‘Rise In Vain’
Metropolitan Anastasi, head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, has told the people of the Soviet Union in a radio message that the communists “rise in vain against Christ and his immortal gospel.”
The Gospel, he said, has “edified and consoled” countless millions through the centuries, while Communism “has brought with it nothing but bitter disappointment.
“Communism has not eliminated poverty and suffering from the earth, and it has not given people the blessings it has promised. Instead of bread, it gives them a stone. Instead of freedom, it gives them agonizing slavery and impoverishment.”
All free peoples, the Metropolitan said in the message broadcast by Radio Liberation, “recoil from Communism.”
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia comprises those who refused to accept the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate after the Russian Revolution.
‘Emptiness Of Heart’
The broadcasting of Christian teachings and principles to the Russian people is the free world’s greatest opportunity of smashing the Iron Curtain.
This is the opinion of the Rev. Paul E. Freed of Greensboro, North Carolina. Back from a six-week visit to European countries, including Russia, he said there is “a great emptiness of heart” among young Russians “which I am convinced can be filled by true Christianity.
“The young people of Russia have had atheism pounded into them since childhood, but I don’t believe that deep down within themselves they can deny the existence of God.”
Mr. Freed is president of International Evangelism, an independent missionary group which since 1954 has operated the “Voice of Tangier,” an international radio station in North Africa. The short-wave station currently broadcasts seven hours a day in 23 languages. It uses five sets of beamed antennas, one of which is directed to Russia.
