Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'

Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow

Sunday November 23, 2003

The Observer



The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its outrage at what it
claims is a Mormon scheme to buy up the names of dead Russians in
order to baptise 'dead souls' in their faith.

In one archive, in the town of Nizhni Novgorod, east of Moscow, the
Church of the Latter Day Saints has paid ten US cents for each page of
thousands of names of dead people dating mainly from the late
eighteenth century to be put on a microfilm.

The idea, the last-ditch attempt of a cash-strapped archive to fund
urgent preservation work, has caused fury among the predominantly
Orthodox nation. The Mormon Church is angry at what it sees as an
obstruction to its religious practices.

Father Igor Pchelintsov, spokesman for the local Orthodox Church,
said: 'The teaching of the Mormons about the conversion of the dead
contradicts reason and naturally causes concern among the faithful and
creates a tense situation.'

Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow

Sunday November 23, 2003

The Observer



The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its outrage at what it
claims is a Mormon scheme to buy up the names of dead Russians in
order to baptise 'dead souls' in their faith.

Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow

Sunday November 23, 2003

The Observer



The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its outrage at what it
claims is a Mormon scheme to buy up the names of dead Russians in
order to baptise 'dead souls' in their faith.

In one archive, in the town of Nizhni Novgorod, east of Moscow, the
Church of the Latter Day Saints has paid ten US cents for each page of
thousands of names of dead people dating mainly from the late
eighteenth century to be put on a microfilm.

The idea, the last-ditch attempt of a cash-strapped archive to fund
urgent preservation work, has caused fury among the predominantly
Orthodox nation. The Mormon Church is angry at what it sees as an
obstruction to its religious practices.

Father Igor Pchelintsov, spokesman for the local Orthodox Church,
said: 'The teaching of the Mormons about the conversion of the dead
contradicts reason

Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow

Sunday November 23, 2003

The Observer



The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its outrage at what it
claims is a Mormon scheme to buy up the names of dead Russians in
order to baptise 'dead souls' in their faith.

In one archive, in the town of Nizhni Novgorod, east of Moscow, the
Church of the Latter Day Saints has paid ten US cents for each page of
thousands of names of dead people dating mainly from the late
eighteenth century to be put on a microfilm.

The idea, the last-ditch attempt of a cash-strapped archive to fund
urgent preservation work, has caused fury among the predominantly
Orthodox nation. The Mormon Church is angry at what it sees as an
obstruction to its religious practices.

Father Igor Pchelintsov, spokesman for the local Orthodox Church,
said: 'The teaching of the Mormons about the conversion of the dead
contradicts reason and naturally causes concern among the faithful and
creates a tense situation.'

The work in the archive has been temporarily called off while a local
government commission studies it.

Nikolai Cheromin, a local official, said: 'Their work is not
prohibited. It is suspended and a group comprising officials and
prosecutors from the four traditional Russian religions - Christian
Orthodox, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims - are studying it.' He said the
Mormons had been present in the town for 100 years, albeit
clandestinely during the Soviet era.

Viktor Kharlanmov, head of the Nizhni Novgorod regional archive, said
the project was the result of an agreement between the Mormon-linked
Genealogical Society of the state of Utah and the Russian Society of
Historians and Archivists in Moscow. He said it was 'vital to save an
important part of our archives'. Seventy per cent of the Mormon cash
goes to the Moscow society, while 30 went to the local archives.

Orthodox experts and officials have expressed their severe concern
over the offence the project might cause locals. Professor Alexei
Dvorkin, head of the Sectology Department of the Moscow St Tikhon
Institute, said: 'The Mormon practice of proxy baptism or 'baptising
the dead' is a well known ritual described in a lot of books. At the
beginning of this practice they were looking for their ancestors with
the aim of baptising them, but later they began to baptise everyone -
Catholics, Muslims, Jewish, or Orthodox.

