Word: old
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Treasure (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $7.95), Shulevitz speaks in his own voice to tell the story of old Isaac who dreams of a treasure far away, near the royal residence. The poor man has no ambition to play the palace, but his hunger for riches leads him on, only to prove that travel is narrowing and that no one can become truly rich until he looks into his hearth and soul. The back-in-your-own-backyard conclusion is timeworn, but the book's slow cadences and sprightly tones lend it the character of a legend that can never grow...
Inside, people are crammed shoulder to shoulder and spill outdoors into the courtyard. At the railing before the iconostasis, old men and women are so crowded they can hardly cross themselves. At their feet, small children kneel. The congregation is elderly as usual, but at least a quarter seem to be young or middleaged. The chanting and the choir, the incense, the smell of wax, the glow and reflection from hundreds of candles, the sheer body heat slowly become hypnotic. In one corner of the railing is a young woman in an expensive tailored suit, eyes closed, face pale, arms...
There are no Eastern-rite Catholic parishes left, the Metropolitan says. Despite reports in the West of 300 to 500 underground clergy, only "old priests and a few people" are left. Surprisingly, he declares that "the Soviet state is not an atheistic state. It consists of believers and nonbelievers. There are periods of strong antireligious propaganda and others of less...
...most affecting Orthodox display is in Oster, a 1,000-year-old town some 70 miles from Kiev. This is the diocese where Prince Vladimir proclaimed Christianity the state religion in A.D. 989. The bells of the Byzantine Church of the Resurrection are ringing. There is a red carpet. People offer flowers. Father Vladimir Shtepa, apologizing for his parish's lack of important icons, says: "The people are our treasure." The 5,000 parishioners are mostly farmers and seem old, though again some 30% are young. Shtepa professes a religious relativism: "The main principle of Christianity and Marxism...
...sleek black limousine arrives. It leads them to decide not to say who their leaders are, though they admit that all members who were imprisoned during the Vins days are back. Recalling the times when the congregation had to worship clandestinely in the woods beyond the city, an old woman remarks, "Our services were of ten disturbed." Even now, a man adds "Sometimes at night windows are bro ken." There have also been two small fires in the church...