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#13 - JRL 8009
From: Larry Uzzell <Lauzzell@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2004 13:31:07 EST
Subject: Re: 8008-Danilov Bells

Happy New Year! On the subject of the Danilov bells, let me suggest that the Moscow Patriarchate's position would deserve more sympathy if the Patriarchate were to return the various bells and other properties now in its possession but rightfully belonging to Russia's Old Believers. Here is an excerpt from an article of mine which the Moscow Times published on June 5:

"The Old Believers provide an especially compelling case. Far from being a novel import such as the 'foreign sects' demonized by Russian nationalists, they are the most uniquely Russian form of Christianity. Unlike mainstream Orthodox Christianity, brought by Greek missionaries in the 10th century, their faith was born on Slavic soil and to this day exists only in Slavic countries or in places where it was brought by Slavic émigrés. They have won admirers among Russia's secular intelligentsia with their work ethic and heroic endurance under persecution almost uninterrupted since the 17th century.

"To this day the Kremlin still discriminates against the Old Believers. The most obvious example is on Red Square, where the Kazan Cathedral (a triumph of architectural restoration by the mainstream Russian Orthodox) houses a shamefully stolen treasure, a huge bell forged a century ago. The Soviet regime seized that bell from Moscow's largest Old Believer church and kept it in storage for decades; the post-Soviet state then transferred it to the mainstream Moscow Patriarchate, which is thus a willing recipient of stolen property. Old Believers have told me that many of their historic bells, icons and other valuables have met similar fates. This was their main reason for opposing Boris Yeltsin's harsh 1997 law on religion, which omitted a proposed amendment to bar such thievery."

None of the mainstream Russian Orthodox with whom I discussed the Kazan Cathedral bell denied that it originally belonged to the Old Believers. Unfortunately the Moscow Patriarchate's concern about property rights, as about other rights, is selective and self-serving.

Best,
Larry Uzzell
International Religious Freedom Watch.