Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev, cleric of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, clergyman of the metochion in honor of Sts. app
In 1986 he graduated from the Murmansk State Pedagogical Institute with a degree in History, Social Science and English Teacher. Assigned to work at a secondary school in the village. Chulman (suburb of Neryungri) Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
From 1986 to 1988 underwent urgent military service in the ranks of the Soviet Army.
From 1989 to 1990 he worked as an editor and senior librarian at the regional scientific library in Gorky.
On September 21, 1990, Archbishop Nicholas of Gorky and Arzamas ordained him to the rank of deacon.
On October 28, 1990, Archbishop Nicholas of Gorky and Arzamas ordained him to the rank of presbyter.
From 1990 to 1993 - rector of the Church of the Intercession in the village. Maloe Murashkino.
From 1993 to 2010 he taught Liturgics, Homiletics, and Pastoral Theology at the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary.
From 1993 to 1998 - rector of the Stroganov Nativity Church in Nizhny Novgorod.
In 1996, he took part in the creation of the first Orthodox page in Russia - the website of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese.
From 1998 to 2009 - cleric of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod.
From 1998 to 2008 he taught Liturgics at catechist courses at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.
In 2009 he was appointed senior priest of the Church of the Vladimir Oran Icon Mother of God Nizhny Novgorod.
In 2010 he was sent to the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem to serve at the metochion of St. righteous Tabitha in Jaffa.
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News
The Mission Secretary attended the inauguration ceremony at the Israeli Foreign Ministry
March 13, 2019 On March 13, the inauguration ceremony took place at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In our studio there was the keeper of the monastery of Righteous Tabitha in the city of Jaffa, Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev. We talked about how Light is celebrated Christ's Resurrection in the Holy Land.
Presenters: Vladimir Emelyanov and Liza Gorskaya
V. Emelyanov
Hello, you are listening to the program “Bright Evening” on radio “Vera”. In the studio Vladimir Emelyanov and Liza Gorskaya...
L. Gorskaya
Hello.
V. Emelyanov
And our guest today is Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev, he is the keeper of the monastery of Righteous Tabitha in Jaffa in the Holy Land.
L. Gorskaya
In Israel.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Christ is Risen!
L. Gorskaya and V. Emelyanov
- Truly Risen!
Our dossier:
Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev. Born in 1964 in Leningrad. Graduated from the Murmansk Pedagogical Institute with a degree in history teacher. Assigned to work at a secondary school in the village of Chulman in Yakutia. After serving in the army, he worked as an editor and senior librarian at the regional scientific library in the city of Gorky. In 1990 he became a priest, served in churches in Nizhny Novgorod, and in 2010 he was sent to the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem. Keyman of the monastery of righteous Tabitha in the city of Jaffa.
L. Gorskaya
Father Igor, tell me, what does a church custodian mean?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
This is practically the abbot.
L. Gorskaya
What is the difference?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
The difference is that the rector of all the farmsteads of our Russian Spiritual Mission is the head of the Russian Spiritual Mission. And each metochion is headed by a keymaster or an elder sister, if there are nuns of the Gornensky Monastery.
L. Gorskaya
That is, this is the courtyard of the Gornensky Monastery?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
No, the courtyard of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.
L. Gorskaya
Tell me how you met Holy holiday Resurrection of Christ. How were you honored to come to our studio?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
I got to the studio by plane, by subway and on foot. And we traditionally celebrate the holiday very well. With a very great popular upsurge, so to speak, because our church and our courtyard are actually the only Orthodox church in half of Israel.
L. Gorskaya
How so?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
So. That's it. At least everyone comes to Easter Orthodox population southern Israel, then south of Tel Aviv, from the Red Sea itself, from the desert, people come to bless Easter cakes, Easter, come to services, just come to visit the temple on these Easter days. And especially on local weekends. Therefore, there are always a lot of people, such a very joyful mood, everyone is beautiful, everyone is with baskets, Easter cakes, eggs, the bells are ringing. The real Easter and the real Holy Land.
L. Gorskaya
It seemed that Orthodox traditions in the Holy Land, they are quite strong, and your words that this is almost the only temple in half of Israel, they somewhat surprised me.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
I think there is nothing to be surprised about, because Orthodox Easter traditions are 2000 years old. They come from the very Resurrection of the Savior, here in the Holy Land. And there was no city of Tel Aviv, but the city of Jaffa already existed then. Now it was a suburb of Tel Aviv, but then it was an independent city, the main port of the Holy Land. And from the time of the Resurrection of Christ there was a Christian community there. And Saint Tabitha was a member of this community; the Apostle Peter resurrected her among the first Christians of the city of Jaffa. Therefore, our traditions here are very deep.
V. Emelyanov
What about the large Russian community in the Holy Land?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
I think there are no statistics here, because no one is doing this calculation, not even government bodies. But I think that among the one and a half million repatriates who left the countries of the former Soviet Union, probably at least ten percent are Orthodox Christians and members of their families, grandmothers who came with their grandchildren, who, perhaps, had some kind of Jewish origin, but the grandmothers are Orthodox. I really like it, I saw it myself, but I first read it in Ulitskaya’s novel about Daniel Stein. Where she describes the Saturday Jewish meal, at which the Jewish prayer was read, candles were lit, the wine was blessed, and grandmother Praskovya sat next to her in a headscarf, quietly crossed herself with small crosses right there, crossed herself in the same way at this meal, and everyone sat and ate. This is such a very typical good picture for the life of many Orthodox Christians in mixed families or something else. But they are these Orthodox Christians, not only among Arab population, because indigenous people Orthodox is Arabic. Our newcomers, perhaps now, are more numerous than Arab Orthodox Christians.
V. Emelyanov
How is the life of a Russian parish in the Holy Land, what are its joys, aspirations, sorrows, difficulties?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Perhaps one of these calendar difficulties is that weekends in Israel are Friday and Saturday. Saturday is Shabbat, obviously. And Sunday is the first working day. For us, in a liturgical sense, Sunday is the main holiday, but the main people always come on Saturdays. You can come to the temple. The only thing is that public transport does not operate; those who do not have a car or who live far from the temple cannot, of course, get to the temple on Saturday. Well, here people have been looking for some ways for many years, even decades. Therefore, mutual aid is very common. Anyone traveling from a city picks up as much as they can take along the way, 1-2-3 people. Then after the service he takes you away. Some settle down with friends to spend the night not far from the temple. And so on. People are looking for an opportunity to visit an Orthodox church.
V. Emelyanov
Have you been there since 2010?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
V. Emelyanov
Hebrew is a rather difficult language. Are you having difficulties? Have you mastered it?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
I studied it before my arrival in the Holy Land, and there I already more or less regularly visited the teacher. Hebrew is not such a difficult language because it is basically an artificial language created in the 20th century based on the ancient Hebrew language. Of course, he doesn’t just...
