Monks hope to end sound of silence(Harvard has Russian Bells)

BBC ^ | 1-30-04 | Sarah Rainsford

[DeepDish]

Every morning Father Roman winds his way up a narrow, stone stairway to take his place on a platform high above Moscow's rooftops. A softly spoken young monk with a long wispy beard, Father Roman has been chief bell ringer at the Danilov monastery for three years.

The church lost its voice

Father Roman But the bells he currently rings are a mismatched set, cobbled together from the few that remained intact in Russia after 70 years of state atheism.

The monastery's original set was sold by Stalin to an American businessman at the height of the Soviet crackdown on religion. They've hung at Harvard University ever since.

Now the monastery wants them back.

The monastery has now been expensively restored "The period from the late 1920s was a tragic time for the Church," Father Roman muses, surrounded by the vast replacement bells, dusted in early morning snow. "All over Russia churches were closed and extremely old and valuable bells were destroyed. The church lost its voice."

The Danilov monastery was silenced along with thousands of others. Many of its monks were imprisoned or shot.

The premises were finally returned to the Church under Mikhail Gorbachev and the monastery has since been lavishly restored. Today it's the official residence of the Patriarch but the Danilov monks say it remains incomplete.

"The bells are a link with our past; a past that was cut off, and is now being restored," Father Roman explains. "Getting the bells back would mark a new era. It would mark the resurrection of the monastery."

God's language

Gazing out from his office towards the salmon-pink bell tower, Archimandrite Aleksey is grateful to Harvard for preserving the original Danilov bells.

But the monastery's Father Superior confesses he's now praying for their return.

[DeepDish]

What do you think? I think it would be nice of Harvard to sell the bells back to the Russkies when I consider who they got them from.

[scab4faa]

/agreed

Will they?

Doubtful

[johniegrad]

It's a public relations opportunity for them. But the libs at the school will blow it and come out looking greedy.

[ThanhPhero]

Harvard probably does not see any reason to give them back. After all it was a wistfully remembered great progressive socialist who sold the bells to Harvard and a bunch of reactionary superstitionists and counterrevolutionaries who want them now.

[ThanhPhero]

They would not be so much greedy as righteously self-righteous.

[Welsh Rabbit]

It would be great if the bells were removed from that God hating institution and restored to its rightful place of worship. Unfortunately, doing so would call into question the infallibilty of Stalin, which strictly forbidden by Harvard's official religion.

[Mr Ducklips]

The monastery's original set was sold by Stalin to an American businessman at the height of the Soviet crackdown on religion.

Maybe someone with the initial "Armand Hammer"?

[Savage Beast]

Didn't the Russian Orthodox Church receive oil money from Saddam Tikriti's terrorist regime??? What did they give Saddam in return??? Maybe the bells are better left at Harvard.

[Sacajaweau]

The bells belong to the monastery. It's a shame that Harvard hasn't already offered to return them.

[MarMema]

Harvard should offer to return the bells to the monastery.

[FormerLib]

Didn't the Russian Orthodox Church receive oil money from Saddam Tikriti's terrorist regime???

I'd be interested to see your proof. I hope you think this rumor justifies what Harvard is doing.

[Destro]

http://www.gateway2russia.com/st/art_204952.php

29 January 2004 16:18

Russian church denies recieving bribes from Saddam Hussein

The head of the Moscow Patriarchate's External Relations Department, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill has denied foreign press reports that Saddam Hussein presented oil contracts to the Russian Orthodox Church.

"This is an absurdity, I cannot think of any other word. Nothing of the sort could happen," Metropolitan Kirill told a Thursday press conference in Moscow. Foreign press reports claim that Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the Russian Communist Party also received oil contracts from the former Iraqi leader. Kirill said he was perplexed at the "strange company" the Russian Orthodox Church finds itself in.

The metropolitan said he "will thoroughly analyze the origin of the press reports and see what is behind them."

[http://gazeta.ru/]

[MarMema]

Seems like most of the 270 ( in one writing I read) accused organizations, from 46 countries, are also denying it.

[MarMema]

What your post has to do with keeping something that doesn't belong to you is beyond me.

[Savage Beast]

"Saddam Supporters Received Lucrative Oil Contracts," by Brian Ross. ABC News, January 29, 2004:

The following are the names of some of those who, according to the document, received Iraqi oil contracts (amounts are in millions of barrels of oil):

Russia:

The Companies of the Russian Communist Party: 137 million
The Companies of the Liberal Democratic Party: 79.8 million
The Russian Committee for Solidarity with Iraq: 6.5 million and 12.5 million (2 separate contracts)
Head of the Russian Presidential Cabinet: 90 million
The Russian Orthodox Church: 5 million

[Savage Beast]

Please see post #11 by Destro. My apologies. Harvard should return the bells.

[Savage Beast]

Please see posts #11, 12, 15, and 16. Okay, okay. Harvard should return the bells.

[RussianConservative]

Hmmm, and name of American businessman would be Henry Ford who have appartment across from Kremlin and fense art treasures for SU that it stole from owners and exterminated peoples.

[RussianConservative]

Or Henry Ford

[MarMema]

No kidding.