Schuller Tape Asks Soviets for Summit Prayers

Television minister Robert H. Schuller, edging toward a possible regular broadcast on Soviet television, said Tuesday he has videotaped a message asking prayers for the success of the upcoming summit meeting in Washington. The videotape was made at the request of Moscow officials.

The 17-minute sermon by Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, is scheduled to be shown May 27 in the Soviet Union, three days before Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is due to arrive in Washington for his meeting with President Bush.

Aides to Schuller said that Gosteleradio, the state-run broadcasting agency, specifically requested that the minister tape a “heart to heart” theme, using his large glass church building and its gardens as a backdrop.

“They even wanted the sounds of birds on the tape,” said Michael Nason, a Schuller associate. Schuller was traveling in the Midwest on Tuesday and unavailable for interviews, but a transcript of his message was released by the church.

Speaking about faith, hope and unconditional love, Schuller calls upon viewers “to pray to God as you believe in him. Or even if you don’t believe in God, pray anyway. He might be there. What can you lose?”

Schuller then asks for prayers that in the summit “Gorbachev and Bush together will have been used by all of the good forces in this universe to bring the world ever closer to the total absence of war.”

Although the Soviet Union has been officially atheistic for seven decades, Gorbachev’s reforms have included numerous gestures toward greater religious expression in the country.

The upcoming broadcast will be Schuller’s second appearance on Soviet nationwide television.

Since last winter, with the help of industrialist Armand Hammer, the minister has been negotiating for a regularly scheduled program on Soviet television. Schuller went to Moscow last December, hoping to get his weekly “Hour of Power” Sunday services shown on Soviet television.

Gosteleradio officials resisted that suggestion but instead asked him to tape a 15-minute segment in Moscow for a new Soviet religious program. That tape was broadcast on Christmas Eve.

Schuller, known for his enthusiasm in the pulpit, later called the event “the high point” of his ministry.

During subsequent talks by a Schuller representative with Valentin Lazutkin, vice chairman of Gosteleradio, the Soviet agency made a tentative proposal for monthly broadcasts by Schuller starting in the fall, Nason said. If the new program is approved, it will be called “Heart to Heart,” he said.

In the United States, Schuller has the most-watched weekly religious program with an audience of 1.7 million. His “Hour of Power” also is seen in 31 other countries.

Crystal Cathedral spokesmen also announced Tuesday that Schuller will hold a news conference with Soviet officials Thursday in New York to announce a major shipment of donated medical supplies to aid children who were victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in the Ukraine. The church made an initial $50,000 gift to the Children of Chernobyl fund last December.