Ministers in Moscow

At Moscow's Vnukovo Airport one day last fortnight, five bearded Russian Orthodox prelates waited nervously for the plane from Prague. Aboard it were the latest emissaries from the West: nine U.S. Protestant churchmen representing the National Council of Churches. The Americans, in Russia for ten days of talk with Russian churchmen, were whisked off to lush quarters in the Sovietskaya Hotel, taken that night to The Bronze Horseman ballet at the Bolshoi Theater. Since, for the Americans, it was Lent, and Sunday at that, they seemed a little discomfited. "When in Rome," said one wryly, "do as the Romans do."

Wherever they went, the somberly clad Americans were greeted enthusiastically.

More than 2,500 Russians jammed Moscow's single Baptist church to hear them preach, and rose to chorus "Welcome!" in Russian as each was introduced. The clergymen tramped through Moscow in bitter cold to visit the city's historic spots. They were even invited to Tallin, the capital of Estonia, which has been barred to foreigners since World War II. On a trip to the 14th century Trinity Monastery at Zagorsk, the Americans were startled by their hosts' propaganda measures: throughout the 45-mile drive, an open ZIS limousine sped along before their motorcade crammed with Soviet cameramen taking pictures. Inside the monastery batteries of klieg lights ensured that the photographers would not miss a detail. The conferences had hardly got under way, when it seemed that they might break up in a squabble. When Metropolitan Nikolai, No. 2 Russian prelate in the Moscow patriarchate, asked how the U.S. could work for peace without joining the Communist-sponsored World Peace Council, the Americans got up their clerical choler. They fired back that the World Peace Council represented the interests of the Soviet Union alone, accused the Russian prelates of leveling false charges against the U.S. during the Korean war.

But tempers quickly cooled, and Metropolitan Nikolai suggested that the time had come when "we must now forgive and forget." Said Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill of the Protestant Episcopal Church: "We have had to say what we believe is the truth in love. If we had not wished for understanding, we would not have come."

But the churchmen were equally aware of how sharply religion's role has been limited by the Communists. Said the Rev. Dr. Walter W. Van Kirk, head of the National Council's Department of International Affairs: "It's pathetic that the only role religion can play here is to help relieve the drudgery of life for the people from day to day."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.