Historian Calls Soviet Religious Changes Startling

A church historian who for 25 years has kept in touch with Soviet religion says it is gaining stature and prerogatives never deemed possible under communism.

“The pace of change is really quite startling,” said the Rev. V. Bruce Rigdon of Grosse Pointe, Mich. “One could have never predicted these changes would come so quickly.”

Rigdon, a Presbyterian and chairman of the National Council of Churches’ U.S-Soviet Church Relations Working Group, added in a telephone interview:

“There is some evidence of something that is beginning to look like a religious revival occurring in many places in the Soviet Union, especially among young people.”

Noting that several religious leaders were elected members of the new Soviet parliament, Rigdon said:

Non-Communist Participation

“This means that for the first time church leaders, people who are not members of the Communist Party, will participate in the new parliament. It’s a new fact of life.”

He said those elected include Russian Orthodox Patriarch Pimen, Metropolitan Pitirim, head of church publishing; Leningrad Metropolitan Alexei and Armenian Catholicos Vaskin I.

“The image of electing bishops and being represented by bishops in parliament is something nobody there had ever experienced before--the freedom to choose,” Rigdon said.

Rigdon has led church delegations to the Soviet Union since 1961; the most recent was in February, when a new, extensive program of church cooperation between the two countries was arranged. He also cited these developments:

--About 1,000 new churches were opened in 1988, compared to 15 in 1987. Currently, three to five additional churches are being opened daily, with about 1,500 expected to be opened in 1989.

--Seven new seminaries are scheduled to open this fall, besides the three already operating, plus two advanced theological academies.

Communication Facilities

--Russian Orthodoxy is acquiring its own printing press and facilities for producing films and records, giving it unprecedented communications capabilities.

--Allowed by the government for the first time, lay volunteers and clergy now visit hospitals and mental institutions to provide assistance and counseling.

--Churches hold catechism classes for teaching new members, something not allowed before, with some parishes “now doing something very much like Sunday school” for the young, also previously forbidden.

“In every area, Soviet life is undergoing change, but none is at a more remarkable pace than the changes in religious life,” Rigdon said. “Numbers of people now are coming to church for the first time.

“The church, which for so long had to concentrate on survival, now faces a very difficult task. The issue is whether it can communicate the gospel powerfully enough to people who have not heard it before to change their lives.

“This is never easy for any church.”

Rigdon, 53, veteran church historian at McCormick Theological Seminary and now pastor of Grosse Pointe’s Memorial Presbyterian Church, is among the most knowledgeable Americans about Soviet religious life.

Has Made 70 Visits

Over the last 28 years, he has led about 70 visits there and is personally acquainted with Soviet church leaders and pastors--Orthodox, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal and Jewish.

“The change that the churches have experienced is part of a larger picture that is all utterly dependent on the continuation of policies of (Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev,” Rigdon said.

“In this sense, Americans should do everything possible to encourage stabilizing these processes. It is clear that as the opposition to Gorbachev gets larger, there is a certain precariousness about it all.

“He may have two or three years to strengthen the economy, to get it producing . . . in larger quantity; and if he doesn’t, Mr. Gorbachev’s perestroika is in great trouble.

“Reformers are rare in Russian history. They don’t last long. We can hope he’s an exception. We should recognize the opportunity and give every sort of support possible to make sure that what Gorbachev represents succeeds.”

In the February meeting, the U.S. and Soviet church leaders noted that their first meetings began three decades ago at the height of the Cold War. They added in a joint statement:

“The Christians of our countries were actually the first people to melt the ice of mistrust between our two nations. We are facing a new situation. Our societies are undergoing changes.”

They pledged expanded cooperation, including exchanges of theological students and professors; contacts between congregations in “sister cities”; joint publishing, audio-visual and TV projects; common efforts in emergencies and disarmament talks; cooperation with Third World partners, and joint youth conferences.