Letter Five. Orthodoxy in the West

In these July days, in my solitude among the deserted academic buildings, I often recall, my dear friend, how in the July days a few years ago I also visited Russian Orthodox churches on holidays in various Western European centers. First of all, I remember that a Russian church in the West must be searched for, and it is not entirely easy to find it. For some reason, Russian churches are everywhere in European capitals, somewhere in the backyards, in some alleys, far from urban centers. I'm not talking about resorts, where half of the population was Russian in the summer. I am talking about the capitals. Only in Geneva is the Russian church visible in the general view of the city from Lake Geneva. I wandered around Vienna for a long time, looking for a Russian church; it is not easy to get to the Russian church in Paris. And in Berlin you will not find your native church at all; there is only a house church at the embassy on Unter den Linden. How can you go to the embassy! The embassy building is huge and imposing, but there is not much room for a church. And the real Russian Church is already outside Berlin, in Tegel, where a Russian colony has found a place for itself with its institutions. I have not yet had the opportunity to visit Rome, but I was told about the Russian Church in Rome by people I knew closely. Where do you think it is? In a rented room, in a simple house. They say there was such a case recently. The householder did not want to renew the contract with the Russian mission, because the owner of the cinema wanted to pay more for the premises. So, move out with your Orthodox church, take out your altars and icons - the room needs for cinema! It is extremely offensive for the Russian heart to see such a humiliation of their native Orthodoxy!

And where else? In Rome, where Catholicism appears in all its greatness. The deceased - alas! the now deceased Archpriest A.P. Maltsev of Berlin painfully felt the abnormality of the situation of the Russian church in Berlin and dreamed of building a church in the city itself. He has already collected a significant amount of money to make his dream come true. But now, of course, Berlin will not soon be decorated with an Orthodox church. However, I involuntarily think: why should only individuals take care of the construction of decent Orthodox churches in European capitals? Is this not a certain duty of the entire Russian Church and the entire Russian state? After all, they find it necessary to spend considerable sums on the maintenance of embassies. They are trying to furnish the embassy in accordance with the greatness of Russia. Why not take care that the church at the embassy is worthy of the Russian Orthodox name? And sometimes it seems that there is some kind of deliberate neglect here.

Why our churches are usually driven into some remote alleys, I also do not understand well. In our country, the non-Orthodox who live do not act like this. In Petrograd, on Nevsky Prospekt, opposite the Kazan Cathedral, both Catholic and Protestant churches are themselves striking. We also say about this: "Look how the colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral is open in the direction of non-Orthodox churches! As if the Orthodox Church has opened its arms to Catholics and Protestants!" And I involuntarily have an addition to these words: "Only the heterodox back away and seem to shrink from the Orthodox embrace!" In the same Petrograd, look from the Trinity Bridge in the direction of the fortress and Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt. You will see how even the Peter and Paul Cathedral is lost in comparison with the dome and patterns of the oriental carpet of the mosque. The Trinity Cathedral - small, old, low - could not stand the neighborhood of Mohammed and burned down.

That's how it is with us! For other people's churches - a better and more prominent place! And we ourselves in the West climb with our Orthodox churches somewhere far from enlightened European eyes, somewhere in a more remote alley.

And the very divine services in churches abroad have their own peculiarities. I will not say that these features are desirable. Seven years ago, I had to perform the duties of a psalmist in the Orthodox Church of Vienna on a festive day. At 10 o'clock in the morning we began to serve matins and soon reached Liturgy. While I was reading the hours, the singers gathered on the kliros. The liturgy began. I saw that the singers sang well, skillfully, although there were not many of them. Suddenly I noticed that our choir director was speaking to his singers in German. Could it be the Germans? They began to sing something musical. I looked at the notes of my neighbor, a blond tenor - the words of the chant are signed under the notes in Latin letters. I asked the choir director who his singers were. It turned out, indeed, not Russians. My neighbor is German, the other singers are Czechs, only there are no Russians except the choir director. In the same way, there is only one Orthodox choir director, and all the singers are Catholics. How do you like it, my friend? Orthodox people in a foreign land have gathered in their native church, but the heterodox, even the Germans themselves, sing to them what they do not understand.

