelstein agreed to talk. Hello father!

GE: Hello, Father Deacon!

S.Sh .: Tell us, dark and uneducated, what is Catholicism and what is it eaten with?

GE: No, you, deacon, don't fool me! You said "about the current state and prospects", and you yourself went two or a thousand years ago!

S.Sh .: Well, okay, I'll just ask the question easier. Who are Catholics?

GE: Catholics are the same Orthodox, only they are called differently. You and I are also Catholics. And they are undoubtedly Orthodox. This is a historically cut and canonically, in my opinion, illegally cut one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. Let's start with the main thing. Let's start with the Creed. There is a member that reads like this: "I believe in one, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church." So say those whom you call Catholics, so say those who are customarily called Orthodox. We do not believe in the Moscow Patriarchate. They also believe in one, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church. And let's go from defining what is the Church? The Church is the body of Christ. I don't know any other definition. And the number of Churches has always been, is and will be equal to the number of Christ. Is not it? If the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ is one, then the Church can only be one.

S.Sh .: Why, then, among us Orthodox Christians, there is a widespread opinion that Catholics are heretics? Are Catholics heretics?

GE: Catholics are undoubtedly heretics. And if you ask why ... Again, let's go not from what I or you like or dislike, let's go from some formal signs. Look for some formal criteria that you and I can rely on. Are the decisions of the Councils a formal sign? Can I refer to it?

S.Sh .: Well, actually, you can only refer to it.

GE: Well, then. In March 1946, there was a cathedral in Lvov. We will not remember yet who organized it, how it was organized. The main decision of this council is the reunification of Eastern Rite Catholics, Greek Catholics, with the Moscow Patriarchate, or, as we like to say and write, the elimination of the union. So there gathered (the derivative number I call) 300-350 Catholic priests, these are Catholics of the Eastern rite, but they are Catholics, and they voted, that is, they decided that they would be reunited with the Moscow Patriarchate. How were they reunited? How were Catholics united, Catholic priests who received their priesthood from Catholic bishops, how they were reunited with the Moscow Patriarchate, with one of the branches of the world Orthodox Church? Raise your hand. They were not re-baptized, they were not anointed, they were not ordained, they were accepted in their existing dignity. The only thing they did was they raised, hopefully the right one, maybe someone is left-handed - left hand... Five minutes ago he was a Catholic, a Catholic priest, after raising his hand he became an Orthodox priest. I do not know of a single canonist of the Moscow Patriarchate who today protests against such a conversion of Catholic clergy to Orthodoxy ...

S.Sh .: You just said, confirmed my assertion that Catholics are heretics, and now you are telling that they were not accepted into the church as heretics ...

GE: Right.

S.Sh .: So who are they, heretics or not?

GE: So I can repeat to you once again, yes, heretics, but this will be my personal opinion, the opinion of the Karabanov priest. And the opinion of the Russian Orthodox Church, and not only of the Russian Orthodox Church, because I do not know that the Patriarch of Jerusalem would somehow protest against this, or Antioch, or Georgian, or ecumenical. Today the Moscow Patriarchate is recognized by other Patriarchs. But after all, some of those priests who then, in March 1946, raised their hands and became Orthodox, some of them were ordained bishops. On the eve of that, well, let's say, strange cathedral, there were many oddities, one of them was that there was not a single bishop at the cathedral ...

GE: I'm telling you again, let's take the formal criteria. Today someone insists that that council was illegal, and everyone who then converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy should be drained, and said that they, I don't know who, are impostors, just bearded guys, not priests? I tell you, the trouble is that one of them became a bishop. If he is a canonically incorrect bishop, if he does not have apostolic succession, and so on, then he cannot celebrate the liturgy, he cannot ordain, but they ordained, then let us catch today all who were ordained by these allegedly incorrect heretics, they must probably be thrown out from the church, right?

S.Sh .: Well, let the church court investigate.

GE: The church court is not engaged and no one demands a church court, neither Patriarch Alexy I, at which that historic council took place, nor his successor Patriarch Pimen, nor Patriarch Alexy II, nor the currently living His Holiness require this. The members of the Synod do not demand this. You see, I always want to go not from the opinion of the Karabanov priest or the Karabanov deacon, but from some formal signs. Let's go from the decisions of the Councils.

S.Sh .: But if they are the same Orthodox as we, Catholics, then why is it impossible to commune between Orthodox and Catholics together?

GE: Who told you that it is impossible? Yes ... If I am not mistaken, at the council in 1971, where he was elected Patriarch Pimen (Izvekov), in my opinion, at the same council it was decided that if an orthodox person there is no opportunity to confess and receive communion in case of mortal need in an Orthodox church with an Orthodox priest, he can confess and receive communion with a Catholic. And vice versa, the Catholics say the same at the council of all ... in my opinion, it was called the English-speaking, perhaps, in any case, there was England, Scotland, Ireland, Catholic priests decreed that any Catholic priest can and should give Communion to any Orthodox , Greek, Albanian, Jew, Russian, Ukrainian and so on, again, in case of need, this was a decision only regarding the Orthodox, there is no one else there. If you want, I'll give it to you, I have a brochure in my closet where this document was published. I repeat, this was a conciliar decision, not Uncle Petit's.

S.Sh .: Have you met with your fellow priests from the Catholic Church on the territory of Russia or not on the territory of Russia? And how did you communicate?

GE: Is the USSR good?

S.Sh .: USSR.

GE: I met quite often in the city of Kiev ... Ah! I also met on the territory of Russia! Once in the capital of our homeland, the city of Karabanovo, where we are now sitting ...

S.Sh .: This is, just in case, the village of Karabanovo Kostroma region, the city is in Vladimirskaya. We know that here is the center of the world, but someone may be confused ...

GE: Well. Two buses arrived. There were foreigners sailing down the Volga. Now it is considered very expensive, but then it was relatively cheap. Such a tour. In my opinion, they boarded this ship in Moscow and had to sail to Astrakhan, and then back along the Volga. So, when they swam to Kostroma, their guide, Larry Uzzell (Lawrence Uzzell), he was at that time, if I am not mistaken, the director of the Keston Institute, Larry told those who were on the ship that we are with you every time in every city we go out, look at the temples, look to the right, look to the left, but several people told me that they are already tired, they don’t understand anything about this, if someone wants, we can go to the village, see how a cathedral of some then the city, and we can see how the Russian Orthodox Church lives in the village. The excursionists were divided into two groups. One bus went through Kostroma, and two buses arrived here, in Karabanovo. You say that this is a village. So, we came here, they asked me for a long time. I was especially bothered by some short man in a strict black suit. Asked one hundred and fifty questions. About everything. Then he asked me to show him the other half of the temple, the so-called summer temple. He asked: "Do you serve here?" I say "No". "And why?" I tried to unscrew it, but then I still said that I couldn't afford it. He asked for something else. Gone. Then these buses left, about three o'clock stayed here. And then, about a year later, Larry called and said that the person who bored you, whom you complained to me about, is a canon, a Catholic "archpriest" from Ireland, his name is Gerard McGreevy, he asked me to give you money for the restoration of the summer church, he collected this money from his salary for a whole year, so, he asks to restore the summer church for his money. If someone wants to visit the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Karabanovo, he will see that here, in one of the rows of icons, at the end on the right is Gregory Palamas, and on the left at the end is Ambrose of Mediolansky. It was not by chance that I asked to paint this icon. I wanted to show unity. Gregory Palamas is a pillar of Orthodoxy, and Ambrose of Mediolansky is one of the pillars of what you call Catholicism. Since he was a saint, a bishop even before the division of the church, he is naturally a saint and of our church, canonized before the schism, before the schism. This is a sign that this summer temple was rebuilt with money from the Catholic, Canon Gerard McGreevy. Today, if I'm not mistaken, he is eighty-seven, he is already at rest.

S.Sh .: Tell me, have you ever had contact with Catholic priests who serve in Russia? What did you talk about?

GE: What are we talking about with you, what I am talking with the secretary of the diocesan administration Father Valery Bunteyev, what I am talking with some of my fellow clergymen, and I talked about the same with Catholic priests. I lived for some time in Kiev, at the Catholic Seminary of the Brotherhood of Saint Vincent de Paul. I was in Kiev when this seminary was officially opened. I spoke with a dozen different clergy, Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, bishops of the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic churches. I think we had good, friendly conversations.

S.Sh .: Did they convert you to Catholicism?

GE: I don’t remember anyone turning me anywhere. I had Mormons here in my house, they did not convert me, there were Baptists, there were Pentecostals. Even Jehovah's Witnesses came and told me about the Name of God, since this is the topic of my doctoral dissertation, I listened to them with pleasure. But I don’t remember that me or any of the parishioners of our Karabanovskaya church ... can you say “the Karabanovskaya church”?

S.Sh .: Probably yes. If you can say "Moscow", "Roman", you can also "Karabanovskaya".

GE: I don't remember that someone was converted, we have not a single Mormon, not a single Jehovah's Wizard in Karabanovo. Unfortunately, not a single Catholic.

S.Sh .: Tell us why you needed to go to Rome?

GE: There was such a ... and now, in my opinion, there is a newspaper "Russian Thought", then it was published in Paris. And in the newspaper "Russian Thought" to the millennium of the baptism of Russia, in early 1988, first one, then the second, then the third article, which was entitled "The Shadow of Stalin and Church Affairs." The first article was published twice, with an interval of two weeks, the newspaper was weekly. I asked the editor-in-chief, Irina Alekseevna Ilovaiskaya-Alberti, why twice? - “It seemed to me that this is very important question so I decided to reprint this article one more time. " Irina Alekseevna was a Catholic. She, according to her, put this newspaper on the table of the Pope. Dad got acquainted with the newspaper and this article.

S.Sh .: Whose article was it?

GE: I don't remember how it was signed. The article was mine. Sometimes I signed articles under an agreement with Gleb "Edelstein, Yakunin". And Gleb and I were invited abroad for the first time to such a worldwide Baptist gathering called Lausanne-2, held in Manila, the Philippines. From Soviet Union neither I nor Gleb was released to the Philippines. I, on the advice of the then archbishop, now Metropolitan Job, flew to Italy. He invited us to Italy, me - one person, Gleb - another, Catholic priests. We hoped that it would be easy to fly from Italy to the Philippines. With great, great adventures, we flew to Italy and there, at the request of the same Irina Alekseevna, we were received by the Pope into his, whether it was an office, or a library, I don’t remember. Received a half-hour audience.

S.Sh .: What did you talk about?

GE: Well, everyone talked about their own. Gleb and I fought always and everywhere, including in the office of the Pope. I told him: "You, Gleb, say what you want, and I will be about mine." Gleb, if my memory serves me, told the Pope of Rome how filthy our bishops are, filthy in the sense of morality and ethics. And Dad, as he often sat, elbows on the table, covered his face with his hands and listened, in my opinion, did not react to it in any way. When I spoke, I was always, not only today, but also in 1988, worried about the unity of the church, I said that obviously you can start with something simpler. For example, I lived for some time in Vilnius, in Vilnius there is an Ostra Brama, above the gates of the Mother of God icon, which is equally revered by both Orthodox and Catholics. Every day I saw how Orthodox and Catholics walk down the street, kneel before this icon of the Mother of God, cross themselves, read a prayer, get up and move on. I told the Pope, if there, in front of this icon, both Catholics and Orthodox can pray ... I said how we can get rid of enmity a little, maybe. This is not a joint mass, but why not pray in front of the Ostrobramsk icon? In Poland, I know, one of the most revered icons of the Mother of God is Matka Boska Częstochowska. Why not once set up a Christian camp there, where we can talk on the topics that you are now proposing? In Czestochowa, you can talk about the same thing. Invite there both those who are sympathetic to Catholics and those who are hostile to Catholics, to listen to each other, without trying to break the opponent's throat, to talk calmly. If we pray together, we will probably understand that we are dealing with our fellow brothers in Christ. I tried to somehow persuade the Pope to take some steps towards Orthodoxy. He was still sitting, covering his face with his hands. Then he looked at me a couple of times. Then he got up, took a picture with us, handed me the priest's cross, Gleb the priest's cross.

I think that with the Catholics, if I was allowed, I would concelebrate and commune with a clear conscience, but I do not do this simply because no one conciliarly allowed me to do this. May God live to see the day when the Cathedral will allow me to do this. I will gladly invite a Catholic priest to our Karabanov church or go to a Catholic one myself, say “Christ is in our midst” or answer these words “and is, and will be,” and I will receive communion, and hug my brother, and kiss him.

Original publication and audio recording: http://katholikotita.livejournal.com/556.html http://g-edelstein.livejournal.com/13347.html https://soundcloud.com/ekkli-s-a-katholik/ia095w9euurd

Kostroma region

This is a personal blog. The text could be written in the interests of the author or third parties. The 7x7 editors were not involved in its creation and may not share the opinion of the author. The 7x7 blog posting is open to contributors of different views.

Only twice did the Lord grant me and my wife Natalya, who were married at the end of the 90s of the last century, to meet and talk with Father Georgy Mikhailovich Edelstein,

rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, in the village of Karabanovo, Kostroma diocese and at the same time a member of the dissident movement in the USSR, as well as a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG).

The main thing that remained in the memory of my heart from the meeting and communication with Georgy Mikhailovich in the conference room of the second floor of the Moscow Art Gallery is the joy of recognizing a brother in the Spirit of "pathological love of truth" and fearless Love for the Lord ...

Georgy Mikhailovich Edelstein about 20 years old, was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1965, while still a layman and a graduate student of the Moscow Regional pedagogical institute, participated in the editing of the text of an open letter to Patriarch Alexy I, in which the picture of illegal suppression by the authorities was drawn in detail state power USSR of the rights and freedoms of the country's believers. Georgy Mikhailovich Edelstein long sought ordination, and only on November 24, 1979 was ordained a priest, after which, by the decision of the governor of the Kursk and Belgorod dioceses, Chrysostom, was appointed rector of the Church of St. John the Theologian in the village of Korovino, Volokonovsky district. Since 1992, rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Karabanovo, Kostroma region. Has the rank of archpriest.

