Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Church services return to Kremlin Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 17:26:45 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Church services return to Kremlin \BY Vanora Bennett \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT MOSCOW MOSCOW - God officially returned to the Kremlin at dawn yesterday, when the first Mass was celebrated there since the Russian state handed back the ancient fortress's onion-domed cathedrals to the Orthodox Church last week. With a flourish of scarlet robes and a cloud of incense, bearded priests banished from the lofty Archangel Cathedral all memories of 7 1/2 decades of atheism in Russia's oldest and most venerated center of government. The cathedral commemorates Archangel Michael, who in Christian teaching was the conquerer of Satan. But a security regime dating from the Communist era was still firmly in place in the Kremlin. Before 10 a.m., explained one guard, entry was strictly limited to those with passes. "Where's your invitation? Where's your pass? And what about your ID papers? Let's see your passport," chorused half a dozen bleary-eyed guards at the Trinity Gate in the red-brick fortress wall. "Even if God himself invited you, I don't see how you could have got past the guards at the gate," muttered one suspiciously. Inside the cathedral, bass voices intoned the Gospel. Candles flickered. Old women in flowery head scarves crossed themselves fervently as a procession of a half-dozen long-haired, bearded priests circled the tiny floor. Two mustachioed Cossacks in polished knee-boots and 19th-century military uniforms waited, heads bowed in the greyish dawn light, for the Communion wafer. When the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, churches were taken over as part of a bitter atheistic campaign. Many clergymen died in camps, churches were ransacked and burned to the ground and Christian teaching was banned as reactionary. A few state-approved churches and religious leaders were allowed to continue their work within the Soviet framework. Although some Bolshevik leaders called for the destruction of the Kremlin churches, most of them were preserved intact as museums. Last week's agreement to surrender the churches came a year after the red flag of the Soviet Union was lowered over the Kremlin. It allows full church services to be performed for the first time in 75 years. But church representatives said it was not yet clear who would finance the medieval churches or how much access the church would have, given security requirements around President Boris Yeltsin's official residence and the modern Palace of Congresses. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM