Soviets Ask Schuller to Deliver TV Sermon

Soviet television authorities Friday asked televangelist Robert H. Schuller to deliver a 15-minute sermon over the state-owned television network, officials for the Crystal Cathedral said.

“I was overwhelmed and greatly honored at the warm reception and genuine affection I received from the Soviet television officials,” Schuller said in a press release issued by his local staff during his three-day visit to Moscow with his wife, Arvella, and industrialist Armand Hammer.

Schuller said he accepted the unexpected invitation by Valentin Lazutkin, deputy chief of the Gostelradio agency, “on the spot” and that the Soviet television crews immediately rearranged their daily taping schedule and cleared out a studio for the broadcast.

For his sermon to the Soviets, Schuller said, he chose Jeremiah 29:11, in which God says: “I have a plan for your life. It is a plan for good and not evil. It is a plan to give you a future with hope.”

The broadcast will air within the next two weeks to 19 million Soviet viewers on 2-month-old Sunday night program, “Thoughts of the Eternal,” which deals with psychology, philosophy and religion.

Schuller quoted Lazutkin as saying, “In this period of rapid political change, in these difficult economic times, what the Soviet people need most is hope and encouragement.”

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev has lifted many restrictions on religion under glasnost , the policy of increased openness. Many Soviets have embraced religion, along with faith-healing and other mystical beliefs.

During a historic meeting Dec. 1 in Rome with Pope John Paul II, Gorbachev promised full religious freedom in the Soviet Union, long dominated by an aggressive atheism. He said all people “have the right to satisfy their spiritual needs” and described religion as a strong moral force that would fuel perestroika, his plan of internal restructuring.

U.S. evangelists Billy Graham and Luis Palau have received warm welcomes in the Soviet Union. Graham has sent videotapes that have been broadcast on Soviet television. Schuller said he is the first pastor from outside the Soviet Union to be invited to deliver a sermon to the Soviet people on prime-time Soviet television.

Schuller said: “This demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt their sincerity to bring the positive values of religion back into Soviet society. They gave me total freedom to address the Soviet people.”

The sole restriction, he said, was that he limit his remarks to 15 minutes.