Thirty-six residents of Gorki, a Russian city southeast of Moscow, have petitioned World Council of Churches general secretary Eugene Carson Blake to help them get more churches opened—so far without response. Their letter was written last November, but the Ecumenical Press Service never acknowledged its receipt, nor did the press service of United Nations secretary-general U Thant, who also was sent a copy.
Later, Russkaja Mysl, a weekly for Russian emmigrants in Paris, published the letter. The Russian Christians claim that before 1917 their city had 110,000 inhabitants and forty churches; now 1.2 million people live in Gorki but only three churches, located in suburbs, are open. The petitioners say that the three churches can hold about 4,000 but that there are at least 120,000 confessing Orthodox believers in Gorki and the churches are overcrowded.
Similar petitions signed by more than 1,500 people have been sent since 1967 to local and regional authorities, and finally to the secretary of the Communist party, the signers of the letter to Blake say. Noting that a previous letter to U Thant had been confiscated by postal authorities, the Gorki Christians had the letter to Blake smuggled out of the country to make sure he would get it. “We are confident,” the letter stated, “that you personally will help us to get our religious needs satisfied.”
JAN J. VAN CAPELLEVEEN
