I Woke Up This Morning and My Church Had Disappeared
Imagine, you wake up on Sunday morning, stir the kids, shower and put on your Sunday best. After breakfast everyone piles into the car and off you go to church. Your eldest bemoans having to go to Mass and you're secretly worried your little one is going to create havoc running up and down the aisle so you pre-plan putting her straight into the children's room. When you get there however, all that remains are the foundations, the whole building has gone and you are left wondering if your auto-pilot has malfunctioned and you've taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way. "I'm sure the church was here, have I taken a wrong turn dear?" You recognise many of the bemused faces in the parking lot as the parishioners you've seen every Sunday and then it dawns on you. Someone has nicked the church.
For the villagers of Komarovo, a village 186 miles north-east of Moscow, this scenario is a stark reality. Local prosecutors where informed by members of the Russia Orthodox Church that the 200-year-old church in a rural location near Komarovo has all but disappeared. All that remains of the two-story building are the foundations and some sections of wall, the church said. It's not uncommon in rural Russia for thieves to target churches. Religious icons can be sold and building materials from church structures can be sold on the black market but I wonder if this is the first time an entire church has disappeared.
My own church was built at a time when the locals where starving, one generation on from the potato famine, perhaps as this economic recession and property bubble that has hammered the Irish economy bites, we will tear down our own church in order to feed our people.
This blog opens you up to all the religious bigots that post on this board to pile on and proclaim their glee over a world without churches. Beware.
November 14, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's clear who the religious bigot is here.
I predict that there won't be a single atheist expressing anything close to glee over this.
I'm an atheist, and I find the theft/destruction of this church to be abominable.
November 14, 2008 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
I love that there are places that provide "sacred space." At the same time I'm reminded that any space can be that "sacred space." That, for example, the Hebrews in the desert had a "tent" of meeting that "traveled" with them, that they venerated "sacred words" - speech and its written record - along with "sacred time" - the idea of the Sabbath.
I've "lost" some places that were sacred to me because I had to move. But in the end I found that the sacredness of the place came to dwell inside of me. And what I thought initially was a loss became something else entirely.
Ultimately we have to let go - even of our lives. Perhaps these church goers will find something richer to replace what they've lost. (But of course, what a terrible thing for someone to "steal" it from them!)
Thanks for your post. (And I'm sure you'll also find plenty of people, even the irreligious, who will feel a sense of outrage at the theft of a whole church!)
November 14, 2008 11:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
The sacredness of the temple isn't the temple itself. It's the altar. And altars are portable. Clearly, you carry yours with you. :)
November 14, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
As this is my first post let me thank all who have commented. I must confess that I take my children to mass as a compromise to my wife rather than from any religious standpoint. It should also be pointed out that the church mentioned in the post hadn't been used for religious services for some time(not that this justifies the theft) but the Russia Orthodox Church had planned to resume services.
From my own perspective, I'm always a little upset with myself as I enter for mass. For me, the church and the time it was built represents the hypocracy of the Catholic church but then Irish Catholicism is as much cultural as it is religious.
November 14, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink