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Freedom may prove a mixed blessing for the predominant Russian Orthodox Church, which retained prerogatives under the old Soviet regime in return for passivity before a heavy-handed state. The Soviet government has returned more than 1,000 churches, but money for needed repairs is sorely lacking. Though disenchanted atheists are flocking to the old faith, there are too few trained priests to greet them. Father Alexander Borisov, a Moscow city councilman, says many lay churchgoers "have never even read the Gospels." Little wonder: scarce Bibles still sell in Moscow churches for 200 rubles (roughly one month's pay).
Religious glasnost has had the same effect within the Orthodox church as within Soviet society as a whole: conservative "stagnators" and "reformers" are struggling for church control. In addition, some conservatives in Orthodoxy are joining forces with unreconstructed Communists and right-wing nationalists. Their goal: revival of old-style Russian chauvinism, both religious and secular, within the boundaries of the Soviet multinational empire. Rumors are rife in Moscow that the right-wing movement inspired the murder a month ago of Father Alexander Menn, an outstanding church progressive assailed by anti-Semites for his Jewish descent.
Russian Orthodoxy is also meeting competition from other creeds, particularly in the Ukraine, long the source of the majority of Orthodox priests and much of the church's income. A schismatic bishop has proclaimed the rebirth of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which spurns Moscow's centralized religious rule. Even more threatening is the sudden resurgence of Eastern Rite Catholicism in the western Ukraine. The millions of Catholic believers follow Orthodox liturgy but are loyal to the Pope. After World War II, the Eastern Rite church was abolished at a Stalinist-controlled synod, followed by a bloody repression in which church property was given to the Russian Orthodox. Somehow Catholicism survived.
After Mikhail Gorbachev met with Pope John Paul II in Rome last December, he gave tacit recognition to Ukrainian Catholics. They have since formed at least 1,600 parishes, many of them using formerly Catholic buildings seized from Orthodox congregations. Talks between the Catholics and the Moscow patriarchate over the property disputes have broken down twice this year.
The Soviet Union's small Protestant minority is not squabbling; it is growing. Stadiums in Moscow and Leningrad have been filled for revival meetings, and later this month 850 activists from around the country will meet to plan evangelistic strategy. Soviet Muslims are likewise heartened. "A revival of Islam is taking place," says Hajji Rais, the muezzin of Moscow. He notes, however, that his mosque is alone in serving 600,000 believers in the area.
There is also a thaw for Soviet Jews, who have long suffered a double burden of religious suppression and persecution as suspected "agents of Zionism." They are now able to take Hebrew lessons. The state has given back a number of synagogues, but few Soviet Jews remain regular worshipers. Numbers will dwindle further because of emigration, which reached an all-time high last month. Moscow's Chief Rabbi, Adolf Shayevich, says Jews no longer leave because of religious restrictions but because of economic decline and fear of anti-Semitism.