Church views of Archpriest Georgy Edelstein are characterized as conservative. Being in close friendly relations with the priest Alexander Menem, he did not share many of his views, is critical of the activities of priest. Georgy Kochetkov. Strongly denies "Sergianism": "Sergianism is the conviction that the Church and lies are compatible"... Appears with denunciations against the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, accused by him of collaborating with the KGB, including Patriarchs Alexy II and Kirill.

Here http://g-edelstein.livejournal.com/12252.html#comments g_edelstein (March 2, 2014) - "Every member of the Church, from Laik to Patriarch, is obliged to tell the truth. Otherwise, he is not a Christian, but a scoop, that is, a Satanist ".

Here http://g-edelstein.livejournal.com/11522.html?view=119042#t119042 "Reflections on the letter of the Izhevsk Fathers" (g_edelstein February 18, 9:42)

"Puski" in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior danced for five minutes, television, radio, newspapers, magazines screamed about them for three years. Now some sodomite bishops have appeared, again for three years there will be enough chewing gum. Only vomit is interesting to us, only it worries us.

Why talk and write about it, both the blind see and the deaf hears. Only His Holiness does not see, only He does not hear Holy Synod that there are five dozen shameful sodomites in the Moscow Patriarchate for three hundred bishops. Why write about them? Send everyone to any "free" country, let them be married to each other there - and all the problems are solved.

They bred so freely and today they multiply with us because our hierarchy is Sergian-Nikodimov, that lies are our first and greatest commandment"

Today I start publishing from here http://krotov.info/lib_sec/26_ae/aed/elstein2.htm#1 "Notes of a rural priest" Archpriest Georgy Edelstein, rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, in the village of Karabanovo, Kostroma diocese (Moscow, Russian State Humanities University, 369 p., Ser. "History and Memory: Eyewitnesses", artist Mikhail Gurov, ISBN 5-7281-0748-6, UDC 271.2 LBC 86.2 E 19)

Moscow 2005

Instead of an epigraph.

They say that about five hundred years ago, a Catholic and a Jew lived side by side in Florence. Each tried to persuade the other into "true faith." In the end, the Jew was ready to surrender, but at first he decided that he would go to Rome to see the papacy for himself.

The neighbors met again six months later. The Jew said that he was in Rome, saw the Pope, talked with cardinals: “Cardinals are a gang of robbers, and the Pope is their leader. Therefore, I went to church and asked to baptize me. I realized that even if such people did not succeed in destroying the Church, it is undoubtedly from God. "

In November 1979, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Kursk and Belgorod ordained me a priest and sent me to a remote rural parish with the words: "For fourteen years there was no service. There is no church, and there is no parish. And nowhere to live. Restore the church building, restore the community - serve. If you cannot, it means that you are not worthy to be a priest. Anyone can just wave the censer, but for a priest this is not enough. A priest today should be all that the Church requires of him. " - "Is it okay to lie for the benefit of the Church?" - "It is possible and necessary."

I have been pondering these words for twenty-five years. Everything that is written in this book is the result of these reflections.

They say that tremendous changes have taken place in the Moscow Patriarchate over the past fifteen years. I, a village priest, see only external changes.

We are allowed to restore churches, publish books, do charity work, visit prisoners and the sick, but the healing and revival of every Local Church, just like every person, can and must begin only with repentance, as evidenced by the preaching of John the Baptist, Savior and the saints. apostles.

We have not repented of anything to this day. And the further, the more absurd even the call to repentance sounds. From all sides I hear: "We have nothing to repent of." Refusal to repent - feature not only the Moscow Patriarchate. It turns out that there is nothing to repent of for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, there is nothing for the "catacombniks" to repent of. We all see a straw in a brother's eye, but we do not see a beam in our own.

They said that the Apostle Jude sold the Teacher for thirty pieces of silver, that the Apostle Peter betrayed Christ and denied him three times, that the chief apostle Paul had persecuted Christians for many years, that Christ was surrounded by tax collectors and sinners. All ancient criticism of Christianity was built on the analysis of the texts of the New Testament, but the Evangelists were not afraid of this. They knew that the father of all lies is the devil, that anyone who lies becomes his son and does his will. And so Christianity has triumphed in the world.

I want to contact to all your fellow clergymen, to all Orthodox Christians in Russia and abroad with a few important questions for me.

How to evaluate the seventy years of cooperation of the hierarchs of our Church with the state of militant atheist communists? Can the Church be Saved by Lies?

Since when and why did our Church become officially called the Russian Orthodox Church? In the Code of Laws Russian Empire"and in all documents of the All-Russian Local Council of 1917-1918 we meet the term" Orthodox Russian Church. " an equal right to say, "This is my Church."

Is it permissible to rank among the saints the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia before repentance and without repentance before them?

Why did we deliberately consign to oblivion all the decisions of the All-Russian Local Council of 1917-1918? Why do we elect the Patriarch contrary to the decision of the Council? Why is the Holy Synod formed contrary to the resolution of the Council? Why are bishops appointed by the Synod today and not elected? Why is the church people completely barred from electing a priest to their parish? Why do we call our Church "Cathedral" if It is built on the principle of "democratic centralism"?

Eyewitnesses

I have never dared to speak on behalf of the Church. Everything that I wrote and said is just my personal opinion.

Even before publication, I sent a copy of each article to the ruling bishop and to the Holy Synod. Dialogue has always been and remains my goal.

This book is a kind of diary of a rural priest in a parish:

here are collected not only long-term impressions and reflections on parish life, but also articles, memoranda, petitions, appeals to the ruling bishops. It is clear that when I wrote these tests, it was difficult to imagine that they would be published under the same cover.

ON THE ARRIVAL

The reader will see that in different years, in different parishes, in different dioceses, the village priest faces similar problems. This, probably, explains the inevitability of repeated reference to the same topics.

The book has three sections.

The first includes essays based on direct impressions of service in rural churches of the Kursk-Belgorod, Vologda and Kostroma dioceses.

In the second section, the reader will find reflections on the ways and destinies of the Russian Orthodox Church today.

Materials concerning the relationship between the Moscow Patriarchate and other branches of the Russian Orthodox Church - the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, the True Orthodox Church ("catacomb-niks"), constitute the third section.

I hope that despite the variety of genres and themes of the texts presented here, put together, they will help the reader to see some important aspects of the current life of Russian Orthodoxy.

I dedicate this book to the blessed memory of my confessor, mentor and friend, priest Nikolai Eshliman.

In November 1979, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Kursk and Belgorod ordained me a priest and sent me to a remote rural parish with the words: "For fourteen years there was no service. There is no church, and there is no parish. And nowhere to live. Restore the church building, restore the community - serve. If you cannot, it means that you are not worthy to be a priest. Anyone can just wave the censer, but for a priest this is not enough. A priest today should be all that the Church requires of him. " - "Is it possible to lie for the benefit of the Church?" - "It is possible and necessary."

I have been pondering these words for twenty-five years. Everything that is written in this book is the result of these reflections.

They say that tremendous changes have taken place in the Moscow Patriarchate over the past fifteen years. I, a village priest, see only external changes. We are allowed to restore churches, publish books, do charity work, visit prisoners and the sick, but the healing and revival of every Local Church, just like every person, can and must begin only with repentance, as evidenced by the preaching of John the Baptist, Savior and the saints. apostles. To this day, we have not repented of anything. And the further, the more absurd even the call to repentance sounds. From all sides I hear: "We have nothing to repent of." Refusal to repent is a characteristic feature not only of the Moscow Patriarchate. It turns out that there is nothing to repent of for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, there is nothing for the "catacombniks" to repent of. We all see a straw in a brother's eye, but we do not see a beam in our own.

I am convinced that it is criminal to hush up the ailments of your Church. Every Christian knows that "God is betrayed by silence." We are called not only to believe, but also to confess, that is, to testify aloud before the whole world. Evangelists should serve as an example for everyone who speaks and writes about the Church. They were not afraid to tell the whole truth, which, it would seem, inevitably harmed the preaching of Christianity. They said that the Apostle Jude sold the Teacher for thirty pieces of silver, that the Apostle Peter betrayed Christ and denied him three times, that the first-believing Apostle Paul had persecuted Christians for many years, that Christ was surrounded by tax collectors and sinners. All ancient criticism of Christianity was built on the analysis of the texts of the New Testament, but the Evangelists were not afraid of this. They knew that the father of all lies is the devil, that anyone who lies becomes his son and does his will. And so Christianity has triumphed in the world.

I would like to turn to all my fellow clergymen, to all Orthodox Christians in Russia and abroad with several questions of greatest importance to me.

How to evaluate the seventy years of cooperation of the hierarchs of our Church with the state of militant atheist communists? Can the Church be Saved by Lies?

Since when and why did our Church become officially called the Russian Orthodox Church? In the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire and in all documents of the All-Russian Local Council of 1917-1918, we come across the term "Orthodox Russian Church". Ukrainian, Belarusian, Tatar, Yakut leave the Holy Font as the same Ukrainians, Belarusians, Tatars, Yakuts, without becoming Russians. Each of us has an equal right to say, "This is my Church."

Is it permissible to rank among the saints the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia before repentance and without repentance before them?

Eyewitnesses I have never dared to speak on behalf of the Church. Everything that I wrote and said is just my personal opinion. Even before publication, I sent a copy of each article to the ruling bishop and to the Holy Synod. Dialogue has always been and remains my goal.

This book is a kind of diary of a rural priest at a parish: it contains not only long-term impressions and reflections on parish life, but also articles, memoranda, petitions, appeals to the ruling bishops. It is clear that when I wrote these tests, it was difficult to imagine that they would be published under the same cover.

ON THE ARRIVAL

The reader will see that in different years, in different parishes, in different dioceses, a village priest faces similar problems. This, probably, explains the inevitability of repeated reference to the same topics.

The book has three sections. The first includes essays based on direct impressions of service in rural churches of the Kursk-Belgorod, Vologda and Kostroma dioceses. In the second section, the reader will find reflections on the ways and destinies of the Russian Orthodox Church today. Materials concerning the relationship between the Moscow Patriarchate and other branches of the Russian Orthodox Church - the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, the True Orthodox Church ("catacomb-niks"), constitute the third section.

I hope that despite the variety of genres and themes of the texts presented here, put together, they will help the reader to see some important aspects of the current life of Russian Orthodoxy.

I dedicate this book to the blessed memory of my confessor, mentor and friend, priest Nikolai Eshliman.

Brave new world

I belong to the strangest and most amazing social group... I do not fall into either of the two classes that make up Soviet society, nor do I belong to the "stratum" - the intelligentsia. Every day, opening any newspaper, I read: "Workers of all countries, unite!" No, this call is not for me. For many years the "Internationale" was the official anthem of my country, but the words of the anthem of my Motherland were directly and openly hostile to me. I am not a union member and cannot become one. For 70 years, no one has ever represented me at May Day or October parades or demonstrations, neither below - in columns, nor above - in the stands, May Day and October slogans did not call me to "strengthen", "multiply", "strengthen". I never took a labor watch and did not participate in socialist competition, except perhaps on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

I am not a citizen of the Gulag, but no one ever says or writes to me "comrade", and if somewhere inadvertently mentions and says out of habit, I will not answer and will not even turn to the speaker: this is not me. And myself, of course, I never call anyone with this word. V last time, I remember, this is how A. Blok turned to my brother in the poem "The Twelve": "What is not fun today, comrade priest?" But my long-skirted brother did not want to answer in that poem either, he preferred to hide behind a snowdrift, although it was precisely noticed and the question was very significant. But the "comrade priest" did not accept the consecration from those twelve Petrukh and Vanyukh, who foresaw "freedom without a cross" behind the snow blizzard, did not dream of drinking blood with them and shooting a bullet into Holy Russia. He was completely alien to those apostles, and they were completely alien to him: he was not going to serve that werewolf "in a white corolla of roses."

Lyceum No. 1, Volgorechensk, Kostroma region

scientific advisor Denis Leonidovich Lapin

Archpriest Georgy Mikhailovich Edelstein was born on July 20, 1932 into a family with Russian, Jewish and Polish roots. At the age of about 20 he was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1965, Edelstein, while still a layman and graduate student of the Moscow Regional Pedagogical Institute, participated in the editing of the text of an open letter to Patriarch Alexy I, which painted in detail the picture of the unlawful suppression of the rights and freedoms of believers by the state authorities of the USSR. After the creation of the Moscow Helsinki Group in 1976, he became one of its members.

Georgy Edelstein long sought to be ordained, and only on November 24, 1979 was ordained a priest, after which, by the decision of the governor of the Kursk and Belgorod dioceses, Chrysostom, was appointed rector of the Church of St. John the Theologian in the village of Korovino, Volokonovsky district. Since 1992 - rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Karabanovo, Kostroma region; removed from this post at the end of 2015 due to advanced age and health conditions.

Restoration of the temple in Karabanovo

Around 1991, Father Georgy Edelstein visited his friends in the United States. In Washington, he was invited to a Protestant congregation, the Methodist Church. Community members said they want to help restore Orthodox churches in Russia and are ready to provide financial support in the amount of $ 30,000. From that moment, inspired by the support of American Methodists, Father George began to look for a temple in need of restoration. I wanted to go to the Kadyi district - there, on the banks of the Volga, there is a place where Andrei Tarkovsky's father, Arseny, lived. It was in this place that Father George originally wanted to restore the temple, but he abandoned this idea. First of all, because it was difficult to get materials for construction in the immediate vicinity, and it was more than difficult to bring from Kostroma. As a result, he came to the ruling bishop, Vladyka Alexander, now Metropolitan, and asked for his blessing to restore some destroyed church in the diocese.

