The fifth issue of The Parish of Russian Orthodox Church in Russia and Abroad of social sciences faculty of St. Tikhon Orthodox University continues publishing interviews and analysis findings dedicated to the parish fife of Orthodox Church started in first issues of 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016. Over this time certain research prospect, methodological framework of studying parishes based on the principles of non-intervention and maximum revelation of processes and events participants’ point of view, social actors themselves, taking account of not only social but personal dimension of church fife have already shaped. Such collected volumes are, therefore, not only historiographic materials but chronicles of the parish life of modern Orthodox Church. The research prospect itself has become possible following deep personal contact, experience of the research case under conditions of natural – for the respondent – environment, when the researcher immerses himself into the everyday life of parishes.
The fifth collection is dedicated to parish materials collected largely in orthodox communities of Greece and Cyprus. As distinct from previous years when we took interest in the particularities of the social fife of Russian-speaking orthodox communities being in place and existing in multi-religious environment or environment of other religion, for example, in such countries as Germany and USA, the collection of this year is dedicated to the fife history of parishes within countries of orthodox tradition. We were mainly concerned about answers to the following questions: what’s the place and role of Russian-speaking orthodox parishes in the church medium of orthodox communities of Cyprus and Greece, how do they interact, what relations, actors are used in this regard, are there problem areas of that interaction, what’s their nature, how do extra-liturgic activities and social functioning of Cyprian and Greek Orthodox Churches take place, how do they incorporate Russian-speaking parishes. In this regard we interviewed metropolitans of Cyprian and Greek Orthodox Churches, which eparchies incorporate Russian-speaking orthodox communities and which policy aims at supporting and strengthening such relations, as well as priests, clerics, churchgoers of Russian-speaking parishes, particularly, their volunteers who make a major contribution to the social fife of their communities.
As a result, the first part Parish in the Reviews of Hierarchs of Cyprian and Greek Orthodox Churches of the collection features interviews of the Metropolitan of Limassol Athanasios (Nicolaou) who paid particular attention to relation of clearly-defined territorial borders of parishes of Cyprus to effectiveness of social service to the Church; the Metropolitan of Tamassos and Orinis Isaiah (Kykkotis) who created the multibranch network of extra liturgic activities in his eparchy covering all kinds of social groups; the Metropolitan of Morphou and Soloi Neophytos (Masouras) who serve within occupied territories of Cyprus; and the Metropolitan of Trimithous Varnavas who shared his experience of managing parish communal life in the working class area of Greek Thessaloniki.
The second part Orthodox Parish in Cyprus and Greece: a Parish Priest’s View of the collection begins with the interview of two Greek priests wellknown in Greece with their missionary and social work. This is an interview of hereditary archpriest Konstantin Vletsis speaking about changes taking place in the education of priests in modern Greece due to transition of the best part of parishes to cities and particularities of modern parish life in this respect; and archpriest Vasilios Kalliakmanis, the parish abbot, who have been arranging free meals for the poor for many years, reveals in his interview conditions for creating close-knit communities. Further the priest Georgy Vidyakin’s interview follows this part of the collection. Georgy Vidyakin is a current abbot of the first Russian-speaking parish of Cyprus, who tells about history of its establishing, difficulties and particularities of organizing the parish fife in Cyprus; archimandrite Augustin (Karras) who describes the parish fife under conditions of occupation and fashionable tourism of Aya Napa; priest Alexey Avsievich, the superior of Russian-speaking seasonal communities; priest Sergey Kozlov who serves in a village parish; and archimandrite Ambrose (Gorelov) who currently makes every effort to organize Russian monkery in Cyprus.
The third part of the collection The Role of the Russian-speaking community in society. Parishioners’ Review includes interviews and focus group of parishioners, both Russian-speaking and Greek communities. Churchwomen of Saint Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church in Thessaloniki, Pontic elder women, who have carried their faith through all their lives under conditions of emigration and seeking for homeland, tell about keeping orthodox traditions early in Soviet Georgia, and then in modern Greece. A group interview with women volunteers, churchwomen of the church of St. George (Thessalonica) is dedicated to the traditions of free meals as a social mission of Greek Orthodox Church’ parishes. This part of the collection ends with an interview of a churchwoman of the Russian-language St. Nicholas church in Limassol, which introduces parishioners’ views of the priest’s role in a parish abroad to the reader.
Materials collected in parishes in Russia made valuable contribution to the collection, having become a certain background for comparison – priests, charity providers, parishioners of the Tikhvinskaya eparchy of St. Petersburg metropolis share their many-years experience of social serving and fighting alcohol and drug addictions on the pages of the fifth collection.
Their interviews are included in the fourth part “Parish in Russia. Experience of St. Petersburg Metropolis in Dealing with Socially Unprotected Groups of Population” of the collection. It begins with an interview of a young priest, the abbot of the Church of the Nativity of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Alexander of Svir friary mission of St. Petersburg, priest Sergey Lyadve, whose priest service is carried out in one of the rough parts of St. Petersburg – so-called “Vesyoly Posyolok” (Jolly Town). In his interview he shares the experience of organizing help groups for alcohol- and drug addicts within a parish. Elena Rydavlevskaya, the Executive Director of the Diakoniya charity fund, continues studying the topic of social service helping alcohol- and drug addicts. She managed to develop a system project for such help involving church and state authorities, business and philanthropists. Another priest’s interview of this part of the collection gives an account of everyday life of a rehabilitation center for alcohol- and drug addicts under parish in the Sologubovka settlement of the Kirov district of the Leningrad Region. An interview of parishioner of the Church of the Nativity of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Alexander of Svir friary mission Ekaterina Bashkirova turns over another page of parish social service – “Mercy Bus”, rendering help to the homeless. In her interview she shares the experience of communicating with homeless people, organizing such a mission within a parish. This part of the collection ends with an interview of a 60-year woman, a parishioner of the Church of the Nativity of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Alexander of Svir friary mission, an alcohol addict in the recent past. It describes the alcohol addict’s walk of life and the role of orthodox parish in overcoming this addiction.
The final fifth part “Parish in Research Studies” of the collection features translation of an article of well-known Greek theologian, honored professor of the University of Athens, protopresbyter George Metallinos, which provides a detailed description of orthodox parish in Greek tradition. The translation is followed with articles of such authors as Orlova I.V., who examines the history of Russian-speaking parishes as a part of the Church of Cyprus; and assistant professor of modern sociology, vice dean of Faculty of Sociology of Lomonosov Moscow State University Trofimov S.V., who reveals features of organization and social serving of Catholic parishes, social studies carried out in this field.
In conclusion we would like to thank the management of St. Tikhon Orthodox University for granted financial and moral support, as well as all project coordinators who live and serve in the most diverse countries but do support and meet us during our research trips.
Our special thanks go to priest Georgy Vidyakin who arranged field work in Cyprus, priest Leo Efremidis who gave us a warm welcome and research organization in Thessalonica (Greece), Klimov G.A. and Orlova I.V. for financial and organizational help and everybody who took part in collecting, transcribing interviews, handling materials.