RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS SKIP PREPARATION FOR BAPTISM
Indian Catholic
October 9, 2008
India
TASHKENT (UCAN) — Every day, people line up outside the baptistery
of Holy Assumption Church in Tashkent while waiting to be baptized,
but hardly any show up beforehand for catechism classes.
The church’s priests are busy, so catechist Michael Belov offers
"optional" catechism classes twice a week. The seminary graduate told
UCA News most people seek baptism due to their ethnicity, "because
they are Russians," but they seldom appear in church thereafter,
except at Christmas and Easter.
Compared to the Soviet communist era, Tashkent’s main Russian Orthodox
church today seems to be enjoying a revival, with about 100 people
being baptized every week. Most are ethnic Russians, though there
are also Tatars, Koreans, Armenians and a few Uzbeks.
Belov questions their motivation. Full churches on important religious
holidays does not testify to the people’s faith, he insists, because
they often go to church just "for fun" on such occasions.
Father Sergei Nikolaev, a senior priest at the church, explained
to UCA News, "Optional catechism is the result of the agnostic
and communist legacy from which the Church is still suffering." He
mentioned paganism when speaking about people who seek baptism as a
tradition or for fear of sickness or misfortune. "People should be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ," he said.
Nevertheless, he continued, church for many Russians still is where
one goes merely to honor tradition. Many people nowadays go to
church to baptize infants or for services for the dead. Money for
such services, plus the US$10 fee charged for each baptism, brings
income into the church.
Massgoers seeking intervention buy and light candles in front of
images of saints. Only a handful of them remain in the church for
the whole liturgy.
"People buy candles but don’t ask for books," he remarked, referring
to the church bookshop he runs. Besides religious literature, it also
offers DVDs such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Belov
will soon leave all that behind when he goes to Moscow for higher
religious schooling.
Father Nektariy, another Orthodox priest, told UCA News he thinks
catechism should be compulsory. "Today, we are glad if three out of
20 baptized later come to Mass," he said.
This is why people are taught about Christianity during the baptism
ceremony itself, since most are ignorant about the faith they are
about to embrace.
At a baptism ceremony on Sept. 14, Father Alexander gave the
people briefly introduced their faith in modern Russian, though the
one-hour ceremony was conducted in old Russian. The liturgy of the
Russian Orthodox Church still uses the old language, but few if any
understand it.
"I want you to know at least something about Orthodoxy," Father
Alexander told the new converts as he guided them through the process
since they seemed unsure what to do. He once had to cancel the baptism
of a young man who had been baptized before. "People told me I should
do it again," he explained.
During the ceremony, the priest dips the new converts in the pool, then
baptizes and confirms them. Both sacraments are administered together.
Some people seem uncertain about why they seek baptism. Lada, an
Armenian woman in her 40s who says she goes to church and prays in
her own way, told UCA News she asked to be baptized because she wants
her friend, who is Russian, to be her godfather.
Another woman, Natalia Motovilova, was asked why she decided to
have her seven-year-old son baptized. Her only response was that she
"needed to."
Compared to the local Russian Orthodox church, the Catholic Sacred
Heart parish in Tashkent has only about 15 baptisms a year. "When
people understand we require long preparation, they leave," Father
Lucjan Szymanski, the pastor, told UCA News. Most people, he said,
"want to have it all, and at once."
The Polish Conventual Franciscan thinks an abbreviated catechism
course means people will leave the Church in the future. "People need
time to make a deliberate choice that they will not change later,"
he said. Accordingly, catechism in his parish lasts at least two
years before one may be baptized.
Father Szymanski finds the Russian Orthodox Church situation like
that of the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council
(1962-1965). "But I am sure our Orthodox brothers will work it out,
sooner or later," he said.