Vladyka invited him to choose any of the fifty in need of revival. As a result, Father George chose a temple in the village of Karabanovo, and this choice was not accidental, as it turned out later. In the village of Ikonnikovo, which is located not far from Karabanovo, there lived a certain Boris Volin, whose father, Pavel, closed and ravaged this church. And he brought the icons from the temple home and chopped them into torches to kindle the stove. The grandmothers from the Karabanovsky church asked him: "Pashka, give us the icons!" And he answered them: "No! There is nothing to spread darkness and ignorance! From these icons I will make bee hives! From these filthy icons of yours! "

As a result, Paul closed the church, and his son decided to make up for his daddy's outrage. Several times he traveled to Moscow to the Council for Religious Affairs and, finally, obtained permission to restore the church. But there is permission, but there is no church: three walls without windows and a roof. There is no north wall because the building had a tractor workshop for some time, and the wall was crushed to enable the tractor to enter the building. But the tractor workshop is not the worst thing. In the late 80s. there was a warehouse in the temple mineral fertilizers: there was an excess of them, and valuable fertilizers were piled here. The temple is open, there is no roof. Snow and rain - everything fell on fertilizers. As a result, a fetid ooze formed on the floor.
Arriving here, in the store about. George met local grandmothers. He invited them to go to the temple together.

- And you, father, were you there?

- No, I was not. Let's go together?

- No, father, let's not go. You go there four times - the boots will fall apart!

Father George entered what was left of the church. Indeed, it is a green stinking swamp. He took out an eliton, took out a towel, spread it on the windowsill, put the cross and the Gospel on the towel, sang the Easter canon: "May God rise and scatter him against him."

It was time to begin the restoration, but the Methodists did not send the promised money. Counting on this money, Father George borrowed a thousand, then another. The third was no longer given to him, they demanded to give first those two ...

Fortunately, his friends came from Norway, who lived near the Kostroma diocese, and they worked for about ten days - they helped Father George to start the restoration work. They left, and a month later they sent him an amount of money, which allowed the priest to pay off debts, fix the vaults and make the roof.

The brick in the columns holding the vaults crumbled to dust - this is how harmful fertilizers acted on it. Father was warned: if you are going to restore the vaults that do not hold on to anything, they will collapse on you.

Well, they will collapse, so they will collapse ... We welded frames for pillars from metal, poured them with concrete - nothing fell. They cleared the temple of dirt, restored the northern wall, and made a roof. The stench from fertilizers lasted three years. Now the fetid smell seems to have disappeared.

In about three years, the building of the temple was restored. Father George was proud to have put the bricks in place ... But then he quickly realized that putting bricks in place is much easier than restoring human souls... The first lesson in this regard was for him: his friends, the Norwegians, come and read from the Bible in the morning as usual. Among them is a Lutheran priest, after reading he says something. And only after that they start to work. The grandmothers asked about. George: "Why are they reading this?" He answers them: "They read the Bible." They also ask: "And what is this one telling them?" Says: "The sermon reads, clarifies what is read in the Bible." The grandmothers are at a loss: “Father! So you said that they don't understand Russian ?! " "So you see it yourself, they don't understand." The grannies continue: “So how do they read the Bible ?! It's written in Russian! " They were firmly convinced that Jesus Christ was ours, a Russian man, and that the Bible exists only in Russian, so those who do not understand Russian cannot read the Bible.

In the end, the money of Father George's Norwegian friends ran out, and the work was not yet finished. Slowly they continued to lay the roof.

At some point, a man appeared. He sat on a bench in front of the temple and watched as the workers hauled up a huge log. And this log must be dragged upstairs at all costs. Special technique of course not, because there is no money. The man sees what is happening and suddenly shouts in English: "You can not do it this way! You are doing the wrong thing, the log can fall down and kill those standing below! " They dragged the log - nothing terrible happened. Since Father George was the only one who understood English, he explained to him: "Take crane nowhere, and even if I take it, there is no money to pay his rent. " They got into a conversation, it turned out that the newcomer was a civil engineer, a Baptist by faith.

So he sat on a bench for four days, each time coming from the city and watching how people work. And then he approached the priest again and said that he wanted to work in a children's colony near Vasilievskoye Highway, as he once did in Canada - to read and explain the Bible to juvenile prisoners. As it turned out, in Moscow he was told that there is a priest in Karabanovo who knows English well, so he came and suggested: “Let us work in Karabanovo during the day and here at night. I will read and speak, and you will translate. "

Then Father Georgy introduced him to the head of the colony Sorokin, said that the person wants to be useful, but does not speak Russian at the same time. As a result, this Baptist was, of course, banned from such enlightenment activities. He sat at the temple in Karabanovo for a couple of days, then took out his wallet and pulled out the same amount of money as the Norwegians had sent the last time. After that, he disappeared and never appeared again. Father George says that "he still does not know who he is and where he came from, but this man turned out to be one of those who helped to complete the construction of the temple."

Two years have passed. The winter temple was rebuilt, but there was still a need to rebuild the summer one.

A good friend of Father George's, director of the Keston Institute Lawrence Uzzell, traveled on a motor ship along the Volga. After passing several cities and seeing that his companions were a little tired of the monotony of the views around, he invited them to go ashore in Kostroma: "Let's get off here, I will take you to the village temple, and you will be able to see with your own eyes how the village priest lives."... Together with him, almost the entire group of travelers arrived in Karabanovo, and among this group there was some kind of short man, who, according to Father George, completely exhausted him with his endless questions. He asked Larry who he was, it turned out that he was a Catholic priest from Ireland.

After staying in Karabanovo for half a day, the travelers left. Later, this priest helped the community with money, with which she was able to restore the summer part of the temple. He struck up a friendship with Father Georgy and they visited each other more than once, and students from Moscow pedagogical university visited him in Ireland, took part in archaeological expeditions there. Unfortunately, he is no longer alive.

Surprisingly, in this way, with the money of the Norwegian Lutherans, the Canadian Baptist and the Catholic Padre was restored Orthodox church in the name of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Karabanovo.

And what about the promised money of American Methodists? They were interested in what was going on. They promised once, promised another, sent their emissary, who examined the surroundings. But before today they never sent the money to Father George. At the same time, the priest is very grateful to them - according to him,

“If it were not for their promise, I would never have dared to start rebuilding the temple with completely empty pockets. They gave me faith in the success of my enterprise. "

Soviet Religious Policy in the 1960s and an open letter to Patriarch Alexy I

The anti-church course, declared and strictly pursued during the reign of NS Khrushchev, was continued by the people who removed him from power. Of course, the extremes of this course have been relaxed. Frank and brutal propaganda and administrative pressure on the Church did not fit into the strategy of the post-Khrushchev “nomenklatura stabilization”. Together with political regime state-church relations were to be stabilized, and on terms favorable to the authorities. The new Soviet leadership was not going to give up the conquests of its “ church reform". That is why so much effort was expended to prevent discussion of the issue of the consequences of the “church reform” at the Local Council of 1971. The policy of isolating the Church, reducing its influence was dominant in this period. In fact, power from an open, aggressive confrontation has passed to a hidden, but no less destructive confrontation.

The authorities closely monitored the influence of the Church on believers through worship. As a rule, this concerned those divine services at which the most a large number of worshipers - the holidays of Easter, the Nativity of Christ, days of remembrance of the dead. Officials compiled detailed reports on the holding of festive services on these days, the number of parishioners, the presence of children and youth among them, the facts of violation of the legislation on cults. To spy on believers in churches, there were special informants whose task was primarily to monitor whether there were young people, children, members of the Communist Party among the parishioners, and also to monitor the content of sermons. Let us cite the testimony of one of these people, attracted by the party leadership to perform similar duties, who is now already a believer. Orthodox Christian V. D. Yablochkina:

“After graduating from school, when I entered the institute, my profile read: anti-religious propagandist. The head of the organizational and methodological department, Knyazev, said that we would work in the commission for the affairs of the Orthodox Church. Our responsibilities include: visiting churches, ideological analysis of church sermons and monitoring the registration stubs of the likelihood of participation of members of the CPSU in church Sacraments ... "

On Easter, police cordons were set up around the churches, formally, of course, to prevent offenses and to protect believers. But very often, under the pretext of protecting public order, police officers were ordered not to let young people into services. According to the professor of the Moscow Theological Academy A.K.Svetozarsky,

“In order to enter the church before the beginning of the Easter service, it was necessary to deceive the so-called vigilantes - they were not vigilantes, but employees of the district committee of the Komsomol. One year I remembered that they had special Komsomol badges with a golden twig, the so-called “Lenin’s badge”. You had to walk past them with a firm step, pretending that you are walking past the temple, and right at the fence, turn sharply into the gate and walk. I must say that they succeeded, but they no longer ruled the territory. In the church they definitely did not approach, but in the courtyard they began to say: "We will wait for you." But they didn’t wait - they had another event later. ”

Important date became November 21, 1965, when the Moscow priest Nikolai Eshliman and the Dmitrov priest Gleb Yakunin sent an Open Letter To His Holiness the Patriarch Alexy I. It was written as a result of long-term work large group of people. The original, very short version was prepared by the writer Anatoly Krasnov-Levitin. It has been substantially revised and expanded by Fr. Nikolay Eshliman with the participation of Georgy Edelstein. According to the latter,

“At first the idea was extremely vague, but it soon became clear that in Moscow this idea was supported by at least 10-15 priests. The initial version was supposed to be small - pages 5–6. Then they thought about it and decided that it took 20 pages to present the essence of the case in detail. "

This manuscript formed the basis of the first part of the final version, on which laymen Felix Karelin, Lev Regelson and Victor Kapitanchuk worked for several months. Signatory merit this document priests consists, first of all, in the fact that they put their signatures and refused to remove them in the future despite the pressure exerted. At first, it was assumed that this would be a joint letter from bishops, priests and possibly several deacons (they did not want to include the laity) - a kind of conciliar appeal to the Patriarch. But then almost all of the 15–20 clergy who expressed their preliminary consent refused to give their signatures. Initially, it was assumed that the document would be signed by Archbishop Germogen Golubev.

The letter was reproduced in 100 copies and sent to all the ruling bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate. And some of them, for example, the Metropolitan Surozhsky Anthony(Blum) sent telegrams of approval. And on December 15, they sent copies of the letter to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR N.V. Podgorny, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin and the attorney general USSR Rudenko. Already at the beginning of 1966, the Open Letter was translated into several foreign languages, were broadcast on the radio, including in the USSR. Since then, the topic of persecution of the Church in the Soviet Union has become one of the most popular in Western publications, although, of course, the West was well aware of it before.

The appeal raised a number of issues:

- on the illegal actions of the leaders and commissioners of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, criminally violating the basic legislative provisions of the Soviet government, which determine the attitude of the Soviet state to the Church; about the forcible closure of churches in 1959-1964;

- on the illegal interference of representatives of state power in the internal church life: “... for the period from 1957 to 1964, under the personal pressure of Khrushchev, who allowed“ subjectivism and administration in the leadership ”, subsequently convicted The Communist Party and the Soviet government, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church radically changed its nature, turning from an official intermediary body into an unofficial and illegal government body of the Moscow Patriarchate. A situation has now arisen in the Russian Church in which not a single side of church life is free from active administrative interference from the Council for R.P. Ts., His authorized representatives and local authorities power, intervention aimed at the destruction of the Church! " ... Suffice it to say that the ruling bishop in his diocese could not appoint a parish rector without the approval of the local representative of the Council for Religious Affairs;

- that the Church is no longer conciliar, because if the diocese does not elect a bishop, then he cannot represent it, - which was written precisely under the influence of Vladyka Hermogenes. In the 1970s, Gleb Yakunin would regret that they turned to him for help, characterizing him as a gentle person, constantly looking for compromises, so it was necessary to focus on Archbishop Pavel (Golyshev) as a person of stronger convictions.

On December 24, 1965, Patriarch Alexy signed a resolution on an Open Letter, which instructed His Grace Metropolitan Pimen of Krutitsk to point out to the compilers the illegality and depravity of their actions aimed at seducing the Church, and on the corresponding report of His Grace to have a “special judgment” about priests Nikolai Eshliman and Gleb Yakunin ...

In May 1966, Metropolitan Pimen of Krutitsky summoned the authors of the sensational documents. Soon, both were banned from the ministry, pending repentance. Then the priest Nikolai Eshliman circulated a second letter, which contained reasons for refusing to repent (according to Father Nikolai, they were required to repent not for violating church discipline, but for "denigrating Soviet reality"). The tone of the explanation was harsh, but not "cheeky." It was clear to everyone that neither His Holiness the Patriarch nor Metropolitan Pimen demanded repentance.

Application. Interview with Archpriest Georgy Edelstein, recorded by the author on December 20, 2015

- Who were you at the time of writing the Open Letter to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I?

- I was a simple altar boy with Father Nikolai Eshliman, when he was still serving near the Monino station in the village of Bogorodskoye. In addition, I also studied in graduate school at the same time. At the time of our acquaintance I was 31–32 years old. At one time I read in one of the church magazines the sermons of Father Alexander Men and since then I wanted to get to know him. In the end, I managed to do this through our mutual friend - psychiatrist Anatoly Dobrovich. In the same way, I got to know Father Nikolai Eshliman, and with him I have established quite a serious relationship, for me he was a spiritual father, a mentor, I always turned to him as "you", while with Alexander Mene the relationship was rather friendly, informal, we easily communicated on "you".

- What motives prompted you to participate in the creation of this letter? What motives do you think drove the other authors of the letter?

- Fr Nikolai Eshliman spoke almost from our first meeting that the Church is in an unequal position, in an unconstitutional space. After all, officially, according to the Constitution of the USSR, the Church was separated from the state, but in fact it constantly interfered in its affairs, restricting freedom of religion, and the church authorities, His Holiness Patriarch and the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, unfortunately, do not interfere with this illegal process.<…>

Father Nikolai wanted to gather a group of like-minded people to write an open letter to the Holy Patriarch and the Synod.<…>Father Nikolai was then already serving near Moscow in Grebnevo, in the Moscow region. And then one day the red-haired, disheveled Gleb Yakunin came running, with some kind of huge yellow suitcase (I remember, he wore everything in it - even linen and brooms for the bath), and said that there were some secret documents... After a long, about three-hour conversation with Father Nikolai, Gleb came running again, took his suitcase and went to the train.<…>Then Father Nikolai turned to me and read the text of the letter to me, asking not to tell Gleb about it. After reading the letter, he asked what my opinion was - I replied that it was most likely written by Anatoly Emmanuilovich Krasnov-Levitin, who for a long time belonged to the Renovationists. Father Gleb said that action must be taken quickly and decisively, having published a letter before Easter. However, I recommended to Father Nikolai that he should not sign the document in this form, with which he agreed. Additionally, I said that if necessary, I am ready to help in writing new edition Letters, but at the same time be only a technical performer. In 2-3 days we went to st. Pushkinskaya (now Bolshaya Dmitrovka), which was the only place in Moscow for selling typewriters. Father Nikolai bought the most expensive model, then everyone went to his house, where they created several copies of the Letter.

