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Volume 15, No. 3

“Gospel Subjects,” An Hermitage Museum CD-ROM

Reviewed by Nancy J. Arising.

The Return of the Prodigal Son

On viewing Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son” in the Hermitage Museum, Catholic theologian Henri J.M. No-win observed, “The more I spoke of the Prodigal Son, the more I came to see it as, somehow, my personal painting, the painting that contained not only the heart of the story that God wants to tell me, but also the heart of the story that I want to tell to God and God’s people. The painting has become a mysterious window through which Icon step into the Kingdom of God” (The Return of the Prodigal Son [New York: Doubleday, 1992]). Rembrandt’s painting of the Prodigal Son is one of many masterpieces in the Hermitage’s European collections devoted to Christian themes. Nouwen’s moving account of his encounter with this great work is vivid testimony to the special power of visual images to penetrate the spiritual depths of an engaged and probing viewer.

A Collection of Religious Paintings

“The Return of the Prodigal Son” is included in the CD-ROM “Gospel Subjects,” on sale at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It’s a helpful learning tool which enables onto become acquainted with the major West European paintings relating to Jesus and Mary in the museum’s collection. By means of this-Rom, works executed between the 14th and 18th centuries, which are dispersed throughout the museum, are brought together in a fresh context. Rather than being seen beside works of the same artist or of the same period, 58 religious paintings can be closely scrutinized, compared, and contrasted in relationship to one another. This’CD-Rom is also available for visitors to view in the museum’s Education and Technology Center.(The museum suggests that a thorough study of this educational program takes about 40 hours.)

 The CD-Rom CD presents paintings in five sections: “The Main Characters of the New Testament,” introducing the theme of Christ Pantocrator (the Almighty One) and the Madonna and Child; the “Story of Mary;” the “Childhood of Christ;” the “Services [Ministry] of Christ; “and the “Passion of Christ.” Unfortunately, the English translation of the text is frequently awkward. Usually one can determine the intended meaning, but some mistakes are glaring, as in “Council of Efface,” for the historic Council of Ephesus in 431. Accompanying a set of images devoted to the theme of the Deposition from the Cross is a distasteful translation of a text from Chapter 15 in Mark’s Gospel; we read that Joseph of Arimathea “went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.” The errors in translation, particularly those of Scripture, are regrettable. On the other hand, although it is not clear whether the authors of the descriptions of the paintings themselves are believers or not, they are nonetheless very sympathetic in their presentation of the Gospel message. Since Christianity is a central theme in European painting, the Hermitage’s “Gospel Subjects “serves a useful purpose.

 New Approaches to Understanding Religious Paintings

On what bases, apart from artistic quality, do we make distinctions among works of religious art? Religious paintings, made to inspire or enhance faith, may be viewed as holy objects for veneration, such as the icon in the Orthodox tradition; they may have a primarily didactic function; or they may serve both functions. The museum setting, however, neutralizes images by presenting them in chronological sequence as the works of famous artists. In this case our focus is upon a narrative of human artistic achievement.

In addition, religious art needs to be understood in the context of history and theology, as, for example, in Hans Belting’s erudite study, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art. We have become accustomed to viewing images up until postmodernism, including religious works, in the context of the museum and through a particular lens created by accepted notions of what art is. New approaches which bring history, theology, and art together in creative and thoughtful interaction can shed fresh light on old masterpieces.

 The “Gospel Subjects” CD-ROM is a step in the right direction. It may even serve as a means of evangelism for those with no knowledge of the Bible and/or for those not ready or disposed to appreciate the truth in the form of the written word. Such a format also offers a feast for the eyes for the weary Christian pilgrim visiting one of the great “sacred” sites of our time – the Hermitage in Russia. One regrets that this CD-ROM released by the Hermitage does not offer examples of Russian art, in particular icons, since, according to Orthodox theology, truth has priority over art in the making and veneration of icons. Ahistorical study of religious images should take into account the original functions of these images.

