OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

Letter About Russia 

To The Editor:

       Thanks for the clipping from Stefan Bilak about Mr. Gorbachov and current trends in Russia. I have been very much heartened by both my trips there, to see to what a great extent Christianity is a vital force in the lives of so many of the people. I at tended services in many churches while there, in a number of different Cities. Always, the churches were packed with two or three thousand people, and they stand for three to four hour services. I am convinced that the attempts to kill the church in Russia has caused it to become much stronger than ever, just as it did in the times of the Roman empire in the early days.

 I believe that the political situation in the world today demands that we stop thinking of the world as divided into two hostile camps, each trying to overcome the other to become the ruling power on the earth. Rather, we should be working to overcome hostility and suspicion with friendship and mutual trust. It is apparent that for many years the governments of the USA and the USSR do not trust one another. Unless we try actively to overcome this mistrust, it clearly will not go away.

 Concerned citizens must find ways to break down this cynicism and suspicion. Many concerned groups in the USA are trying to provide ways for Americans to become better acquainted with Soviet citizens. For Christians, the obvious way is to begin such a process through the churches in both nations. There are said to be about 55 million Christians in the Soviet Union.

 It is my opinion that the Communist leaders of the Soviet government have finally realized that they cannot destroy the Church, and that efforts to do so are a waste of resources. They certainly know that their system is not working in many important ways, and they also know that they must make great changes to prevent widespread unrest among their people.

Recently, the following statement was made by Mikhail S. Gorbachov (Quoted in the Moscow News, 14 Dec.1986):

  "We are all in one boat, whether we like it or not, it is essential that we learn to Co-exist, to live in peace on this tiny and very fragile planet. Our nuclear age of growing economic and political interdependence rules out the security of one nation to the detriment or at the expense of the security of another nation. I shall repeat once again; together we shall either survive or perish. Security nowadays can only be mutual, based on a universal model. We are all different, each professing different ideologies, political systems, and following one system of religious belief or another. Nevertheless, we are all very dependent on one another today. Hence, we should think differently. We should vigorously search for new ways of building new international relations.''

 Of course, most Christians in the Soviet Union are members of the Orthodox Church. As you probably know, the Orthodox Church believes that only it has preserved the apostolic faith in its purity, without admixture of heresy, from the first century to the present day. Since about 1960, when the Orthodox Church in Russia began participating in the World Council of Churches, many of its leaders have gradually begun to realize that the things Christians are united about are far more important than are the things over which we differ. Consequently an understanding of the universal fellowship of Christians throughout the universal church, regardless of denominational background is rapidly spreading in all ecumenically minded denominations. As I am sure you know, although the Roman Catholic Church has many persons who actively work in efforts of the World Council of Churches, the Roman Church itself is not a member. Consequently, the Roman Church still considers most of us to be "officially" heretics. But, this too is changing. —Comer Shacklett, Westfield, NJ.