The letter was signed in a new edition by priests Nikolai Eshliman and Gleb Yakunin. It was assumed that other priests would also put their signatures - first of all, Alexander Men, Nikolai Vedernikov, Vladimir Rozhkov and Vladyka Germogen (Golubev), Metropolitan of Volgograd - but then they all refused to do so.

It must be said that Vladyka Germogen treated His Holiness Patriarch Alexy with deep respect and wrote him his letter, however, in a confidential form, without publishing the text, as Gleb Yakunin and Nikolai Eshliman did.

- What is your contribution to the creation of this document?

- I am not its creator - rather, I am just a technical performer. Moreover, I edited no more than a third of the entire text. In addition, it was I who convinced Father Nikolai Eshliman that the Letter should be the author's, while Father Alexander Men believed that it should be anonymous or, according to at least, be signed under false names. In general, this Open Letter is the first open document human rights in the USSR.

- Father George, since you took part in editing the text of the Open Letter, why didn't you sign it? Because you did not have a priestly rank, or because they tried to save you?

- No, they did not try to save me, because I myself insisted that only priests should sign the text of the Open Letter, while at that time I did not have the priestly rank.

- How would you describe the priest Nikolai Eshliman?

- Father Nikolai was a very close friend with Father Alexander Menem, despite the fact that in many ways they were completely different people. Father Alexander admired Fr. Nicholas, saying that, despite all his abilities as a preacher, he cannot be compared with Nicholas. Father Alexander was measured, strict, logical, consistent, while Father Nikolai, 5 minutes before the sermon, did not know what he would talk about, but then he became like a nightingale, fascinating everyone with the depth of his sermon. Father Alexander never for a minute was mistaken in his service, in his sermons, while Father Nicholas, while serving, forgot about everything in the world, completely immersing himself in Divine services - inspiration captured everything. Even at every funeral service, he had his own new sermon.

Father Nikolai was, of course, a real priest. For example, he could go in a carriage and, seeing the gypsies, walk up to them and testify to them about Christ all the way.

Father Nikolai died when I was already ordained a priest. They served him, oddly enough, according to the rank of a simple layman - that was the order of His Holiness the Patriarch, who, in turn, was ordered from the Council for Religious Affairs. But Father Vladimir Rozhkov then came up to me and said that I needed to sing him as a priest - which I did with the two singers. There was not even a cross on the grave of Father Nicholas for about six months, so we had to get one and put a cross on the grave.

- Why did the leadership of the ROC behave so predictably in relation to the authors of the document? Was not the principle "Hit your own, so that strangers are afraid" was applied here, or did the church elite have some of their own considerations?

- The leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church did not accept, in principle, the initiative and, moreover, criticism "from below". But the worst thing that, in my opinion, happened during both the Khrushchev and Brezhnev persecutions was the bishops' council of 1961, when on the day of remembrance Saint Sergius After the Liturgy of Radonezh, all the bishops were sent to a meeting, during which the Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1945 was changed.<…>In fact, the Church agreed to cooperate with the state ...

- And finally, tell me, how do you see the future of our Mother Church, if now the tendency to strengthen the power of the episcopate is so strongly expressed?

- We need to know the history of our Church, since the priest who does not know it simply has no right to be a priest. In any case, it is necessary to maintain unity - after all, at every service we pray for the unity of the Church. Any disunity is sectarianism, the division of the Robe of Christ and, in my deep conviction, is an anti-Christian act. But most importantly, firstly, we need to remain Orthodox, and secondly, not to lie. This is not the problem of the Russian Orthodox Church, but of the Moscow Patriarchate. Among the apostles from 12 to 70, there were sinners, traitors, and heretics. So it was and so it will be. It is necessary to tell the truth, because the main distinguishing feature of Christianity is its testimony to the Truth. When our church hierarchs fought for peace, it was just propaganda. Now the Church is both formally and actually separated from the state, which allows us to freely choose - to tell the truth or to lie.

During the Soviet period, the Russian Orthodox Church suffered serious damage. The number of parishes has decreased, their material support has worsened. A state dominated by atheism began to cultivate a negative attitude towards the Church and believers. The Soviet government wanted to end religion once and for all, but thanks to the flexible policy of the clergy and devotion to the faith, the Church managed to survive even in this difficult time for her. It was during these difficult times for the Church that Archpriest Georgy Edelstein began his career as a priest, in addition, he had the opportunity to indirectly participate in the creation of the Open Letter to Patriarch Alexy I, the authors of which were priests Nikolai Eshliman and Gleb Yakunin. The text of this document caused a great public outcry both in the Soviet Union and beyond its borders. Despite this, Father George was able to continue to be within the USSR, later taking the priestly dignity. In addition, he was able to become a prominent public figure, in particular, a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, which united some of the famous dissidents.

Open letter to His Holiness Patriarch priests Nikolai Eshliman and Gleb Yakunin. Russian Orthodox Church in Soviet time(1917-1991). Materials and documents on the history of relations between the state and the Church / Comp. G. Stricker. M .: Propilei, 1995. S. 54-60.

Georgy Edelstein wanted to be independent. Only the church could give him this feeling. But even here he remained himself.

He became a priest late - at the age of 47. A prosperous teacher at Kostroma University, head of the Department of Foreign Languages, he suddenly graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and went to live in poverty in distant rural parishes - in the Belgorod steppes, in the Vologda forests.

Not all of a sudden, - corrects Father George.

He is slowly stirring with a spoon in a glass of tea - this slow, intelligible movement is very characteristic of his entire unhurried life rhythm. It is difficult to imagine him screaming, fussy. Apparently, he flared up once in his life, when he tore off his hat from an impudent person who did not want to bare his head in church. However, with this impudent an hour later he drank tea in a conciliatory manner.

He does everything thoroughly, thoughtfully. His house in Karabanovo, 20 kilometers from Kostroma and 300 meters from the Resurrection Church, is solid, strong, although construction material O. Georgy collected mainly in landfills or received it cheaply in the early 90s from almost ownerless warehouses. Most the house is occupied by an office with a spacious desk, bookshelves, and a computer. But the master's main pride is not a computer, but a vast basement, a "bunker" where sacks of potatoes, zucchini and pumpkins, jars of pickles are kept. He is unpretentious in food, which can be seen from his figure: thin, sinewy, his gait is light and heavy only when the priest performs the liturgy and then a few more demands - wedding, baptism, funeral service. The load is considerable, because it serves more than one village. But if there are no parishioners in the church, then all the same, the priest goes to an empty church and prays there together with the housekeeper Natalya and the deacon Sergei.

No, of course, I didn’t suddenly become a priest, ”Father George repeats.

Impressions of childhood affected: the heartfelt voice of the mother who sang Catholic hymns to him, the prayers of his grandmother that one of the grandchildren should become a priest. The influence of Russian literature, especially Tyutchev and Baratynsky, was significant.

