c. 1998 Religion News Service

MOSCOW _ The Church of the Blood of the Virgin is a decrepit, 19th century structure used as a toy factory in Soviet times and only recently returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. Step-by-step, the rector, Father Pyotr Konik, has presided over the removal of tons and tons of refuse, the gradual renovation of the inside and the slow growth of the parish to 100 members.

But now, with Russia’s economy having taken a great leap backward, Konik has less money for repairs as the country’s dominant, 80 million-member Russian Orthodox Church copes with a steep decline in donations and a drop-off in revenue from its business interests.

And the decline, Konik said, comes at a time when demand for spiritual _ and economic _ guidance has risen sharply.”They are coming in now, not for bread, but to ask me one thing, `How can I pray?'”Konik, a tall man with graying hair and a bad cold, said during a recent interview in his office overlooking a churchyard littered with refuse.”It is a difficult time. Prices are going up on everything. But how I can tell some babushka (grandmother) that she must now pay three times as much for a candle?” While Konik’s parish’s predicament is more acute than most because of the church building’s poor condition, church officials say the situation for congregations across the breadth of the world’s largest country is much the same.

While the country’s political situation stabilized somewhat earlier in September, with Duma’s (lower house of parliament) confirmation of Yevgeny Primakov as prime minister, by most accounts the country’s financial health will continue to worsen as the full effects of the ruble’s devaluation and the loss of foreign credit are felt.

Over the last month in Moscow, prices on common staples like cooking oil and fruit juice have doubled and tripled at a time when the weakening ruble is eroding real incomes. Layoffs are common. So, too, are salary reductions.

One Russian business newspaper recently estimated that 200,000 people in this city of 10 million would lose their jobs by the end of the year and Russian television has reported food shortages in the westernmost city of Kaliningrad and in the far North.

As the leader of a church consistently polled as Russia’s most respected institution, Patriarch Alexii II appealed earlier this month for the people to pray and have patience.”The worst thing that the current political crisis could bring is civil war for surely blood always divides,”the 69-year-old patriarch said.

Father Vsevolod Chaplin, secretary for the church and society section of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department of external church relations, said the Russian Orthodox Church has no intention of playing a more active role in temporal spheres.”I don’t think the church will abuse the situation to increase its influence in a political or a social way,”said Chaplin.”All the same, more people are coming to church now to pray and confess their sins …. It is a time for special prayer for the people of God.” To date, the church has not come up with a response to the feared food shortages that may be caused by some areas’ heavy reliance on imported foodstuffs that are now prohibitively expensive.”The church will increase its activities but the church itself needs help,”said Lydia Davidova, of the Moscow Patriarchate’s social department.”The church survives on donations and these come from the members of the church who can no longer support it as they once did.” The Baltimore-based International Orthodox Christian Charities, which has administered some $15 million in aid to Russia, is mulling a response, said spokesman Mark Hodde.

Other religious aid agencies are weighing their options. According to Michael Steiner, the director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Moscow,”The money is being used fully for the extreme needs of the elderly, so there is no money left for anything else …. But, if things get dramatically worse, I will take my statement back and the (committee) will have to look and see where we can do more for the needy.” One regular at a Moscow soup kitchen for elderly Jews operated by the Joint Committee is Simon Kufman, who at 88 has surpassed the average Russian male’s life expectancy by 31 years. Kufman recently came to the oversubscribed soup kitchen for the first time, having heard about it through a friend. A retired engineer for the Moscow metro system, he travels an hour each way on foot and public transport to reach the soup kitchen.”I need to eat so I come all the way here,”said Kufman, a short, stooped man with a cane, adding that he is supporting himself and his 61-year-old son on his 800-ruble ($66) monthly pension.

Like many of the other 260 elderly Jews who visit the soup kitchen six times a week, Kufman has had the option of emigrating to Israel but has decided to stick it out in Russia.

Younger Russian Jews in their 20s and 30s are, however, making emigration inquiries of Israeli authorities at a rate not seen since 1991, the peak year for departures from Russia for Israel.

While soup kitchens and emergency food distribution may be necessary this winter, Antonio Santi, head of the Roman Catholic aid agency Caritas Russia, said a massive influx of international aid is not the answer.”I don’t think a great quantity of humanitarian aid from abroad is always a good thing,”said Santi, who has lived here since 1991.”Only in emergencies. It can destroy the internal economy. Colonization is not for Russia.”But, of course, if people are dying, we will organize the usual aid,”added Santi, noting that Caritas spent $1 million to aid the war-ravaged, break-away Russian territory of Chechnya.

One Orthodox believer feeling the first effects of the rapid impoverishment of the Russian people is Namerud Negash, a 36-year-old Ethiopian citizen who runs a feeding program out of a Russian Orthodox Church for a population of homeless and refugees that some estimates put as high as 200,000.”We have seen the number of people go up by about 10 percent. This kind of crisis does not affect the really poor people right way,”said Negash, who now is feeding about 150 people a day, six times a week.”In a few months, though, we could see five times as many as we are getting now.”

DEA END BROWN