'Any Christian will tell you that these rituals do not harm the soul
of the dead. But it hurts the feelings of the believers who see these
rituals with the names of the deceased as equal to the desecration of
graves by Satanists.'

But Yevgeny Smirnov, from the Nizhni Novgorod Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints and adviser to the Moscow Mormon region, said:
'Our church aims to create a database permitting people to look for
their ancestors. Our ceremony is not rebaptism; it only gives the soul
of the deceased person the freedom of choice to accept our belief or
to reject it.'



http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1091318,00.html

Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow

Sunday November 23, 2003

The Observer



The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its outrage at what it
claims is a Mormon scheme to buy up the names of dead Russians in
order to baptise 'dead souls' in their faith.

In one archive, in the town of Nizhni Novgorod, east of Moscow, the
Church of the Latter Day Saints has paid ten US cents for each page of
thousands of names of dead people dating mainly from the late
eighteenth century to be put on a microfilm.

The idea, the last-ditch attempt of a cash-strapped archive to fund
urgent preservation work, has caused fury among the predominantly
Orthodox nation. The Mormon Church is angry at what it sees as an
obstruction to its religious practices.

Father Igor Pchelintsov, spokesman for the local Orthodox Church,
said: 'The teaching of the Mormons about the conversion of the dead
contradicts reason and naturally causes concern among the faithful and
creates a tense situation.'

The work in the archive has been temporarily called off while a local
government commission studies it.

Nikolai Cheromin, a local official, said: 'Their work is not
prohibited. It is suspended and a group comprising officials and
prosecutors from the four traditional Russian religions - Christian
Orthodox, Jews, Buddhists and Muslims - are studying it.' He said the
Mormons had been present in the town for 100 years, albeit
clandestinely during the Soviet era.

Viktor Kharlanmov, head of the Nizhni Novgorod regional archive, said
the project was the result of an agreement between the Mormon-linked
Genealogical Society of the state of Utah and the Russian Society of
Historians and Archivists in Moscow. He said it was 'vital to save an
important part of our archives'. Seventy per cent of the Mormon cash
goes to the Moscow society, while 30 went to the local archives.

Orthodox experts and officials have expressed their severe concern
over the offence the project might cause locals. Professor Alexei
Dvorkin, head of the Sectology Department of the Moscow St Tikhon
Institute, said: 'The Mormon practice of proxy baptism or 'baptising
the dead' is a well known ritual described in a lot of books. At the
beginning of this practice they were looking for their ancestors with
the aim of baptising them, but later they began to baptise everyone -
Catholics, Muslims, Jewish, or Orthodox.

'Any Christian will tell you that these rituals do not harm the soul
of the dead. But it hurts the feelings of the believers who see these
rituals with the names of the deceased as equal to the desecration of
graves by Satanists.'

But Yevgeny Smirnov, from the Nizhni Novgorod Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints and adviser to the Moscow Mormon region, said:
'Our church aims to create a database permitting people to look for
their ancestors. Our ceremony is not rebaptism; it only gives the soul
of the deceased person the freedom of choice to accept our belief or
to reject it.'



http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1091318,00.html

[...] it hurts the feelings of the believers who see these
rituals with the names of the deceased as equal to the desecration of
graves by Satanists.'

Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow

Sunday November 23, 2003

The Observer



The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its outrage at what it
claims is a Mormon scheme to buy up the names of dead Russians in
order to baptise 'dead souls' in their faith.

In one archive, in the town of Nizhni Novgorod, east of Moscow, the
Church of the Latter Day Saints has paid ten US cents for each page of
thousands of names of dead people dating mainly from the late
eighteenth century to be put on a microfilm.

Russians fume as Mormons 'buy souls'
Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Sunday November 23, 2003
The Observer
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1091318,00.html

The Russian Orthodox Church has expressed its outrage at what it
claims is a Mormon scheme to buy up the names of dead Russians in
order to baptise 'dead souls' in their faith.