 This CD-ROM often provides eloquent formal descriptions of these works of art and much detailed information about Christian symbolism. Close-up shots of incidents in each painting accompanied by informative texts and a zooming function enable the viewer of the CD-ROM to take note of details in the paintings which would otherwise be missed. Sometimes, but not often enough, we are given information about who may have commissioned a particular work, and how it may have functioned in its own time. In some cases, as in Francois Boucher’s painting of “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” the religious depth and sincerity of a particular works called into question. Occasional references to disputes over the proper treatment of religious themes, as in the case of the Reformation and the

Counter-Reformation, are of great value. More information along these lines is needed so that viewer can appreciate differences among works of art on Christian themes regarding religious authenticity as well as artistic quality. ♦

Nancy J. Sairsingh lives in Moscow and teaches art history at the Russian State University of the Humanities

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Volume 15, No. 3

Religion and Politics in Central Asia Since 1991

Rafis Abazov

Popular Islam

Religious practices in everyday life in Central Asia are largely shaped by popular Islamic customs, or “low Islam,” according to Ernest Gellner’s definition (Postmodernism: Reason and Religion, 1992). To a great degree, they reflect local traditions, communal rituals, numerous superstitions, and popular perceptions; to a much lesser degree, they reflect the letter of the divine law – the Sharia. In the post-Soviet era, Islam has regained some of its position in the everyday life of Central Asian states; yet the religious landscape in Central Asia still differs markedly from that of the Middle East. In general, most people still prefer liberal Western dress and are open-minded regarding forms of socialization and behavior. Many go to local fortune tellers and bring sacrifices to local saints; and if, for example, a family finds itself on the verge of breaking up, it may very well rush to witchcraft experts in the belief that its relationships have been affected by an ill-wisher’s spell.

Official Islam

Official Islamic clergy, especially the older generation, tend to continue the Soviet era practice of non-intervention in politics, though they work actively among the general population. For example, since independence in 1991, they have mobilized local communal, foreign, and some public funds for building and restoring mosques and madrasas [Muslim schools]. Mosques have been built or reopened in practically every town and city throughout the region, at an average rate of about three mosques a day. This rate was maintained throughout the1990s, and the number of mosques skyrocketed from about 300 in 1990 to more than 10,000in 2000. New Islamic schools were opened in almost all districts of the region. The number of people performing the Hajj [pilgrimage to Mecca]

grew from a privileged 100 or so a year in the1970s and 1980s to several thousand a year in the1990s and early 2000s. However, there are small but rapidly growing groups of Islamic activists, usually religiously trained young people, who demand stricter observance of Islamic traditions and greater involvement of religion in political life.

 Government responses to these debates and new demands have been quite uniform in all five Central Asian republics. When Central Asian governments introduced new constitutions in the early 1990s, they all included articles stating that “Religions and all cults shall be separated from the state”; that “formation of political parties on religious . . . grounds” should not be permitted; and that “No religious organizations shall pursue political goals and objectives.”(Article 8, Sections 3 and 4, Kyrgyz Republic Constitution, Rafis Abazov, Historical Dictionary of Kyrgyzstan [Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press,2004], 266.)

Islam in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Islamic resurgence has been relatively moderate in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Although a number of new mosques and madrasas were opened in both countries, their societies have remained highly secular. (For detailed evaluation, see U.S. Department of State reports on international religious freedom in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, http://www. state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/c12783.htm.) Only about one percent of school children have been enrolled in madrasas, and a few hundred students have enrolled in Islamic universities at home and overseas. In the early 1990s, several activists attempted to create political groups that demanded a greater role for Islam in political and public life in both republics, but they did not get significant support and could not establish a visible presence or win seats in national parliaments.

Islam in Tajikistan

Completely the opposite development occurred in Tajikistan. In the early 1990s, Islamic activists established the Islamic Party of Renaissance of Tajikistan (IPRT) and united with some democratic groups to challenge the political domination of the Communist Party of Tajikistan (CPT). The IPRT attempted to mobilize its supporters to defeat the CPT candidate in the presidential elections in 1991. After losing the election, the IPRT and its supporters declared that the elections were fraudulent and attempted to topple the Communist Party-led government. The political confrontation, complicated by regional clan-based rivalries, escalated into a devastating full-scale civil war that continued for five years.

 During this conflict, several small religious groups were forced to flee to Afghanistan, where they found refuge among radical Islamic groups. Only in 1997 did the rivals agree to establish a Islamic parties and groups were granted up to 30percent of seats. This established a precedent, being the first time an Islamic party in the territory of the former Soviet Union had become member of a ruling parliamentary coalition.

Islam in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan also experienced an Islamic resurgence in the post-Soviet era, although the government has kept very tight control over all religious communities and has banned political participation by any Islamic groups. In fact, it harshly persecuted any attempts at public participation by or criticism from religious groups. In this environment, a radical militant organization, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), emerged in the eastern provinces of the country. This movement grew into one of the most radical political organizations, not only in Uzbekistan, but in Central Asia generally, with its demands for the establishment of theocratic Islamic states throughout the region. Uzbek security forces drove the IMU out of its base in Uzbekistan’s part of the Fergana Valley between 1999 and 2001.

 IMU activists first found refuge in neighboring Tajikistan and then escaped to Afghanistan, where they received support from the Taliban-led government. The Uzbek government blamed them for bombings in Tashkent in 2004 and for political unrest in Andean in 2005.

Islam in Turkmenistan

In Turkmenistan the government has also implemented controversial policies towards Islamic activists. On the one hand, it uses Islamic symbols as an integral part of national ideology and national identity, sponsoring new and grander mosques, restoring old ones, and funding pilgrimages to Mecca. On the other hand, it has kept tight control over religious development and actively persecuted non-conformist representatives of the Islamic community.

 The religious environment remains very dynamic and very diverse. New, radical organizations, such as Hizb-Ut-Tahrir and others, have become more active, while influential official Islamic clergy have consistently preferred not to be involved in political life. In most large cities, religious belief and level of commitment remain a private matter. In this environment, highly devoted women in hijabs [head and body coverings] may be seen walking calmly next to girls wearing the most extravagant Western-style miniskirts.

Orthodox Christianity

Orthodox Christians represent the second largest religious community in Central Asia, maintain a relatively high profile in all the republics, and work closely with the Moscow Patriarchate. Medieval chroniclers and travelers mentioned the existence of Christian churches and monasteries in Samarqand, Balisage, and many other parts of the region throughout the medieval era. But practically all of them disappeared during the so-called Dark Ages in Central Asia between the 13th and 16th centuries.

 Russian colonization brought significant changes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian settlers established Orthodox Christian communities on newly colonized land and opened dozens of churches and Christian schools in all the majorities in the region. However, Orthodox priests traditionally preached exclusively among fellow Christians and rarely conducted any large scale campaigns to convert local populations to Christianity.

 During the Soviet era, Christian communities in Central Asia experienced the same fate as Muslims. Bolsheviks punished Orthodox clergy for their support of the pro-monarchist movement and consequently either executed or exiled them to Siberia. Many priests chose to escape to other countries, including China, Turkey, and Australia. Many churches and monasteries were closed or destroyed. During World War II, the Orthodox Church was again allowed to practice under strict state control. As Soviet Communist ideology collapsed in the mid-1980s, Orthodox communities gained a new and powerful impetus. Most restrictions were removed, and many people turned to religion.

 The independence of Central Asian republics has affected the region’s Christian churches in contradictory ways. On the one hand, the Orthodox Church has been freed from strict state control and interference, and people have become free to practice their beliefs. On the other hand, Orthodox communities have begun facing a new and increasingly serious problem – out-migration of the Slavic population to Russia, Ukraine, and other countries. Between 1991 and 2007,nearly three-quarters of the Slavic population left Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and almost half left Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. To a lesser degree, Slavs also left Kazakhstan. If these emigration trends continue, many Orthodox churches in the region will probably close their doors within the next 20 to 30 years.

 Other Christian Communities

Protestant and Catholic communities appeared in Central Asia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the migration of Germans, Poles, and some others to the newly colonized areas. Their numbers increased rapidly during World War II as Volga Germans from Russia, as well as German prisoners of war, Poles, and other ethnic groups, were deported to Central Asia. In the post-World War II era, their contribution to the local population reached about 2.5 percent, with the total number exceeding between 1.1and 1.2 million people by the mid-1980s. Since1991, however, approximately one million ethnic Germans have migrated to Germany from Central Asia. Those who have remained try to keep their ministries active.

 Throughout the 20th century, other groups– Baptists, Adventists, and others – were active in the region, although they faced severe restrictions and persecution from Soviet authorities. In the1990s, many legal restrictions were lifted, and these groups began expanding their work in local Central Asian communities. There were reports that small groups of Kyrgyz’s, Kazakhs, and Uzbeks were baptized. However, local native communities and community leaders actively resist and condemn such missionary activities among their groups.

Islam in Central Asia after 9/11

The events of 9/11 caught Central Asians by surprise, as they found themselves on the frontline of the international war on terrorism and the immediate attack on the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Both Central Asian governments and ordinary people of the region strongly condemned the terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and on the Pentagon. Central Asian republics unanimously joined thus.-led coalition, playing a critical role in the decisive stages of the war against the Taliban in2002-2003 by granting over flight permission to coalition air forces and providing infrastructure

for logistic support of U.S. forces. (See Shahram Akbarzadeh, Uzbekistan and the United States: Authoritarianism, Islamism and Washington’s New Security Agenda [New York: Zed Books,2005].) From the beginning, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan even granted access to their territories for U.S. and NATO-operated military bases, although as of 2006 the United States maintains only one large military airbase in the region, in Kyrgyzstan.

 The war in Iraq (2003-), however, has been quite a different matter. Most Central Asian officials and ordinary people were reluctant to support the U.S.-led “Coalition of the Willing, “though they refrained from public opposition. In2003, only Kyrgyzstan joined U.S.-led allies in the war against Saddam Hussein’s regime and sent troops to Iraq.

 Since the beginning of the U.S.-led war against international terrorism, Central Asian governments have toughened their positions toward the participation of Islamic organizations in political life. They have reinforced their secular policies and reconfirmed bans on participation in political activities by any religious organizations.

The governments’ stances have hardened even further against supporters of the IMU, and they have also begun to persecute the underground movement Hizb-Ut-Tahrir. This organization claims that its sole purpose is peaceful education and social programs, but government officials have accused it of preparing the ground for political change, including the establishment of an Islamic state in the region. Hizb-Ut-Tahrir has always denied such allegations. By and large, Central Asian societies remain deeply divided on the role of religion in social life. Evidence from various studies indicates that older believers who grew up and formed their views during the Soviet era largely support the status quo; they believe that religion should remain a private matter and that religious organizations should not participate in political life. In the meantime, the younger generation is divided between those who strongly support the secular nature of their countries and those who call for a return to Islamic roots and who demand life. In between there is a large segment of the younger generation that is busy searching for jobs, and that is more concerned about everyday life than about political debates on the role of religion. ♦

Rafi’s Abazov is adjunct assistant professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York. He has written four books, including the Historical Dictionary of Kyrgyzstan and the Historical Dictionary ofTurkmenistan.

Edited excerpt reprinted with permission fromRafis Basov, Culture and Customs of the Central Asian Republics (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007).

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Volume 15, No. 3

Music Ministry in the Ukrainian Evangelical Christian- Baptist Church

Stephen John Benham

Ukrainian Evangelical Growth

Beginning with perestroika (1987) and following Ukraine’s secession from the USSR

(1991), the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (AUAECB) experienced a great spiritual awakening and dramatic growth.1 During this period, the number of churches and church membership expanded at an astounding pace (54 percent since 1990)–– this in spite of emigration that reached staggering 95 percent in some areas, such as the Crimea. The AUAECB had 991 churches with80,117 members in 1990, and 2,236 churches with 131,950 members in 2000. This made the AUAECB the second largest union in the European Baptist Federation. By May 2002 the AUAECB had surpassed Great Britain in reported church membership, with more than 146,000members in 2,680 churches.

The Prominence of Church Choirs

With the dramatic growth of the church since1990 and the influx of Western ideas, changes

are taking place in the organizational structure and the music ministry of larger Ukrainian churches. In the past, choirs might sing anywhere from three to six anthems during a service. In larger churches, there would be three or four services a week in which the choir performed. A choir then might sing anywhere from 12 to 20different anthems in a week. As a result, choirs in Ukrainian Baptist churches usually have had a standard repertoire of pieces that are more frequently repeated than in Western churches. Now, however, some congregations have two or even three choirs that participate regularly in-services. This has eased the burden on pastors and musicians considerably.

A Melancholy Strain

Ukrainian church worship is substantially more somber and solemn than in Western churches. Explanations include the repression and persecution experienced by the church, the very difficult manual labor required by many jobs in the former Soviet Union, the emphasis on minor tonality, a deep reverence for God that has its historical basis in the Orthodox Church, and cultural view of God as the Almighty, Triune Creator.2Hymns familiar to Westerners may be virtually unrecognizable as they are sung much more slowly than in the West. Ukrainians consider clapping and other demonstrations of praise found in Evangelical churches in the West to be inappropriate. Acceptable expressions of gratitude and praise would be such statements as “SlavaBohu Dyakuyemo [Praise God]” or “Blagadarim”[Thank You] (in Ukrainian and Russian).

The Influence of Orthodoxy

The solemn and reverent nature of worship services in Ukraine (and Russia) has its origin in the practices of the Russian Orthodox Church and reflects what musicologist Olga Dolskaya-Ackerly calls velichestvennost or torzhestvennost,untranslatable terms that in English mean roughly uplifting, dignified, solemn, and intense spiritualelevation.3 Orthodox churches and the extremely conservative wing of the AUAECB allow only a cappella singing during services, whereas the majority of AUAECB churches permit instrumental music and accompanied choral and congregational singing.4

Ukrainian- Versus Russian-Language Worship

Choral music is performed in both Ukrainian and Russian with the specific proportion in each language determined by local preferences and the degree of state-imposed Russification in a given locale in the past. Many churches use both Russian and Ukrainian interchangeably throughout the service. This is true particularly in the central region of Ukraine where Russian and Ukrainian cultures intermingle. In Western Ukraine, some traditional hymns and choral anthems have been translated from Ukrainian into Russian. The opposite is true in Eastern Ukraine. Other former Soviet countries, such as Russia, Belarus, and Moldova, have also taken Ukrainian hymns and translated them into Russian.5

Orthodox Roots

The choral repertoire of AUAECB churches has its roots in the Orthodox choral tradition. In the 18th to 20th centuries, Ukrainian composers such as Maxim Sozontovych Berezovs’kiy (1745–1777), Artem Luk’yanovich Vedel’ (1767–1808), Dmytro Stepanovych Bortnyans’kiy (1751–1825), Mikhaylo Verbyts’kiy (1815–1870),Mykola Vytaliyovych Lysenko (1842–1912),6

Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (1877–1921),7and Kyrill Hrihor’yevych Stetsenko (1882–1922) made substantial contributions to religious music.Although their compositions were intendedprimarily for the Orthodox Church, their worksare also found in the contemporary choral music of the AUAECB. As Oleksandr Kreshchuk,director of music ministry for the AUAECB, explains,Protestant churches of Ukraine use variety of music during worship services, including traditional European hymns and our own musical compositions. But a significant portion of music, especially choral music, is taken from the Orthodox liturgy, especially fragments of the liturgy that were written by Ukrainian composers at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. These include the texts “Our Father,”

“I Believe,” “Magnify the Name of the Lord, “and also choral cantatas which were written on individual psalms or from portions of the books of the prophets (Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah).8

Classical Influences

Financial and government restrictions limited the availability of choral music during the Soviet period. In many churches, it is still typical to find choral collections that have been meticulously notated by hand. In addition to the Ukrainian composers mentioned above, these collections include standard works of other Slavic composers, such as Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804–1857), Alexander Andreyevich Arkhangel’sky (1846–1924), and Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ippoloitov-Ivanov (1859–1935).Many of these works were originally written for use in the Orthodox Church, but have been adapted for use in AUAECB churches.

Evangelical Composers

Because of state-imposed educational restrictions, few trained composers emerged in Baptist ranks during the Soviet period. Nevertheless, a number of talented, typically self-taught composers produced works for use in AUAECB churches. Ukrainian composer A. F. Kazymyrs’kiy (1905–1975) wrote 95 works, including a number of choral cantatas. Sergey Andreyevich Batsuk (1910–1983) composed more than 400 works, including hymns, cantatas, and large choral arrangements.

 Odessa native Nikolay Ivanovich Visotskiy (1898–1988), who directed church choirs in Odessa, Kyiv, and Moscow, wrote many hymns and choral works which are still performed in AUAECB churches. Restrictions placed on education during the Soviet era resulted in a lack of trained composers or composition teachers for students in the current era. In spite of this obstacle, the AUAECB is producing new choral music for church use. Two composers in particular, Pavlo Sidko inL’viv and Serhiy Khashchuk, now residing in Sacramento, California, have written music that is used in AUAECB churches. The Christian Music Academy of the AUAECB is making a concentrated effort to train a new generation of composers in order to continue the development of contemporary Ukrainian Protestant church music.

A Choral Collection

Since 1991, the choral music department of the AUAECB, under the leadership of Oleksandr Kreshchuk, has published a number of choral music collections that are now widely used in AUAECB churches. The primary collection, Khrista khay velichayut’ vsi [Let Everyone Magnify Christ], was published in1998. It contains 25 choral arrangements taken from traditional Slavic church music, with additions from the European classical repertoire(Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Handel), and from traditional and modern composers from the West(Phillip Bliss, William Bradbury, Andrae Crouch,Jack Hayford, Tom Fettke, Graham Kendrick, and John Peterson). The collection contains both Russian and Ukrainian arrangements, some with texts in both languages. A second volume, Khvala Tobi, Nash Bozhe [Praise to You, Our God], was released in 1999. This collection contains an additional 36 hymns in styles similar to the first volume.