L. Gorskaya
Which, they say, is not taught, but remembered.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
This may be more typical for Jews. But I would say that compared to Russian it is very easy language, the only thing is that the system of this language is unusual for us. I studied European languages, it is different. At the everyday level, I hope I have mastered it, but at the biblical level, of course, not yet, I need to do a lot of work on this. The problem is that, basically, everyone speaks Russian. Wherever you go in Israel, you can meet a Russian speaker. Somewhere in a store or market you start to find words, they say to you: “Why are you tormenting yourself, speak Russian!” (They laugh.)
L. Gorskaya
Is this a problem?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
What's the problem?
L. Gorskaya
You said that the problem is that everyone speaks Russian.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
This may not be a problem, a problem for learning Hebrew. You seem to want to talk... But something else comes from here that, perhaps, could be talked about. We have many children in our church, children attend Sunday school, they just come to church, the children of our repatriates, Orthodox Christians, they go to local Jewish comprehensive schools, their communication environment around the house, on the street, in circles, at school is Hebrew-speaking. And these kids, basically, I think 90-odd percent of them already think in Hebrew.
V. Emelyanov
Do they speak Russian poorly?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
They say it's still normal. They can no longer read Russian or read very poorly, little. And I think that one of the promising missionary tasks of the Russian spiritual mission and, perhaps, of the Russian Church in relation to Israeli Orthodox Christians is to nourish future generations in Hebrew. We are now going to publish an Orthodox prayer book in Hebrew, while we are just working on it, received a blessing and are developing it. Because if children cannot think in Russian, Ukrainian, there are many Ukrainians there, we have many Georgians, they are still all mutual language communication is Hebrew, which means you need to think something about prayer in Hebrew.
V. Emelyanov
Please tell us in more detail about the history of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, about the history of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission itself.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
The Russian spiritual mission was organized in the first half of the 19th century, when the situation of Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land was deplorable; the Jerusalem Patriarchate was in a very depressed state for many decades, if not centuries. Even the Patriarch of Jerusalem did not live in Jerusalem, but was in Constantinople. Both to help Orthodox Christians of the East, and to help pilgrims who had already begun to actively visit the Holy Land, probably in the first quarter of the 19th century, the Russian Spiritual Mission was formed. Then, with the arrival of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in 1865, it began new stage, and after the Crimean War. Let me remind you that the reason for the start of the Crimean War was Russian Empire and Turkey, England and France, there was just a conflict over the holy places - Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Russia suggested that the Turks have some kind of special care about the Jerusalem Temple, about the Bethlehem Temple, without any special political or territorial claims. The Turks agreed to somehow support these places so that they would not fall apart. But our European brothers intervened and said: “How is it possible, Russia is in Palestine, what are you talking about?!” And this led to a war, however, I think that although Russia as a whole lost this war, the consequences in the Holy Land were in favor of Russia. The Russian spiritual mission was finally established, a stream of thousands of pilgrims began to flow after that from the 60s, plots began to be acquired, about 20 plots were acquired, and probably even more. Temples, farmsteads, and monasteries were built, especially the Olivet, Gornensky, and Gethsemane monasteries. And by the beginning of the First World War, this was such a stage, there was already a huge presence of Russia and Russian people in Palestine. One of the tasks of the Russian spiritual mission was to educate the local population. More than 100 schools were opened - in Palestine, and in Lebanon, and in Syria, and there are still people, I met them myself, old Arabs who speak Russian because they or their parents studied in these Russian schools at the beginning of the 20th century or in late XIX century.
If we talk about our courtyard. The place was associated with Saint Tabitha, a 1st century resident of Jaffa, a contemporary of the Apostle Peter, and on the site where our temple and site is located was her tomb. In 1868, Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), in fact the father of Russian Palestine, acquired this site. First, a pilgrim's house is built, a luxurious garden is laid out, the garden still exists, this is a different garden, it died twice, the Kapustinsky garden, now it is in a new phase. Then a large temple was built in 1894, this was the last temple of Father Antonin (Kapustin), two months after the consecration of the temple he died. And since all the pilgrims arrived in Jaffa on ships from Odessa and other ports, the first thing they did was go to venerate Saint Tabitha, then they gathered in caravans and went to Jerusalem under guard. Because it was unsafe even in the 19th and early 20th centuries to walk, pilgrims were attacked.
L. Gorskaya
And we also have a surprise.
V. Emelyanov
I suggest you listen to it.
L. Gorskaya
Father Igor said that the children of repatriates often already think in Hebrew, they not only think in Hebrew, they are already recording songs.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
They sing Easter hymns on different languages, well, in Hebrew, too.
(Chanting sounds.)
L. Gorskaya
We already had Pyotr Vladimirovich Stegny, and to listen to him, everyone in the Holy Land is Orthodox, all around are Greeks and Russians. And you come and say: we have the only Orthodox church in half of Israel.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Here we need to make a distinction. In Arab cities and towns where Orthodox Christians still exist, there are churches and they are crowded. And it also has its own age-old traditions. It even seems to me, maybe I’m wrong, that Orthodox Arabs in Palestine are much more rooted than Muslim Arabs. Most Arab Muslims who now live in Palestine and Israel are newcomers in the 20th century. When the Israelis began to build their Israel, a lot of labor was required. And from Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, a lot of Arabs came, who are now considered indigenous inhabitants, but they appeared here in the 20th century. But Orthodox Arabs were here before, many centuries ago, although there were also Muslims, because in the 7th century Muslims captured the Holy Land. But to 19th century Palestine was for Ottoman Empire- the outskirts, abandoned, there were no green trees or anything. Separate gardens near Jaffa, and that’s it, nothing more. But there were Christian settlements. But after the creation of the State of Israel, when relations worsened after World War II and due to internal contradictions in the Arab world, Orthodox Christians, Arabs and Catholics began to leave Palestine. Over 50-60 years, I think, three quarters of them emigrated - to America, Canada, Europe, wherever. Now they are already a minority. But these churches remain, services are held there.
L. Gorskaya
Are the Greeks serving there or are they still Arabs?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
There are Arab priests in Arab villages. Maybe this doesn't need to be discussed here. There are internal difficulties in the Jerusalem Patriarchate, where the bishops and monastics are Greek, and the flock, in fact, is Arabic-speaking. There are priests there who can minister to Arab parishes and eat a large number of Arab Orthodox priests, very good, I have friends among them. An absolutely wonderful priest in the Bethlehem suburb of Beijal - Father Pavel, he is married to a Russian graduate regency department, they met there, got married, and now they have a bunch of children. He serves in the Church of St. Nicholas, very nice temple, Russian pilgrims also love to visit it, especially since they can be greeted there in Russian. Beijala is a predominantly Orthodox city; out of a population of 15 thousand, 13 thousand are Orthodox Christians. And there, at one time, under Antonin (Kapustin), a teachers’ seminary and big school Russian. These fruits are still there, because there are Arabs who speak Russian.
