Posted on 01/13/2017 6:16:48 PM PST by marshmallow
A former Russian Orthodox cathedral that was converted into a museum of atheism during the Soviet period is to be returned to the Church – and local people are protesting the move.
More than 100,000 people signed a petition on change.org against the return of St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg. Built between 1818 and 1858 by French architect Auguste Ricard de Montferrand, it was formerly the flagship church of Orthodoxy in Russia.
The building is now used for concerts and is a major tourist attraction though religious services are occasionally held there. According to AFP the petition has been driven by fears that access to it will be limited if it is restored to its religious use. More than 3.9 million tourists visited the cathedral last year, earning it more than $13 million in revenue.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which has grown increasingly influential under the rule of President Vladimir Putin, petitioned for the return of the building in 2015 but was turned down by the authorities.
However, the decision was made on Tuesday to agree to the restoration, part of a pattern of restoring churches and monasteries expropriated during years of official hostility to religion. Since the accession in 2009 of Patriarch Kirill, a Putin loyalist, around 5,000 more churches have been built or recovered from secular use, 10,000 more clergy have been recruited and 122 monasteries have been founded. In Moscow, 160 new parishes have been founded.
(Excerpt) Read more at christiantoday.com ...
Absolutely beautiful church - IMHO, one of the 4 must-see sights in St. Petersburg. Would be awesome to turn it back to a functioning church, but hopefully with tourist access allowed during non-worship times.
That is the current plan.
Seriously, a museum of atheism??? I don’t even want to guess at the exhibits.
All of this has been happening because of Putin, a nationalist, a populist, and a Christian determined to save the faith from destruction in the Middle East and the West. Putin isn’t all bad, like McCain says, is he?
Incredible architecture
“Seriously, a museum of atheism??? I don’t even want to guess at the exhibits.”
I think they used to have a picture of Christ in a chariot driving over the bones of his victims.
It wasn’t a “museum of atheism”; it was an anti-God exhibit.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/376765112/
thank you. Petersburg certainly is a beautiful city. It’s hard to imagine that half the city died in WWII, during a 900-day siege...
flaglady, something will eventually have to give because even as Christianity is seeing revival in Russia — so is nostalgia for the Soviet Union that outlawed it in the first place.
Unfortunately, thanks to Putin, it is considered un-PC to criticize the likes of figures such as Stalin - an antichrist to the core.
Abortion rate in Russia decreasing, but still far too high.
HIV rates epidemic levels in some cities.
Russia has SO MUCH potential, but it has to fully come to terms with its past—particularly its recent past: make sense of it, learn from it, and move forward in truth.
St. Isaac’s interior is far more beautiful than the exterior. :) <3
Great news. The first time I went inside, the tourist traffic was low and it truly felt like a living and active place of worship. The other times I went, it bordered on being “just a museum” — as too many cathedrals and churches in Europe have become, selfie sticks and all that jazz.
My prayer is for people to walk in and be reminded of the GOD the space was designed to honor, and be humbled by its dramatic “atheist” interim. The recovery is still at the beginning stages and serves as metaphor for the country as a whole.
What I find incredible is that even in an atheist state God survived in the hearts of the people
It’s Martin Luther King day this Monday of course, and one of his unrealized goals was visiting the Soviet Union.— This was his explanation for why he’d want to visit in a letter he wrote to his friend:
“Among some of the more specific lines of inquiry I wish to pursue are those which would illuminate the reasons for the continued existence of religious conviction among millions of Soviet citizens, all of whom have been subjected to varying degrees of oppression and discouragement by powerful agencies of propaganda and anti-religious education. This tenacity to spiritual commitment is worthy of careful study for these precise methods to the control of man’s relationship to God may be unique in human experience.”
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/darrell-randall
He was right (he was right about a lot of things....content of character etc)
It is truly a unique thing. I think isolation is one of the most painful things people can experience. It is even more difficult than torture, but even in absolute isolation, those who believe are never alone.
Hard to explain but as MLK said certainly worthy of study
Pray for the conversion of Russia... Glory bar to God.
We have been in St. Isaac's several times, and it is magnificent. There are already daily prayer services in the chapel on the left front side of the church, so there is no sudden "danger" of the church being used for religious services.
I doubt that the actual local citizens of St. Petersburg would object to the church being returned, although I suppose you can find 2% (of 5 million) for anything, but it should not be written as though there is some common sentiment.
change.org, a left winger american website? Why would they care
This new Russian acceptance of Christianity is why it is now a global pariah to the evil , globalist left. They fear an alliance between a Christian America and a Christiian Russia because it will destroy their movement and defeat their plans for dooming humanity to a soviet-slyle slave planet.
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