With timing being an obvious (and major) consideration in issue planning, we had originally scheduled our coverage of the millennial year of the Russian Orthodox Church for June—the month of the actual anniversary. However, after talking with Soviet watchers Anita and Peter Deyneka, we were convinced that a “postcelebration” report would help our readers get a better handle on how the millennium will impact Soviet Christianity “after the party’s over.”
Thus, three months after the fact, our focus is not so much year 1000, but year 1001—and the face of Russian Christianity into the next century.
As you will see in the Deyneka report, and as has been the case since its writing, that “face” continues to change almost daily. For example, just before press time we heard of an open baptism held in Ukraine where 20,000 were in attendance. The police were called out not to disband the worshipers, but simply to maintain order.
And at a Baptist church, curiosity piqued by invitations others received to an open baptism prompted government officials and casual observers to seek “invitations” for themselves. “In all our years of observing the Soviet government and the church,” Anita told us, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
HAROLD B. SMITH, Managing Editor
Cover illustration by Chris Gall.