Did we start with any differences? Yes?
V. Emelyanov
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
This needs to be said here. The first thing is that in Russian churches, in our church in Tel Aviv in Jaffa, in Haifa there is a Russian church of the Prophet Elijah, the Mountain Monastery, monasteries in Jerusalem and the Russian Spiritual Mission. There, all worship is carried out according to the Rules, as it is in the Russian Orthodox Church. And it’s not particularly different, maybe something like that small parts. Maybe you shouldn't pay attention. Arabs and Greeks have their own Easter traditions. And of course, what is connected with Holy Week and Easter is emphasized in the divine service. But if you and I found ourselves at an Easter service in a Greek or Arabic church, we might not even understand that it was Easter. There, all worship is carried out according to the Rules, as it is in the Russian Orthodox Church. And it’s not particularly different, maybe some small details. Maybe you shouldn't pay attention. Arabs and Greeks have their own Easter traditions. And of course, what is connected with Holy Week and Easter is emphasized in the divine service. But if you and I found ourselves at an Easter service in a Greek or Arabic church, we might not even understand that it was Easter. Everything is going on in such quiet sadness. Services like ours - “Christ is Risen!”, everyone is screaming, eggs are flying left and right, bells are ringing - there is nothing like that. And even the tonality of the chants does not change, everything is quiet and even, at the same time they say: in comparison with the Russian Orthodox, we have such an internal Easter, internal joy, quiet sadness, we experience everything, we have such a mysterious Easter, quiet. Of course, then people gather, it’s a family holiday, big families, huge families there, roasting lamb, kebabs, there’s something about it all... liturgy after liturgy...
L. Gorskaya
And there is already noise there?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
They might make some noise there. And in the temples everything is quite quiet. Nobody shouts: “Christ is Risen!”, can you imagine? There is no such. Maybe the priest will say: “Well, Christ Anesti.” They will also quietly say to him: “Truly He is Risen.”
V. Emelyanov
But they have a ritual that is unusual for us - the crucifixion of the Savior.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
There is, this is probably a Holy Land tradition, not purely Arab. On Good Friday, when we remember the Crucifixion of the Savior, the rite of the Crucifixion takes place in the churches of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, both in parishes and in monastery churches. First, before the service, the Cross without the crucifix is brought out, as it is, and installed in the temple. And at a certain moment in the service, if anyone knows, there is such a service for reading the 12 Gospels, this is Good Friday Matins, when 12 passages are read about the suffering and crucifixion, the death of the Savior. And so, when the hymns of the Crucifixion are sung, the priests take out from the altar the iconographic image of the Savior, as it is, on the Crucifixion and nail it to the crucifix. They just take wooden hammers, insert nails into holes that have already been prepared in advance, nail them just so loudly and loudly, and all the people, completely and sincerely, sob in the temple. Just burning, bitter tears. Then on Good Friday, when we take out the Shroud, they have a small service - the Descent from the Cross. In the reverse order: this iconographic image of the Savior is removed from the Crucifixion, covered with a shroud, anointed with incense, sprinkled with rose petals and taken to the altar.
V. Emelyanov
Beautiful, in general.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
All this is done with prayer. This is not a performance, people are praying, weeping and crying.
L. Gorskaya
In our country, too, the Crucifixion is placed on Good Friday in the middle of the temple.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Well, no one beats us.
L. Gorskaya
Yes. They just don't nail it down. And in exactly the same way the Shroud is taken out. That is, we have this tradition, but a little...
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
In shortened form. This does not mean that our situation is worse, we have our own experience, and people cry bitter tears in the same way; whoever sincerely believes, no one can be indifferent. I’ll tell you for myself, I’m not a very sentimental person, I’m probably quite level-headed. psychological type, but when we read these Passion Gospels or hymns, well, I can’t help but cry, I can’t. This even interferes with the conduct of the service, but I can’t help it.
L. Gorskaya
And if at the same time you sing and cry in the choir, then in general.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
But then Easter comes.
L. Gorskaya
And she came to us. God bless. Tell me, what is it like during Bright Week? In Russia, traditionally, every day there is an Easter Liturgy, with a procession of the Cross, with ringing bells, "Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!”, holy water in the face, everyone is happy. Do you also have internal Easter all week?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
In our Russian parishes and monasteries everything is in Russian. Procession, with water from left to right, the bells are ringing, everyone is happy, we go to visit the same way, we come from Jaffa to Jerusalem to the Russian Mission, we congratulate everyone, we have a meal, an Easter reception at the mission for everyone, people come from all areas, from all farmsteads...
L. Gorskaya
That is, you are sitting here with us, and they are celebrating everything there...
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Well... We've already noted. (They laugh.) And you know what I wanted to say. The local population, the Jews, it seems to me that, of course, the Lord has special care for them, such that he hopes for their return to Christ. And many of them secretly believe in Christ. This is a very gratifying fact for me. We don’t fight there, we don’t carry out any aggressive missionary work, even this is in some cases prohibited by Israeli laws...
L. Gorskaya
So these stories about the confrontation between Jews and Christians in the Holy Land are they exaggerated?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
It is this confrontation, but it is not global, not full-fledged, like this: all Jews are opposed to all Christians, and all Christians are opposed to all Jews, regardless of nationality. I will tell you about an incident that is simply personal. Somewhere in a store we bought food for Easter just in time for the future Easter meal, we took a lot, whole boxes. And the sellers helped load these boxes into the car. And when everyone had already left, only one assistant to the store director remained... And he asks: “Isn’t Easter coming soon?” “Yes,” I answer, “we are preparing.” And then, looking around: “He has risen.” And he ran to his store.
L. Gorskaya
Amazing. Truly Risen.
V. Emelyanov
Bright Week continues on Bright Radio. This is the “Bright Evening” program, in the studio of Elizaveta Gorskaya and Vladimir Emelyanov. And with us is Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev, keeper of the monastery of righteous Tabitha in Israel.
L. Gorskaya
I remind our radio listeners that during Bright Week on Bright Radio the program “Bright Evening” and today our guest is Father Igor Pchelintsev, the steward of the monastery of Righteous Tabitha in the Holy Land. And we periodically listen to Easter chants performed by children; the disc was recorded at the church, as far as I understand. Father Igor, please tell us in more detail what kind of angelic children’s choir you have there.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Well, angelic, not angelic, we have a Sunday school there. And in recent years it has grown greatly, several groups, the youngest, middle and older children.
L. Gorskaya
So all the children?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Almost yes. These are four groups with whom they take classes in the lesson of piety, they study the law of God, Holy Bible. We go with them on pilgrimage excursions, small for one to half a day, to places connected with the Gospel history. This is very indicative, clearly, they feel it all. In addition, they study Russian. We told you that the Russian language is disappearing from their lives, but there is a desire to study it. That’s why we specifically teach them Russian. My wife is teaching Russian language classes to children in these different groups. Therefore, there are older schoolgirls, Israelis, who cannot constantly attend our Sunday school classes because of the workload at their school; she teaches Russian to them via Skype within Israel. Every week they have, I think, two lessons. They have a great desire to do this. There is a drawing group and something else. And there is church singing. They sometimes, not so often, but sing in a children's choir at services, this happens mainly on holidays - at Christmas, at Easter. Both at Christmas and Easter, in addition to the divine service, where children participate, during the day... Services at night at Christmas and Easter, and during the day there is a Sunday school concert. Everyone comes to it, we announce it in advance, they sing, recite, and tell something. Basically, these are, of course, church hymns from the Christmas or Easter services, as in in this case. And since we have Orthodox Christians of different nationalities in the church, these are Russians, Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians and a lot of Georgians.
L. Gorskaya
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
A lot of Jews and their relatives left Georgia. And the relatives, if they were not Jews, then they were Orthodox Georgians, mostly women. They come to the temple and help us around the temple. And their children, many of whom are now Hebrew-speaking, many of them do not speak Russian at all, there are even mountain Georgians who left the mountains, they did not speak Russian even then. You have to accept confession in Russian, Georgian, and Moldavian. Because people also come from Moldova who practically do not speak Russian. The only positive difference between the Moldavian language and the Georgian language is that the church vocabulary is Moldavian, it is all Slavic.
L. Gorskaya
And the Georgians have their own.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
But the Georgians have Georgian, it’s completely incomprehensible. Well, to the children. They sing mainly Slavic church chants, but out of respect for the nationalities that we have, they sing Ukrainian carols at Christmas, or there are women who themselves compose some cants or spiritual poems in the Ukrainian language, they sing these. Well, of course, they try to do what they have, there are very few chants and prayers in Hebrew in general, but we find something, they try to sing it, it turns out so beautifully... They sing, maybe not quite harmoniously, but -childish, but when you close your eyes and think, this sounds like the language of the Savior, in which, perhaps, the Savior and the apostles prayed. Easter was celebrated in the same way in the first century, when Saint Tabitha lived and the Apostle Peter came to these regions.
V. Emelyanov
Let's get back to the notes then.
L. Gorskaya
Let's.
(Chanting sounds.)
L. Gorskaya
That is, it’s in the church, after the service...
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Yes, this happens in church, after the service. Well, the weather at this time is usually good...
L. Gorskaya
And when it is bad in Israel, excuse me, a question from a Muscovite.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
It depends on what is considered bad. In December and January there are very strong storms, such that the wind with water and hail knocks you down, trees fall, lightning strikes, our temple was struck twice by lightning this year, everything that was plugged into the sockets burned down. And lightning strikes at a frequency of maybe several per minute.
V. Emelyanov
Wow.
L. Gorskaya
Do you have a lightning rod?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
There is a lightning rod, but it doesn't help. Because they hit like this... It's the season of storms. Then summer comes and the heat begins. There is no rain at all from April to November. Maybe some random leaked for five minutes. Then comes the time of khamsin in the spring. This dust storms. In the spring, sand flies from Libya across the Mediterranean Sea, then in the summer the wind direction changes, sand comes from Saudi Arabia, from sandy deserts. This means that for several days you can barely see anything. This is not sand in our understanding, it is the finest sand dust. The whole sky is yellow, the sun is almost invisible, all this is deposited in a thin layer on the surface of everything, I think, and inside the lungs it’s the same. For people who suffer from blood pressure - pressure, headaches, this is a very difficult moment. It is called Khamsin because it is the Arabic word "khamisa" - fifty. Fifty days during the spring are subject to such sandstorms. There is no storm in this sense - there is no wind, sand stings the eyes, no, but this suspension hangs in the air, such periods, this is the south, the proximity of the desert, there is no escape from it.
But there is absolutely a fertile time: February, March, the beginning of April, when everything is green, everything is blooming, you go out into the desert - the whole desert is covered with flowers, not just individual flowers, but everything is completely in flowers: red poppies, anemones, purple, black irises , the soul simply rejoices in God’s peace. It is spring. Or autumn - November, early December, when citrus fruits ripen. We have a huge citrus garden, 900 trees. And we eat ourselves, feed the pilgrims, and distribute them.
L. Gorskaya
Do you accept pilgrims?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Well, why don’t we accept it? All our sites are pilgrimage places, associated with gospel events, pilgrims visit them due to the fact that yes, righteous Tabitha was here, her tomb is here, they came, prayed, looked at the temple, and moved on. And so on for each section.
L. Gorskaya
Or you can come to your temple, stay there and go from the temple to others.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Well, we don’t have such an opportunity, we don’t have a hotel. In Bethlehem, on the site of the Russian mission, in Makdala there are pilgrim hotels where they stay. And then, of course, pilgrims try to stay, even if it is not a church hotel, but an ordinary city hotel in Jerusalem. The logistics of traveling to holy places are easier there. Because Tel Aviv is a secular city. And there is even an Israeli saying: “Jerusalem prays, Haifa works, and Tel Aviv has fun.” This is a city of entertainment, it has an ancient part - Jaffa, but this is a completely Western city and, as they call it, it is a city without stopping, because it does not stop on Shabbat, there is all the fun, all sorts of gay parades and the like . This is the gay capital of the Mediterranean. It wouldn't be mentioned on Orthodox radio. But it lives next to us. And we don’t just have to take this into account, we have to keep it in mind. This is one of some difficulties. The city is also headed by a person of the corresponding orientation, this also leaves its mark on some decisions, including.
L. Gorskaya
However, the weather is good Bright Week, children sing. What else do you have planned?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
We will soon have our patronal main feast of St. Tabitha. It is celebrated twice a year. Once in the fall, on a day that none of us can forget - November 7th. But the main celebration of Tabitha occurs on the fourth Sunday after Easter, on the week of the paralytic.
L. Gorskaya
This is so strange. This is the first time I hear that there is a transitory feast, that is, a patronal feast dependent on Easter, which is precisely the memory of a saint.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Well, this is how the tradition developed, it is probably very ancient. And a lot of people gather for this holiday, just like for Easter. But Orthodox Arabs always come here too. Previously, they even said that they would come and organize their processions around the temple, barbecues, and all sorts of chants. Now for some reason this is not the case, I don’t know. But they come to work. On the holiday of Tabitha, we read both the Apostle and the Gospel in Arabic. The Arabs sing their chants, the Greek metropolitan always comes to lead the service, to give it special significance, all the clergy of the Russian Mission, so we are preparing for this, after Easter we begin to prepare immediately.