 Hymnal Publications

Since its formation the AUAECB has made a concerted effort to provide resources for congregational singing, including new hymnals, with music notation, in both the Ukrainian and Russian languages. Before 1991, the primary hymnbook in Ukraine and Russia was Pesn’Vozrozhdeniya [Songs of Revival], based on the hymn collection, Desyatisbornik, produced in St. Petersburg by Ivan Prokhanov at the beginning of the twentieth century. Pesn’ Vozrozhdeniya is still the standard hymnbook in many churches throughout Ukraine, Russia, other former Soviet republics, and Russian-speaking churches in the United States and Canada. The Russian-language Pens’ Vozrozhdeniya contains 1,640 hymns of Russian, Ukrainian, European, and American origin. The Western hymns were present in Russia before the 1917 Revolution, having been introduced by Baptist missionaries working in Russia and by Slavic Christians who had traveled to Europe prior to the closing of the borders. These songs remained part of the tradition of the church throughout the Soviet era and are still

commonly sung. Examples include Velikiy Bog[How Great Thou Art], Tverdo ya veryu [Blessed Assurance], Tikhaya noch’, Divnaya noch ’[Silent Night, Holy Night], Snom pogrebennogo [Up from the Grave He Arose], Pastyr dobriy, sterezhy nas [Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us], Vsevishnemu slava! [To God be the Glory!], and Vernost’ velikuyu [Great Is Thy Faithfulness]. The standard form of the hymnbook provides only text, although some editions include hymn tunes and tonality.

 With Ukrainian independence in 1991, the AUAECB determined that a completely new hymnbook was needed for use in its churches. The editorial committee formed for this project attempted to coordinate and standardize the various versions of hymns which had developed in various regions of Ukraine during the Soviet period. It is interesting to note that the editorial committee consisted of musicians and pastors from churches in Ukraine and from Ukrainian immigrant churches abroad. The project,Yevanhel’s’ki Pisni [Gospel Songs], completed in 1997, contains 521 hymns in a contemporary Ukrainian translation.9 The selection of hymns reflects the European heritage of the Evangelical twentieth century Slavic composers and poets.

 This collection includes hymns drawn from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. Churches and mission organizations in Europe and North America provided financial support for these hymnals which are widely used not only in Ukraine but in Ukrainian immigrant churches in North America. Churches in Russian-speaking countries asked the AUAECB to produce an analogous Russian language hymnbook. After the completion of the Ukrainian hymnbook, the AUAECB immediately began work on a new Russian hymnbook, Evangel’skiye Gymni “Vozrozhdeniya” [Gospel Songs – The Revival], which was completed in 2000. As with the Ukrainian version, the editorial committee worked to unify and modernize practice and language usage. Other than listing the publisher as the AUAECB, Evangel’skiyeGymni contains no references to Ukraine or the Ukrainian language.

 Since the initial run of 10,000 hymnbooks has been completely distributed, it would appear that the project has general church support.10Many churches use both the Russian-language Pesn’ Vozrozhdeniya and the Ukrainian-language Yevanhel’s’ki Pisni. This practice meets the needs of members of congregations who are familiar with the older hymnbook and those who prefer the new Ukrainian-language hymnbook. ♦

Editor’s note: The author has provided the following update, commenting on developments since the completion of his dissertation. “In the past five years, music ministry in Ukraine has undergone still more change. Four new volumes of praise songs, Pisnyi Khvali [Songs of Praise] (Irpin, Ukraine: Center for Christian Life, 1998, 2001, 2002, and 2005), are now widely used across the country. There are also many Western style churches complete with PowerPoint, praise bands/teams, etc. It’s hard to generalize anymore!”

 Edited excerpt published with permission from Stephen John Benham, “Music Education as Identity Construction: An Investigation of the Church Music Schools of the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christian- Baptists,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rochester, 2004.

