Cups and crosses

I quote from Archpriest Sergey Uspensky of reference 1: 'I won’t even consider this reason as a possibility of infection transmission because I firmly believe that the Body and Blood of Christ cannot be a source of transmission of any deadly infection. And the reason for this is not only my faith but also my practical life experience of many years of ministry'. Dated 26th March.

I got to this gentleman as a result of being shown a picture of a service at Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg by MSN News on starting my laptop this morning. From the Guardian. From someone described as Peter Kovalev/Tass, presumably a real news photographer working for the TASS agency. In any event, searching for him, turned up the present photograph.

First thought was that all those old Bolsheviks must be tutting up on their clouds. All the work that they put in to stamp out faith and superstition from Mother Russia. Nearly a century of state sponsored atheism was not enough to kill them off.

Second thought was that the Russians are a few weeks behind us on the pandemic curve, and it is only a bit more than a fortnight ago that we went to the theatre - so I had better not be too sanctimonious about their going to church yesterday. Even so, a pity that they have not learned from the mistakes of others.

Third thought was about how bad things have to get before the state has to start bearing down on this sort of thing. How do we balance what we are pleased to call the freedom of the press with the state's take on the common good? How do we bear down, given that the Internet is diffuse by design? Do the Chinese have a point when they talk about a redesign, a rebuild?

Reference 1: https://www.fort-russ.com/. I know nothing about this outfit - but this first sample is not too promising.

Reference 2: https://tass.com/. A news agency which seemingly dates from more than ten years before the revolution. Whereas I had always thought it was the voice of the revolution.

Reference 3: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/03/ultimate-outing.html. Thursday, 12th March.