V. Emelyanov
I wanted to ask how different the Easter food is?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Different from what?
V. Emelyanov
Well, for us it’s Easter cakes, colored eggs, Easter cottage cheese.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Among our Orthodox Christians, Russians, Ukrainians, everything is normal, as it was in their homeland, and so it is. You know that Ukrainians call Easter what we call Easter cake. They bake from flour. For us Easter is a cottage cheese dish. And here, when Easter cakes and Easter cakes are consecrated, we can look at what is brought to this consecration. The sanctification itself... At the first stages of my service in the Holy Land, I thought that this was my main test during the year, because in Holy Saturday we begin to consecrate somewhere in the afternoon and finish a day after Easter service in the middle of Easter day. That is, a day with a break for Easter service. The people are pouring in like a river, we put large tables, many tables, in the courtyard of the temple, so that in one visit 300-400 people could stand up with their baskets. Because they bring more... for Holy Saturday - this is a big temptation, these are the Ukrainian people, they can’t just come with Easter cake and eggs, lard, homemade sausages, something else. And everyone is practically starting to break their fast, I think, outside the temple gates, but the priest walks and suffers.
L. Gorskaya
But it seems to me that on Holy Saturday it doesn’t matter anymore - meat or not meat, I don’t feel like eating at all.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
This is the one who observes everything, who goes to all services, and is no longer willing to break his fast. And those who do not live the church life, they are ready to break their fast, no problem. But we look at all this, we see all this, what people come with. The Arabs and Greeks have different culinary customs, as I was told, I was not there for Easter. They make a special soup from eggs with lemon, well, lemon is put everywhere. Just for breaking the fast. Some more dishes. We must take into account that the local cuisine is, in principle, different, this is the Middle East, there are some other dishes there, at any time of the year. Maybe they probably eat eggs. And they paint it the same way, Orthodox Christians.
L. Gorskaya
Did you have a general breaking of fast for the parishioners in the refectory?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
I'll tell you more. The people feel each other very closely. And every Sunday, after the service, we set tables for 200 people in the church courtyard and drink tea. This is tea with some kind of cookies, maybe someone brings kutya if you need to remember someone. Like this every Sunday. And after the Easter service - naturally. They bring eggs, everything else, and after the service there is such a breaking of the fast, it is not long, everyone ate, said Christ, kissed, hugged, drank a glass, the people ran home as quickly as possible, but in order to come running in the morning children's party. Those who can, of course, come, come.
L. Gorskaya
If you have tables for 200-300 people every Sunday, then I’m afraid to ask how many people you have at your service on Easter.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
No one thinks this, but I think so based on the blessing of Easter cakes, from 15 to 20 thousand people come to the temple. Not all of them come to the service, but they still come to Church, light candles, and rejoice with everyone. Even then, when the service ends, there are fewer people willing to bless the Easter food, but that’s still a hundred people. It will last until the end, but in the morning, already from seven in the morning, when you think you should lie down, sleep a little, and already they are breaking at the gate: “Let us in, we came to consecrate, we drove 300 kilometers, we drove for a long time, half the night, how can you not see us?” Are you letting me in?"
L. Gorskaya
Since we mentioned the children's concert, I also suggest listening to the children's choir at the Church of the Holy Righteous Tabitha in Jaffa in the Holy Land.
(Chanting sounds.)
L. Gorskaya
Father Igor, tell us what else is going on with you, besides culinary Easter delights.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
I would also like to tell you something that is very close to my heart. In the Holy Land, a large number of children are treated in Israeli clinics, and adults come, but we patronize pediatric oncology at one of the main Tel Aviv hospitals, the Shiba Hospital. These children are from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, most of Russia, some charities they are helped to pay for this treatment, because treatment in Israel is very expensive and very expensive maintenance, because people pay one and a half thousand just for a bed per day. And these poor children are from zero to ten, sometimes up to 15 years old, mostly 3-4-7 years old. It's very hard to watch. And with my parents. We try to visit them as often as possible. But for Easter there is such a good volunteer organization “Timur and his team”...
L. Gorskaya
Is that what it's called directly?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Yes. These are Israelis, they have a Facebook page. They completely unselfishly help to overcome any difficulties of treatment. They don’t have their own funds, they don’t pay, they help find a doctor, housing, a hospital, and solve some other everyday problems. People rent an apartment, maybe there is a refrigerator, a bed, everything is collected from volunteers, they find the necessary things.
L. Gorskaya
Think about it this way: people find themselves in an unfamiliar country.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
They end up there for a long time, it’s not like coming for a week, some spend two years in treatment, spend three years, maybe they go home for a week to look for money. But we must pay tribute, everyone we look at, they all find these funds either through foundations, or just direct donations from ordinary people - for a ruble, for 10, for a thousand, they collect millions and many children are cured. Unfortunately, some people die. And we mourn them all very much there. But there are also those who are healed.
We also have a wonderful organization in Tel Aviv - the Russian Cultural Center, this is our Russian organization. Associated with the Embassy Russian Federation in Israel. They carry out cultural work, provide their platform, their strength to organize an Easter holiday for sick children, including these sick children, they gather them, with games, competitions, with everything. Then, either on the same day or another, we gather with all these children in our yard. We pray a little, then we have a tea party and give gifts. We don’t entertain children and parents as much as we try to support them.
V. Emelyanov
What kind of gifts?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Simple gifts, toys, sometimes you know what you need: this child has this, that child has that. We are trying to accommodate. Some sweets, fruits, something like that for parents. Then in our church there is a special mug for donations, we collect a lot of money there for these children, millions, we cannot collect, unfortunately, but a certain amount is collected and addressed to those who especially need it at the moment, especially for a holiday, this is appropriate .
And I think that without this care for children who are sick and undergoing treatment, I do not see the existence of the Russian spiritual mission.
L. Gorskaya
How many active community members do you have that you can rely on, who are involved in Easter activities?
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
I think everyone who constantly goes to church, they are all involved in this. Up to 100 people for sure.
L. Gorskaya
Well, not so much.