Stephen Benham is associate professor of music at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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Volume 15, No. 3

Magic and Healing in Contemporary Russia

Galina Lindquist

Marketing Magic

While the occult, by definition, is a hidden knowledge, urban magic in [Russia’s] big cities is a conspicuously public phenomenon. As such, it is created by the media and upheld by the market as a thriving field of service and commodity exchange. According to estimates of Russian sociologists, in 1998 there were more than 50,000officially registered “specialists in non-traditional healing methods” in Moscow alone (Pachenkov

2001). For the whole of Russia, Nezavisimaiagazeta (10 June 1996) gave an approximate number of “hundreds of thousands of ‘magic, sorcerers, and fortune tellers’ [magi, kolduny,predskazatek’].” This figure seems to me rather arbitrary, since there are plenty of practitioners who never register nor advertise; there are also people who practice magic and healing in their free time, treating friends and relatives, and combining these activities with other professions that may have nothing to do with either medicine or magic.

 Magic and healing services are broadly advertised in several specialized newspapers. The number of these newspapers varies depending on the financial conditions of the publishers – two or three such newspapers disappeared after the economic crash of 17 August 1998, the black day for Russian entrepreneurs and the incipient middle class. Other similar newspapers, such as Oracle and Hidden Power [Tainaia vlast’],survived the crisis and now circulate millions of copies. In addition, new ones crop up. These newspapers are a source of information about rediscovered and reinvented folk beliefs and practices, providing advice as to how to behave during fasts or how to use cards or coffee grounds to predict the future or to find a loved one. They also feature articles on the era of Aquarius

(known as New Age in the West), astrology, the magic of numbers and names, paranormal and occult phenomena in everyday life, advice on how to acquire inner harmony, outer beauty, and material wealth.

Russian Magi Inclined Toward Orthodoxy

Many magi, both those who claim folk or rural descent and those of the more syncretistic brand, consider themselves pious Russian Orthodox Christians. They go to church regularly, follow church holidays and prescriptions, fast according to the elaborate Orthodox schedule, wear across, surround themselves with church candles and icons, regularly acquire water blessed in the church, and make plentiful use of church paraphernalia in their rituals. As a standard part of their treatment of all kinds of complaints, many magi ask their patients to buy a popular brand of mineral water called Holy Spring [Svyatoiistochnik], bottled by the church as part of its thriving business activities, and blessed by the Patriarch himself (as the bottle labels inform the

buyer). The magus then charges the water withers own energy and instructs patients to drink it at certain times of the day, and to wash their hands and face with it. Magi also serve as church missionaries in their dealings with clients, as many of them prescribe as part of their treatment going to confession and Communion, buying candles and icons, making pilgrimages to holy places, being baptized if they have not been so, or simply going to church for a liturgy, a prayer, or the blessing of water.

The Midwives’ Movement: From Syncretismto Orthodoxy

The Russian Orthodox Church has become a major source of moral guidance and authority in Russia, and magi are not the only people who look towards the church in their attempts to forge legitimacy for their activities. In her article on home birth in contemporary Russia, anthropologist Ekaterina Belousova (2002)describes transformations in the rhetoric and ideological moorings among the Russian homebirth movement. In the end of the 1980s, their proponents presented themselves in broad terms of “basic spirituality” (familiar from the New Age paradigm), blending Russian Orthodoxy with Yoga, Zen Buddhism, and transpersonal psychology. In the end of the 1990s, however,

ideologists of the movement were talking about the dangers of “alien” practices, casting them, instead, in the idiom of “Russian Orthodox mentality.” Midwives’ use of traditional folk remedies and other elements of folk magic presented for them no contradiction with their Russian Orthodox identity. Just like other areas of health-care practices that reemerged alongside bio-medical ones, home birth had to latch on tithe Russian Orthodox Church to wield legitimacy. Clients of magi use symbols from the Russian

Orthodox repertoire to express the perceived positive changes in their lives. In the case of home birth, these references seem innocuous because the church itself has no ideological objections to the practice per se. Nevertheless, for magic and their clients this reliance on the church can be rather dubious. The Russian Orthodox Church is the fiercest opponent of all sorts of healing and magic. Thus, one of the very few sociological analyses of magic and New Age movements in the Russian language is offered by a church ideologue, Deacon Andrei Kuraiev,who denounces all varieties of what he calls

Okkul’tizm v pravoslavii [Occultism in Russian Orthodoxy] (Moscow: Fond “Blagovest,” 1998).

