Приход Русской Православной Церкви в России и за рубежом. Материалы к изучению приходской жизни. Выпуск 5. Православные приходы греческого мира (Греция, Кипр). Место и роль русскоязычных общин

The third part of the collection The Role of the Russian-speaking community in society. Parishioners’ Review includes interviews and focus group of parishioners, both Russian-speaking and Greek communities. Churchwomen of Saint Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church in Thessaloniki, Pontic elder women, who have carried their faith through all their lives under conditions of emigration and seeking for homeland, tell about keeping orthodox traditions early in Soviet Georgia, and then in modern Greece. A group interview with women volunteers, churchwomen of the church of St. George (Thessalonica) is dedicated to the traditions of free meals as a social mission of Greek Orthodox Church’ parishes. This part of the collection ends with an interview of a churchwoman of the Russian-language St. Nicholas church in Limassol, which introduces parishioners’ views of the priest’s role in a parish abroad to the reader.

Materials collected in parishes in Russia made valuable contribution to the collection, having become a certain background for comparison – priests, charity providers, parishioners of the Tikhvinskaya eparchy of St. Petersburg metropolis share their many-years experience of social serving and fighting alcohol and drug addictions on the pages of the fifth collection.

Their interviews are included in the fourth part “Parish in Russia. Experience of St. Petersburg Metropolis in Dealing with Socially Unprotected Groups of Population” of the collection. It begins with an interview of a young priest, the abbot of the Church of the Nativity of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Alexander of Svir friary mission of St. Petersburg, priest Sergey Lyadve, whose priest service is carried out in one of the rough parts of St. Petersburg – so-called “Vesyoly Posyolok” (Jolly Town). In his interview he shares the experience of organizing help groups for alcohol- and drug addicts within a parish. Elena Rydavlevskaya, the Executive Director of the Diakoniya charity fund, continues studying the topic of social service helping alcohol- and drug addicts. She managed to develop a system project for such help involving church and state authorities, business and philanthropists. Another priest’s interview of this part of the collection gives an account of everyday life of a rehabilitation center for alcohol- and drug addicts under parish in the Sologubovka settlement of the Kirov district of the Leningrad Region. An interview of parishioner of the Church of the Nativity of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Alexander of Svir friary mission Ekaterina Bashkirova turns over another page of parish social service – “Mercy Bus”, rendering help to the homeless. In her interview she shares the experience of communicating with homeless people, organizing such a mission within a parish. This part of the collection ends with an interview of a 60-year woman, a parishioner of the Church of the Nativity of the Church of the Holy Trinity of Alexander of Svir friary mission, an alcohol addict in the recent past. It describes the alcohol addict’s walk of life and the role of orthodox parish in overcoming this addiction.

The final fifth part “Parish in Research Studies” of the collection features translation of an article of well-known Greek theologian, honored professor of the University of Athens, protopresbyter George Metallinos, which provides a detailed description of orthodox parish in Greek tradition. The translation is followed with articles of such authors as Orlova I.V., who examines the history of Russian-speaking parishes as a part of the Church of Cyprus; and assistant professor of modern sociology, vice dean of Faculty of Sociology of Lomonosov Moscow State University Trofimov S.V., who reveals features of organization and social serving of Catholic parishes, social studies carried out in this field.

In conclusion we would like to thank the management of St. Tikhon Orthodox University for granted financial and moral support, as well as all project coordinators who live and serve in the most diverse countries but do support and meet us during our research trips.

Our special thanks go to priest Georgy Vidyakin who arranged field work in Cyprus, priest Leo Efremidis who gave us a warm welcome and research organization in Thessalonica (Greece), Klimov G.A. and Orlova I.V. for financial and organizational help and everybody who took part in collecting, transcribing interviews, handling materials.

Professor, Doctor of Economics I. P. Ryazantsev

Часть 1 Приход в оценках иерархов Кипрской и Элладской Церквей

Топология прихода и его границы

Митрополит Лимассольский Афанасий (Николау), Кипрская Православная Церковь, Лимассольская митрополия (г. Лимасол).

Интервью И.П. Рязанцеву.