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Don't know. But probably enough for the first time. There are also nursing homes there, they are mainly under the care of the state or some private ones. And it’s not so easy for an Orthodox priest to get there. But simple people, parishioners, especially not Israelis, they come and visit. I remember I had such an experience last Easter, I think, I was invited to a nursing home to give communion to an old woman. But it turned out that it was a nursing home attached to a synagogue. And I’m all dressed up in orders with the Holy Sacrament, handsome. And I go into the synagogue, our Jewish brothers are sitting there and praying, I think: “Now something will happen...” No, nothing, calm. They passed, gave one of them communion, then my grandfather said: “I am also Orthodox, I also need to be given communion.” Grandfather received communion. And at some stage, while we were walking and walking, the head of the department called me, I thought: “They will scold me, the priests are walking around here, I don’t know why.” No. She sat me down at the table: “It’s so good that you come, come on, well done, come.” I say: “Nothing bothers you, that I am like this, you are like this.” “No, no, nothing, come, people need it.”
L. Gorskaya
Well, thank God.
V. Emelyanov
Father Igor, we thank you for finding time in your busy schedule to visit Radio Vera. It was the program “Bright Evening”, Vladimir Emelyanov and Liza Gorskaya. And our guest was Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev, the keeper of the monastery of righteous Tabitha in Jaffa in the Holy Land. Thank you.
L. Gorskaya
Christ is Risen!
V. Emelyanov
Truly Risen!
Prot. Igor Pchelintsev
Truly Risen!
Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev How to spend Peter's fast? Peter's fast is coming, otherwise it is called the apostolic fast. We know that it ends with the feast of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul. We know that this is a summer fast, not as strict as the Great or Assumption fast, that at this time the first fresh vegetables, so this post is overall easy. But, unfortunately, for many Orthodox Christians this is where the meaning of Peter’s Fast ends. To fast - we've celebrated Pentecost, we've eaten a hearty meal, and now we can fast. You need to take communion, confess, well, as it should be during fasting. And for some, just as there is no such fast, well, they say - “it’s not Great Lent, we don’t have time (we don’t have the strength, time, etc.) to fast “all the time.” It seems that it would be much more logical to devote the time of this post to understanding the apostleship in the Church. Even so, devote it to active comprehension. Please understand me correctly. It would be too daring to take on the apostolic title without blessing; there are not many saints equal to the apostles in the Monthly Book. But, nevertheless, every Christian should still be a minister of the Word of God. The Word of Christ spoken to the Apostles at the Ascension: Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen” (Matthew 28:19,20) – determined the main apostolic task. God sent the Holy Spirit to the apostles so that they would carry the news of the resurrection to all corners of the world. Through the apostles, this obedience was established in the church hierarchy - among bishops and priests. A bishop and priest living in Christ, trying to do this, can sincerely repeat after the Apostle: “For if I preach the gospel, then I have nothing to boast about, because this is my necessary duty, and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16); But this does not remove the responsibility of the laity to be obedient to the gospel. Especially among Orthodox Christians. And it’s very good if we can test our strength during Lent, which in the Church is called Apostolic Lent. I would highlight two main directions in this task - internal apostolate and external apostolate (please do not judge categorically for the terminology - there may be other words if someone sees some kind of “Protestant touch” here). The internal - for the majority of church people and those still looking for their path and place in the Church - is probably the most important. To convey the Good News about the Resurrection of Christ, about repentance and the transformation of man by the Holy Spirit, first of all, to your heart and mind. Inwardly, with humility, accept what the Church gives to a person seeking God. Learn simple things(at first glance simple, but also uncomplicated) - just believe, trust God and His Word, trust the Church as a mother, just pray, as I tell my students: “Without wringing your hands and rolling your eyes” (figuratively, of course - simple, means - rationally and without mental breakdown). Eat beautiful expression : “Fasting and prayer are two wings that lift a Christian into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Well, if this is so, and if prayer should be simple and reasonable, then fasting should be simple and reasonable. We already discussed this during Lent. Fasting should be possible without the molecular-ingredient approach. For Christ's sake. For the sake of the transformation by the Spirit of God of our decayed or decaying nature. Our inner conviction in the correctness of the Word of God, together with repentance and life in the Church, should give us the most creative basis for our apostleship - peace of heart, a different attitude towards God, the Church, man and ourselves, compared to the vain world. Peace, love, forgiveness, compassion, empathy, heartache about untruth and injustice are the opposite qualities of hatred and indifference of a Christian soul. We must let God graft these good things into the branches of our personality. To grow us to Himself, He is the vine, we are the branches. And without Him we cannot create anything. Everything is in God and finds its value, including the gospel. The most decent thing to do during Lent. And external apostleship is very important, because, as Christians, we are responsible for others, for those near and far, for the whole world. Even if it seems that there is no way our soul will have enough strength for itself, let alone the whole world! One person will never have the strength to save the world - he can only cooperate with God, contribute to the fulfillment of His will in the world - so that everyone knows the Truth and is saved... But instruct one another every day... so that none of you becomes hardened, deceived by sin" ( Hebrews 3:12-13). In times of “wild markets” and intrusive marketing, we have learned to fear those who promise us something good. In such a context, the gospel word “evangelize” can frighten a person. Out of spiritual timidity, we are afraid to offer our faith to others, as if we were talking about a product. We have a sense of respect for others and do not want to be thought of as us imposing our point of view or trying to convince one hundred percent of something “the truest and most correct.” Especially when it comes to such a personal topic of conversation as trusting God. For Christians, proclaiming the Good News of the resurrection does not mean talking about a doctrine, a set of paragraphs and points that must be memorized. To evangelize means, first of all, to testify to the internal transformation of a human being. The Lord Jesus Christ restored each person's value and dignity with infinite respect. To evangelize does not only mean to talk to someone about Jesus or about Orthodoxy as such, but, much more deeply, to draw a person’s attention to how valuable he is to God. This is how the holy fathers and many ascetics spoke about this, knowing about the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit in man. But our external witness to Christ and the Church can only stem from the consequences of internal apostleship, assimilation through legal church means - fasting, prayer, almsgiving, the Sacraments (how much has already been said about this!) of life in Christ. Otherwise, our words will not have spiritual power. They won't tell us anything either. I recently found a very bright Christian discussion; it seemed to me that it is very suitable for our conversation about the internal and external apostleship of every Christian. Therefore, instead of a traditional parable, I would like to complete my note about Peter’s Fast with these words, filled with the love of Christ: 1. People can be unreasonable, illogical and selfish - forgive them anyway. 2. If you show kindness, and people accuse you of secret personal motives, show kindness anyway. 3. If you achieve success, then you may have many imaginary friends and real enemies - still achieve success. 4. If you are honest and frank, then people can deceive you - still be honest and frank. 5. What you have been building for years can be destroyed overnight - keep building anyway. 6. If you have found happiness, then people may envy you - still be happy. 7. The good that you did today, people will forget tomorrow - do good anyway. 8. Share the best of what you have with people, and they will never have enough of it - still continue to share the best with them. In the end you will be convinced that it was all between God and you and never between you and them. 9. It doesn’t matter who says what about you - accept everything with a smile and continue doing your job. 10. Pray together and remain in unity.