And most importantly, the Soviet way of life tormented all my life. V kindergarten he sees the portrait of Postyshev, the Ukrainian leader, being removed from the wall. Why? He's good! The father is arrested and released after the fall of Yezhov. The father refuses to condemn the arrested brother, and the family friend exposes the father, repeating: "The party is dearer to me than friendship." George is horrified by this incomprehensible betrayal. Adults give evasive answers to his questions, and gradually an epiphany comes to the boy ...

There were also other impressions - one might say, "of the Christian sense". His mother, enraged by his fight with a neighbor's boy over a book, takes her son's books out into the yard - "you are greedy" - and distributes them. The mother brings the children, whose parents are arrested, to the house, arranges them into families.

Over the years, the mood grows stronger: to isolate from the system. Already in his teaching years, he took up the writing of a dissertation "Medieval Teachings on Language", and enjoys working in libraries. Laughs: "How can I scold Soviet power when I read great historians and philosophers for ten years, and I was also paid for this pleasure! "

No, he never fought with power and does not intend to do so in the future. He just wanted to be an independent person, outside the system, and only the church could give this feeling. But the church hierarchs shrugged their shoulders skeptically: higher education, Ph.D., Jew ... No, not good.

Have you often been reminded of your Jewishness? - I ask.

Parishioners - not a word, not a hint. Church colleagues, yes. Recently, one metropolitan called me a "soaked Jew" - in fact, this is a mockery of the sacrament of baptism. Party functionaries also emphasized my "foreignness". Some were annoyed: "You have nothing but troubles, Fr. Georgy. You and Fr. Alexander Men and Gleb Yakunin always bring confusion."

The case was decided by Archbishop Chrysostom of Kursk - a figure, according to Fr. George, amazing. For 18 years, he collaborated with the state security authorities (under the nickname The Restorer) - which is not surprising. Unusually different - this was the only hierarch of the Orthodox Church who confessed to being involved in a powerful department, although he added: "I have nothing to repent of, I served the people of my country." The shrewd Chrysostomus quickly figured out that he was facing a very promising clergyman. Once he said to Edelstein: "It is in vain that everyone is so afraid of the KGB, you can negotiate with them. The worst of all are the party functionaries, they are not able to understand anything." On November 17, 1979, Chrysostomus sent Edelstein a telegram authorizing his ordination.

The first steps taken by Fr. George in the Belgorod region, irritated the Commissioner for Religious Affairs. Firstly, the priest wears a cassock all the time - it is not supposed to, outside the church he must wear civilian clothes. Secondly, during the funeral service for the deceased, the priest goes to the cemetery, which can be qualified as religious propaganda. Father George even carried with him a collection of decrees, from which it was clear that the funeral service at the cemetery is not prohibited. Chrysostomus grievously reproached the neophyte: "I will soon be removed. Anger will fall on you. You behaved extremely carelessly, irritated the Soviet authorities. Go to the village in the North.

Three years of ministry followed in remote northern villages, and in the spring of 1992, Fr. Georgy found himself in Karabanovo, Kostroma region, in front of a dilapidated, filthy church, which had been turned into a warehouse of mineral fertilizers during the Soviet era.

Here he took root, built a house for himself and, with the help of Canadian Baptists and Norwegian Lutherans, rebuilt the church (in the author's opinion, a visible evidence of Christian ecumenism). With this assessment, Fr. George is unlikely to agree: to the movement of ecumenism in his modern form he has an extremely negative attitude, considering it a "roof for the anti-church forces." But be that as it may, the result of the joint labors of Christians of different directions in Karabanovo can be seen with your own eyes.

Father George willingly travels to America, Europe, lectures. He brings the earned fee home and invests everything in the business: for the restoration of the temple, for the construction of houses for the homeless, for help district hospital and an orphanage.

Many are asking for support. When I was there came the former homeless Sashka, who settled in the churchyard. He and his wife started a herd of bulls and now they want to buy posts to fence the pasture. Edelstein promises help, he rarely refuses - only when his pockets are empty. Then he switches to pasta and liquid tea, and says to the beggar guiltily: "Be patient." Money appears - and again bogomaz and carvers are working in the church, workers are covering the leaking roof of the hospital with iron, a sewing workshop in the orphanage is operating again. Comes humanitarian aid from abroad - a few days later, village boys and girls flaunt in T-shirts and jackets with the formidable inscriptions "Chicago Bulls".

They are accustomed to the help of a priest. People from prison are drawn to Karabanovo - tired, confused, humble. They find shelter and work here. They eat off, sleep off, and then, as usual, wash down. Binges, by the same custom, end in fires. Two houses have already burned down, people have died.

My duty is to help them, - says Father George. - I offer a choice, and it is up to them to decide how to arrange life. No soul-saving conversations. If asked, I explain, I advise.

I'm somewhat disappointed - tough stance. I had already pictured repentant vagabonds who became angels under the influence of the priest's affectionate speeches. Alas.

Do not be shy, ask uncomfortable questions, - the priest says, noticing my mood.

Inconvenient? Well, perhaps ...

Strange, don't you get tired of the monotony of the service? Repeating the same words a thousand times?

It’s strange, but not tiring, ”Fr. answers with a smile. George. - There is a Hellenic type of thinking, it needs a continuous change of impressions, and there is a Judeo-Christian, which is distinguished by greater concentration, adherence to tradition, to self-restraint. Obviously, I belong to the latter.

The conservatism of a clergyman, who would look defiant in Moscow, is perceived as natural here in the village - after all, the village itself is dominated by tradition.

His rejection of the reform efforts of the Moscow priest Georgy Kochetkov also seems natural. But the main thing that categorically does not suit him in the church is sergianism (named after Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky), the desire to please the state in everything. Here the soft, restrained Father George judges harshly and mercilessly: "Sergianism is the conviction that the Church and lies are compatible." Without hesitation, he calls the Moscow Patriarchate "an island of the Brezhnev-Chernenkov stagnation, without the slightest sign After such statements, many influential hierarchs descend upon him: how dare he vilify the church! after 1917 - this is the greatest miracle of the 20th century. Only our Church survived and flourished not thanks to, but in spite of Sergianism and Sergianism. "

Therefore, he is so pleased with the unclouded religious feeling of the parishioners. I happened to be present at the wedding of an elderly couple - she is a housewife, he is a rural entrepreneur. Having lived together for 17 years, having raised two children, they came to the priest to strengthen their union. Struck by the excitement with which the forty-year-old merchant listened to the words of the priest. He, like a timid boy, obediently followed all his instructions. After the wedding, he led the family to his white Volvo with a solemnly enlightened face.

The Karabanovsky priest does not flatter himself. He even believes that before perestroika, interest in the church was much higher. Now the church is internally degrading with the outward splendid flourishing. The key problem is repentance, cleansing from sins, servility, servility, lies.

I complain: something is wrong with cleansing so far. Father George edifyingly reminds me of the forty years during which Moses led the Israelites through the desert, and the people who had escaped slavery shouted angrily to their leader: "In the land of Egypt we sat by the cauldrons of meat and ate our bread!" Patience: The slave spirit does not disappear so quickly. Father George is slowly stirring with a spoon in a glass of tea ...