The singers at our divine services sometimes replace all those present and praying. There is a certain difference in the liturgical books: one should be sung by the "face", the other by the "people", that is, by all the people in the church. But in practice, all singers sing. They sing "Lord, have mercy" during the litanies, they conclude the priest's exclamations with the word "Amen," thereby expressing their agreement and like-mindedness with the priest. A truly Orthodox person cannot only listen to the liturgy - he must participate in it. And so, in churches abroad, during divine services, the Orthodox are replaced by heterodox Germans, who are not at all of the same mind with the Orthodox priest. In Russia, since the time of Peter the Great, the Germans have stood between the tsar and the people, and in the West the Germans have even stood between God and the Orthodox people. And what a divine service is obtained with foreign singers! After all, it is difficult to convey Slavic words in Latin letters; It is clear that singers often do not quite well in pronunciation. Even "Lord, have mercy" is bad for them: it sounds like "have mercy." From a distance, of course, you get a certain illusion of Slavic singing. Yes, when they sing something musical, then often even among Russian singers you cannot understand the words, only sounds and musical intricacies remain. I then talked to the blond tenor. He turned out to be a rather free-thinking Catholic. He praised the Orthodox services, saying that he would not mind converting to Old Catholicism, but he was afraid of losing his service. Before the Orthodox mass, he had already sung a service somewhere in a Catholic church. In a word, it turned out that he was some kind of inter-confessional singer. I asked the choir director why he recruited singers from among Germans and Czechs, and I heard from him a not particularly flattering characterization of his compatriots. "I tried," the choir director told me, "to recruit Russians, but they are only unhappy: they are lazy, careless, you can't call them to the rehearsal. It is better to deal with the Germans. First of all, the people are quite intelligent. Did you see a blond tenor standing on the kliros? After all, the Doctor of Philosophy, yes, in addition, has a special musical education. Let the words be signed in Latin letters, let him sometimes limp in pronunciation, but how he knows the notes! Have you noticed how confidently and even artistically he sings! There is almost no need for rehearsals."

Later I learned that foreign singers and non-Orthodox are the most common phenomenon in all our churches abroad. Once I happened to celebrate the day of my (worldly, of course!) Angel in Paris. I inquired about the time of the service. It turned out that the vigil was served the day before. I lived not far from the temple, at the very end of the rue de Rivoli, behind the Louvre. Something delayed me, and at about six o'clock in the evening I went underground and rushed along the subway to the Russian church. The clock showed twenty minutes past seven when I approached the church. Well, I think I was too late, probably the stichera on "Lord, I have cried" have already been sung. I enter the church. It was almost completely empty, there seemed to be only two people on the kliros. But I can't immediately figure out what they serve. What then? It turns out that they sing "The Most Honest". Soon they will serve! A quarter of an hour passed, and I was on my way back. In the morning, the Liturgy. Now the church is full of worshippers. Alas! You don't feel Russian, Orthodox. The audience is the most Parisian. Ordinary people are not visible, and without the common people, what kind of Orthodoxy! I listen to the singers. I immediately notice that the French are singing. The French are not at all good at Slavic speech. And when they sang "The Most Pious", it was impossible not to smile. It is difficult to imagine what they got out of "The Most Pious". The service was over. They began to disperse. The ladies at the exit had lively conversations about shopping. And I had a feeling of dissatisfaction in my soul. I am standing in a Russian Orthodox church, but I cannot say that there is a Russian spirit here, that there is a smell of Russia here. And they left the church and immediately drowned in the mass of Paris.