During the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, we often turn our thoughts to the events that took place two thousand years ago in the Holy Land. How is the life of the Russian parish in these places, what joys and difficulties does the community have? Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev talks about this and his path to Orthodoxy. Since 2010, Father Igor has been the keeper of the monastery of Righteous Tabitha in Jaffa. Before that, from 1993 to 1998, he was the rector of the Stroganov Nativity Church in Nizhny Novgorod, and then the senior priest of the Nizhny Novgorod Church of the Vladimir Oran Icon of the Mother of God.
Father Igor, you have been serving in Jerusalem for many years. Do you feel any fundamental difference in serving here and in Russia?
- There is no fundamental difference, the people are still the same. The only peculiarity is that there is a multinational parish here. In Nizhny Novgorod, different people also go to churches, but here, in Jaffa, this is more clearly expressed: there are Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians, Georgians, Russians, Russian-Jewish or Ukrainian-Jewish families. They live without quarreling, but the environment in which they find themselves outside the temple distances them from each other. Georgians, Ukrainians and everyone else live on their own, completely imperceptibly switching from Russian to their native Ukrainian, Romanian, Georgian language. Georgians who have lived here for many years speak almost no Russian - they communicate in Hebrew and Georgian.
How do you confess them?
− In different ways. With our grandmothers, “Soviet” - in Russian, with their children - too. But the grandchildren born here, who go to local kindergartens and schools, often speak and think only in Hebrew. This is their main language.
But they can still speak a little in their national language and understand something. In church and in Sunday school, everyone communicates in Russian - this is a tradition, but as soon as the children go out for recess, they immediately switch to Hebrew. At the request of parents, we are trying to teach them Russian, since it is not taught in local schools.
Have you thought about creating a Russian language center or school?
- So far such an idea has not arisen. There is a Russian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv - this is a large organization that is supported by Rossotrudnichestvo. There are permanent Russian language courses for different categories of citizens. The center does a lot of educational work: it publishes manuals on the Russian language different levels.
What do they study in Sunday school at the temple?
− We have Sunday school for both adults and children. From 20 to 40 people go to the adult's, and about the same number to the children's. While the children are studying, we talk with parents in question-and-answer mode.
A library was opened at the temple, but although there were books, people did not actively use them. Now the parish has its own librarians - our book lovers. And recently, a large collection of Russian classics was donated to the library: one person died, and so that the books would not be lost, since relatives who no longer read Russian could throw these publications away as unnecessary waste paper, they brought us a whole truckload of books. These are mainly Soviet classics, books that I saw at my grandmother’s - publications from the 60s and 70s.
The next point of effort is the opening of the Podvorye Museum. The premises for it have already been selected.
Soon you will celebrate a significant date in the life of the parish...
January 30, 2014 will mark 120 years since the consecration of the temple. On this day, the honorable chains of the holy and all-praised Apostle Peter are worshiped. Some people mistakenly think that the temple was consecrated in the name of the Supreme Apostle, but this is not so.
What are your responsibilities at the Russian Mission Compound?
- First of all, perform worship, monitor the improvement of the temple and the site, but my main concern is the pilgrims. Even if not very many people come, we must receive them, tell them, give them tea. There is a large garden in our courtyard, and in December, January and even February we try to provide all pilgrims with citrus fruits: oranges, tangerines, grapefruits. It is necessary that people receive not only spiritual nourishment, but also simple human consolation.
This is very important, such a tradition has developed since the first days of the Russian Spiritual Mission, so we are not pioneers, but simply support what was.
The courtyard in Jaffa was created in the middle of the 19th century so that pilgrims, having arrived here, could rest, gather their strength and thoughts, pray on the path and move on to Jerusalem. Therefore, the reception of Orthodox pilgrims, and they come from different countries- Russia, Ukraine, even Australia - the main thing for us.
Over the two years that I have been serving here, I have been able to meet local people: photographers, historians of the Holy Land; Basically, these are Russian-speaking people. The local population (Israelis) also has an interest in our shrines and simply in our culture.
How is it shown?
− I’ll tell you using the example of a seminar that was once held for guides at an Israeli university, where they improve their skills. There are wonderful teachers there, I especially remember one lady. She is not a Christian, but I heard her speak on a morning television program on the eve of the Nativity of Christ: she talked about the Nativity of Christ as it is, as if from a textbook of the Law of God - in words that ordinary Jews do not use in relation to Jesus Christ and Christianity. It sounded so good on local TV!
This lady has already brought guides to our yard twice; I think she knows a lot about Christian history. I spoke to the arriving guests mainly in English, and she translated into Hebrew. It was very interesting to listen to what terms she uses, how such concepts as temple, Church, altar, apostles, Apostle Peter, Tabitha sound in Hebrew - this is a whole cultural layer; such terminology did not exist in this language.
I myself am trying to learn Hebrew, although I study more spoken language, I can’t read books yet, nor can I pray in this language.
Do you manage to do anything else besides your responsibilities at the parish and in the Mission?
− I’m trying to do something: I conduct classes with the children of diplomats at the embassy school, where my children also go; I work with my eldest once a week and younger groups, but I feel like I'm not coping very well. The school is attended by children of not only diplomats from Russia, but also from Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc. Students who come from the embassies of Central Asian countries do not attend my classes, as they are considered traditional Muslims. My classes are mainly children from the embassies of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
We meet with them not only during classes, but sometimes we travel to holy places together with children and with our adult parishioners. For example, in our school lessons we covered the topic Sermon on the Mount, hired a bus and went to Lake Galilee, and there, above the lake, I read a sermon and answered questions. It was hot, but great.
Of course, we have all this at an early stage; I don’t know whether there will be time and opportunity to develop it.
Were there any orthodox prayers translated into Hebrew?
There is one interesting book. In the middle of the 20th century, an Anglican priest, becoming interested in Orthodoxy (although he did not become Orthodox), translated everything he could into Hebrew: the sequences of the Liturgies, Vespers and morning prayers, several akathists, Follow-up to Communion. The book came out two or three years ago.
What to do with children when they only speak Hebrew?
- We don’t know what to do yet. However, you need to understand that the Holy Land is the territory of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. Several Russian-speaking priests from the local population live here, who became churches in the Jerusalem Patriarchate; They speak Hebrew and Arabic and are quite capable of carrying out their pastoral activities among the local population. But missionary work here is not very welcome in general, although there is no particular persecution.
In the 50s, when the only Catholic devotee here was Father Daniel, described in Ulitskaya’s famous novel as Daniel Stein (of course, the literary character is far from the real hero, this is rather Ulitskaya’s myth), advocated the need to have Catholic worship in Hebrew. Father Daniel was not understood in his time, and they did not consider it necessary to translate liturgical books into Hebrew. But several years have passed, and now several Catholic parishes here regularly celebrate Mass in Hebrew.
