DRAFT
Chelyabinsk, Siberia, Russia
Roman Catholic Parish
Parish Activities
© Copyright 1997, Capuchin Province of Mid-America and FEEFHS, all rights
reserved
First posted: 5 January 1997
Some Parish Activities
The Ecumenical Christian Mission
The ecumenical Christian mission was held at the Sports Palace in Chelyabinsk on the last
weekend of April, 1995. The theme of the mission was "God Gives Hope." Several thousand
people, young and old, heard the main evangelist, Kaleb Lehtenen from Finland speak about
God's love and forgiveness. Speaking the words of Scripture simply and clearly, he presented
God as knocking at the door of their heart seeking to be admitted into their lives and to
accept Jesus Christ as their God and Savior.
Hundreds of people responded at the close of each evening's mission session by professing
their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The evangelist then advised them to carry
out four important actions to strengthen their faith commitment:
1. To choose a church community and to attend church regularly, to know brothers and sisters
in Christ.
2. To pray every day and even often during the day.
3. To be faithful in studying the word of God.
4. To always have a clean heart, that is to be reconciled to God and neighbor.
The six participating Christian churches, all active in Chelyabinsk - the Church of God, the
"Good News" Evangelical Church, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Baptist Church, the
Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church - prepared for 10 months to make it a truly
ecumenical event in word and action. Representatives from all these churches helped in the
preparation and implementation of the mission. Prayer was an important part of the
preparation. The Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Parish was well represented by its
priests, sisters, and parishioners.
Fathers Wilhelm and Reinhard personally visited the Russian Orthodox clergy and explained
the purpose of the mission. The response was that as a church they could not participate, but
that they would not oppose it. On the mission weekend, however, there was a peaceful
protest on the steps of the Sports Arena with placards reading, "Stop the Mission" and
"Foreigners Go Home." The crucifix and icons were displayed while songs and verbal prayer
expressed their faith and devotion.
The ecumenical situation has vastly improved since the time of the ecumenical mission, and
Father Reinhard works regularly with the Russian Orthodox clergy to coordinate mutually
beneficial humanitarian aid shipments into Russia.
The Focolare Mariapolis
Every Sunday new young adults come to the Church searching for meaning and faith, and
the young flowering community has been learning how to invite and embrace them. The
priests, sisters, and a small number of parishioners have put the Focolare movement http://www.rc.net/focolare at the center of their efforts
to draw the Catholics of the parish into a close-knit community. Focolare (named for the
Italian word for "family hearth") is a worldwide Gospel-based movement for world unity and
peace founded by Chiara Lubich in Trent, Italy, in 1943, when she and other young women
deliberately decided to stay with those who could not flee the bombing of the city.
In 1993, 1994, and 1995, teams of about a dozen parishioners went to Moscow to participate
in a Focolare Mariapolis (literally City of Mary). Chelyabinsk then held its own first
Mariapolis, and indeed the first in all of Asian Russia, at a camp at Lake Kaldee from
Wednesday, Sept. 6 until Sunday, Sept. 10, 1995.
Ten Focolare members from Moscow joined the Chelyabinsk staff in providing this
experience for the parishioners. Over 140 parishioners - including a few Russian Orthodox
and some not yet baptized - had a Catholic, Christian life experience of faith-formation and
community-formation after the manner of the Acts of the Apostles.
According to Sister Lucy, "The talent and faith and evolving leadership of our Russian
parishioners - most not Catholics over three years - was marvelous. The Church here is truly
in a new springtime after 70 years of uprooting and deep-freeze - but with life in deep roots
of the memory of the faith of grandparents, including Russian Orthodox ones. The God of
history is beyond our comprehension, a mystery worthy of our faith, our trust and
wholehearted love."
Over 200 attended the second Chelyabinsk Mariapolis at Camp Kaldee Aug. 29 to Sept. 1,
1996 - including some Orthodox clergy. Since then, every third Saturday of the month, there
is a follow-up meeting of participants and others interested in Focolare spirituality.
The Focolare movement expanded into the outlying mission communities in November, 1996,
as the Chelyabinsk team and priests, and Klari, a lifelong lay Focolari member of Moscow's
leadership team conducted mini-Mariapolises in Barshuche and Shikhminka. The response
was great and the mini-Mariopolises attracted the interest of youth and also of adults who had
not previously been churchgoers.
Statue of the Mother of God of Fatima
All three Latin-rite Catholic bishops of Russia and the Central Asian republics went to Fatima
http://www.cais.com/npacheco/fatima/fatima.html in October 1996 to bring one of the pilgrim statues of the Mother of God of
Fatima (as Catholics in Russia honor her) to their countries for a year-long 80th anniversary
celebration of the apparitions of Mary at Fatima.
At the time, Bishop Joseph Werth of Novosibirsk in Asian Russia said that when the Pope
consecrated Russia specifically to Mary on Mar. 25, 1984, glasnost came quickly and beyond
anyone's expectations. With the visit of the statue to his diocese-like apostolic administration,
Bishop Werth said he is hoping for and praying for a great awakening and acceptance of the
faith in Russia.
The pilgrim statue remained in European Russia until Jan. 12, 1997, when parishioners from
Chelyabinsk received it at Orenburg and carried it for the very first time into Asian Russia -
not in a box, but on special stand on a bus, surrounded by parishioners. The statue was
greeted with a special all-day prayer service and an evening candlelight procession from the
old church to the new and then travelled around the Chelyabinsk parish before moving on to
Ekaterinburg on Jan. 15.
The Chelyabinsk parish hopes to be able to dedicates its new church on Oct. 13, 1997, the
actually 80th anniversary of the final apparition of Mary and miracle of the sun at Fatima.
That the pilgrim statue of the "Mother of God of Fatima" arrived in Chelyabinsk exactly nine
months prior to this planned dedication has special meaning to the parish staff and
parishioners at Chelyabinsk. As the pastor put it, "Mothers know all about the significance of
nine months."
This page has been designed as an adjunct to "A Letter from Siberia," http://feefhs.org/lfs/frg-lfs.html. Any questions
relating to its content or design should be directed to Fr. Blaine Burkey, O. F. M. Cap.
eMail address: tmpbb@fhsuvm.fhsu.edu
1701 Hall Street
Hays Kansas 67601
Telephone: (913) 625-6577 or (913) 625-4483
FAX: (913) 625-3912
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