See, my friend, how our Orthodoxy appears in the West! Our churches are hidden away from sight, the service in churches is short, non-Russian and non-Orthodox people sing. I don't know about you, but I find this state of Orthodoxy in the West quite deplorable and even offensive. What is this desire to hide so that we are not recognized? And this tendency to concealment is also manifested in the fact that our clergy abroad wear duckweed only during divine services, and at all other times wear secular costume. I saw one venerable archpriest abroad - he wore a full secular suit under his cassock, except for a frock coat. After Mass, he would take off his cassock, put on a frock coat and go to his dacha outside the city. I strongly disapprove of the custom of our clergy in the West to dress in secular clothes. A Catholic priest will not be ashamed and ashamed of his cassock anywhere. And we are too shy. I think, on the contrary, it was necessary to put ourselves in the West in such a way that we would be noticed. I am not thinking of an empty demonstration. No, but our religious proof in the West could also have missionary significance. It is surprising how poorly and how little the West knows about Orthodoxy. For the West, all Christianity is exhausted by Catholicism and Protestantism. Catholics and Protestants know each other, they follow each other, but Orthodoxy does not seem to exist for them. I'm not talking about ordinary people. Even people of theological science do not know Orthodoxy.

In our theological scholarship on Catholicism and Protestantism, one can find the most detailed and versatile information for everyone. One can find entire studies devoted to the history of Western confessions in different periods; other works have as their subject the doctrine and organization of heretical societies. There are entire books even on parish life, for example, in France, or on the mutual relations between Church and state in various Western countries. Our theological professors spend whole years on scientific trips to the scholarly and religious centers of the West. But the West can be reproached for its unwillingness to learn the Orthodox truth. There, too, people of science know many times less about our Orthodoxy than our scientists know about Western errors.

Fifteen years ago, the outstanding theologian of Germany, Professor Adolf Harnack of Berlin, gave 16 lectures at the University of Berlin on the "Essence of Christianity". He devoted one (13th) lecture to "the Christian religion in Greek Catholicism." Strange judgments are expressed in this lecture on Orthodoxy. First of all, it is clear that the most brilliant professor has very vague ideas about modern Orthodoxy. It is not in vain that he refers only to some stories by L. Tolstoy and to his personal impressions. But Harnack could have had these impressions in Yuriev. Well, is it possible to study the spirit of Orthodoxy in the semi-German Yuriev! And it is clear that the Germans have formed a certain template for judgments about Orthodoxy, and the template is very unflattering for Orthodoxy. Harnack, for example, declares that Orthodoxy is something alien to the Gospel, that in Orthodox Christianity religion is a cult and nothing else, our very worship seems to him to consist of only formulas, external signs, and even idols. Traditionalism, intellectualism and ritualism - these are the characteristic features of Orthodoxy according to Harnack. It seems to me, my dear Friend, that in the West there is no longer a deviation from Orthodoxy, but a complete ignorance of Orthodoxy. The Lord commanded the Apostles to go and teach all languages. In fulfillment of this commandment of the Lord, we should at least try to enlighten the Orthodoxy of the West with the light. The Catholic Jesuits do not leave without their care, for example, the idle ladies of Moscow and Petrograd. Why should we turn away from the West, giving it the full right to distort Christianity as it pleases, and even hold to ugly opinions about Orthodoxy itself?

An interesting phenomenon can be observed in our theological literature. We have a great many polemical works against Catholics and Protestants. We are constantly at war with them. Polemics penetrate into dogmatic, ecclesiastical-historical, exegetical, and canonical works. It is difficult to say why all these polemical works are composed. We ourselves read all these works, and those against whom they are directed usually do not know them and often do not even suspect their existence. In the West itself, there is a lively polemic between Catholics and Protestants; They watch each other closely. A Protestant scientific book appears, in which the interests of Catholicism are touched upon in one way or another, less than a year passes - you see, on the Catholic side a whole book has been written on the same issue with a refutation of the Protestant one, and critical articles in Catholic journals appear in the first book that appears. And no matter what they write about us, our voice is not heard at all. In our journals, we still respond, in one way or another, but these responses are not heard in the West.

Which of our Orthodox theologians has directly addressed the West itself? One can only point to A.S. Khomyakov with his polemical treatises, written and published in French not for the Russian reader, but specifically for the Western one. He also wrote polemical letters to individual Western theologians. In this respect, Catholics are incomparably more enterprising than we are. At the end of the 1980s, we had several scholarly works against Catholicism, especially against papal supremacy. In response to the Russian language, the papists published in Freiburg an extensive (584 pages) book "Church Tradition and Russian Theological Literature." This is almost the only case in recent times when our polemics were noticed.