Magi Marketing – With Orthodoxy in Tow

Many healers (and magi) refer to God, faith,and religion, either in very direct terms, or, more  subtly, through using Russian Orthodox Church paraphernalia, in conjunction with legitimation through the “folk tradition,” and in order to augment references to “roots.” For example, Avery concise advertisement introduces “a folk healer” who promises to “cure all diseases in one séance.” Instead of lists of degrees and distinctions, references to scientific publications and license numbers, there is one single phrase:

“Faith in God will heal you!” Advertisements feature an establishment referred to as “the Center of Russian Orthodox Religious Healing”; a healer who heals through “Russian Orthodox prayer from the church prayer books,” and so forth. This kind of blend, however, is quite contentious, in view of the already mentioned deep resentment that the church has against all kinds of healing and magic (Lindquist 2000a).

Exorcism

Scholars (Ryan 1999 and Ivanits 1989) agree that the main difference between Russian folk magic in pre-revolutionary times and Western witchcraft and sorcery was Russia’s lack of a philosophically grounded demonology. However, demons and the devil were not at all absent from folk beliefs. One of the most frequently encountered terms in their lexicon was nechistaiasila (or nechist’), “unclean force(s).” This term was a designation of the devil, but it also referred to all potentially harmful spirits in general. Popular belief attributed to sorcerers and witches was the ability to send evil spirits to harm people.

 One form of this affliction was klikushestvo, a disease that affected women and was attributed to demonic possession. It manifested itself as hysterical or epileptic attacks or violent outbursts, or as spectacular public fits of obscene behavior(descriptions of klikushestvo and demonic possession remind one strongly of the symptoms of a psych neurological disease called Tourette’s syndrome; see Sacks 1995).

In today’s Russia, klikushestvo is not as common as it was in the old days, but possession (oderzhaniie) does sometimes occur. It is tacitly agreed that magi are not powerful enough to deal with it. There are a small number of priests in the Russian Orthodox Church who are known to treat demonic possession. They usually live in monasteries and regularly offer services where they perform group exorcism. These services are reportedly highly crowded, dramatic, terrifying spectacles, believed to be dangerous for idle onlookers to witness, but visited by dozens of sufferers from all over Russia. Priests who can drive out demons are much in demand, and the church turns a blind eye to their activities. Even though healing from demonic possession is greatly discouraged by the church, the tacit understanding is that its rare and chosen representatives are the only experts who can deal with it.

 Icons Co-opted

Prayer books, candlesticks, and Russian Orthodox icons are always plentiful in magi’s working rooms. This ubiquitous presence of icons was explained to me by a young, tough, and pointedly secularized healer who otherwise tried to forego all references to the church and confided that the roots of her practice lay in Reiki healing.

[Editor’s note: Reiki practice derives from Nikolai Roerich (1874-1947), painter, theosophical spiritualist, and peace activist.]

“I don’t care about Russian Orthodoxy,” she said, pointing to the latter-day, kitschy creations on the walls of her small apartment, as if apologizing to me for their presence there. “People need images of love and kindness – things they can immediately relate to, and this is what icons are.”♦

Edited excerpt reprinted with permission from Galina Lindquist, Conjuring Hope: Magic and Healing in Contemporary Russia (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006). Galina Lindquist, a native of Russia, teaches in the Department of Social Anthrop

Sources:

Belousova, Ekaterina. “The Preservation of National Childbirth Traditions in the Russian Homebirth Community.” The Journal of the Slavic and East European Folklore Association 5 (No. 2, 2002): 50- 77; www.virginia.edu/~slavic/seefa/fall02.pdf. Ivanits, Linda J. Russian Folk Belief. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989.

Kuraiev, Andrei. Okkultizm v Pravoslavii [Occultism in Russian Orthodoxy]. Moscow: Blagovest, 1998.

Lindquist, Galina.”Not My Will but Thane be Done: Church Versus Magic in Contemporary Russia.” Culture and Religion No. 2 (2000): 247-76. Pachenkov, Oleg. “Ratsional’noie ‘zakoldovyvaniie mira’: sovremennyie rossi iskiie ‘magi’ [Rational

‘Reenchantment of the World’: Contemporary ‘Magic’in Russia].” In Nevidimyie grani sotsial’noi real’nosti

 [The Unseen Facets of Social Reality], Vol. 9. St. Petersburg: Center for Independent Social Research, 2001. Pp. 96-109. Ryan, W. F. The Bathhouse at Midnight; Magic in

Russia. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.

Sacks, Oliver. An Anthropologist on Mars. London: Picador, 1995.