What about the Orthodox?
The Patriarchate of Jerusalem has a priest who periodically performs services in Hebrew, but so far these are just the first steps. Some communities of so-called Messianic Jews are very interested in Orthodoxy. This is a movement of American origin and Protestant persuasion. I know a person from such a community; he comes to our church, wants to convert to Orthodoxy, because he became interested in church history and realized that the Protestant sect has no basis other than the idea: “Jews for Jesus.” But he came to something else: the basis must be sought in church history, and the main basis is the Liturgy, you can arrange anything - dances, songs, meetings - but without the Liturgy there is no church communication. This excited him so much that now this man is on the path to Orthodoxy.
I heard you talk about that in your sermon the only meeting with God, which happens in the life of every person. What was this meeting like for you?
- Now I don’t remember how and when exactly, but there was a meeting. This is not because I carelessly did not keep it in my memory, it’s just that if you think about it a lot, you can fall into delusion.
One altar boy told me a story with an elder that happened in his life. One day he was sent to a monk living in a cave. He went there with some friend. They came, sat, drank tea, and dreamed of spiritual consolation, of hearing how to pray, how to be saved. And they asked the elder: “How to be saved?” “Brothers,” says the elder, “it is very difficult to be saved in the world. Here, in my cave, it’s wonderful! I pray here, read the Psalter, in the evening the Holy Spirit flies to me in the form of a dove, and I talk to Him.” My altar boy and his companion quickly realized what was going on, thanked him for the tea and left. This is the kind of spiritual danger that can arise.
Did you grow up in a believing family?
− I was born into a simple Soviet family, which very quickly fell apart. My parents separated, I lived with my mother. For the summer they took me to my grandparents. Grandfather was a middle-ranking leader, a communist, and a completely kind person who joined the party for the sake of all-Union justice, truth, and he suffered for it.
My childhood was not easy: we lived in different cities of the Soviet Union, where they made submarines. I will not disclose the list, otherwise I will be accused of divulging military secrets. Mom worked at shipyards; due to work needs, she had to move to the city, where the boat was reassembled. In ten years I changed seven schools, but it was interesting for me to travel and move, although it was not always easy to get used to new places.
I have a sister who I haven't seen for 16 years. Her name is Nadezhda. She and I lived separately, then we met and fell in love, as it should be in a family. I married her to her husband and baptized her children. My sister is a wonderful person! In her youth, she defended the honor of Russia in the basketball and handball teams.
Wasn't it a pity to part with friends and classmates when moving from city to city?
− We had friends always and everywhere, wherever we went. We still maintain a relationship with someone. But real friends, the most fundamental ones, appeared when I studied at the Murmansk Pedagogical Institute, majoring in History and English language" Unfortunately, he did not work by profession for long. I was sent on assignment to Yakutia, where I worked for six months, and then I was drafted into the army - although I shouldn’t have, I was taken.
At first I resisted internally, but then I got used to it; it was good there, interesting in its own way. It was in the army that I met fellow believers. This struck me internally, but not enough to come to faith - at that time I had not even been baptized. These believers were different, they kept to themselves. Back then, fellow countrymen were friends in the army: Ukrainian with Ukrainian, Georgian with Georgian, Chechen with Chechen. And these were guys from Ukraine.
They then chose a strange obedience for themselves - a pigsty, apparently on purpose so that strangers would not come to them. There are practically no pigs left in our soldier’s farm: the last three pigs were “shot” on February 23. One went to the officers, two to the soldiers for the holiday. The pigsty remained as a staff unit. The Ukrainian guys made a cell there and prayed in one of the sections of the pigsty. Several times they were reprimanded, scolded, and scolded, but they were not touched. It even seems to me that they didn’t even take the oath.
Is it possible without an oath?
- It was a construction battalion, so they served there both with and without an oath. We even had a boy with a tail, and everyone came to look at him, as if in a panopticon.
If someone did not take the oath, he was processed; however, such cases were isolated. The construction battalion was not considered a regular army. For us, this became a school of life, experience, a school of relationships, which I did not have at that time. I was a typical "mama's boy."
What do you remember most about your army life?
− It was the Far East, 1987. We lived in the taiga, the nearest housing was far away, and we formed such a “monastery.” Outwardly, of course, it looked more like a Stalinist camp, because in the battalion there were many who had already served time and “had not yet served time.” That year the forests burned for six months, the sun was not even visible. We were sent to extinguish Forest fires. When you stand face to face with the elements in front of a wall of fire, you begin to understand: these are no longer the adventures you read about in books, but real life. An artist would see in this something beautiful, majestic, an axis of the world that moves through you, but in reality it is a terrible force that is ready to devour you at the moment. We, young soldiers, were released to put out dry grass spruce branches. A wave of fire is coming towards you, you enter the forest - it’s already like being in a microwave.
In the army I had a slight advantage due to my education. In those years, our commanders actively bought Japanese equipment - there were opportunities. But there were no instructions in Russian. They’ll let me translate the next instruction, and you sit in the office for a day in silence - no one bothers you.
There was another case. One man who had already served time had his watch stolen - or he lost it himself. The battalion began to approach from one to another: “Give me a watch!” - No?" Once a blow - he lies down. And so the second, third. It dawned on me: “Come on, take off your glasses, now we’ll get you too...” The leader who started them comes up to me and says: “Get out of here!” I can’t hit the teacher!” This is how the “genetic memory” of the people worked, for which the word “teacher” is not an empty word. But what kind of teacher am I? I was only 22 years old. I don’t know why I ended up there - that’s how the Lord arranged it.
When I came out of the army, I settled in St. Petersburg, then still Leningrad. During this time, the school where I worked before the army replaced me and no longer needed my work. In Leningrad, I began to slowly go to church, to the Transfiguration Cathedral. There was little then open churches In St. Petersburg.
It was 1988, the year of the millennium of the Baptism of Rus'. I don’t remember why, but I went into the temple with my future wife.
How did you meet?
- As it usually happens, by accident: on a visit, even before the army. We corresponded, my future wife even came to see me in Yakutia, where I worked. At the beginning of 1990, we got married in the Nizhny Novgorod region. We began to communicate with a certain circle of people who had the Gospel, Old Testament, brought from abroad: they were such thin books, I still carry them with me. We began to read the Scriptures avidly, snatching books from each other’s hands, but we still didn’t have enough intelligence to comprehend it all.
In addition, my wife and I began to attend some lectures on the history of St. Petersburg, about life famous people, about the Decembrists. I was especially interested in the culture of the 19th century, when everything was alive and real. It seems to me now that it was a kind of breakthrough time - then lectures from the Knowledge Society began to be widely read right in cultural centers, then a lot of memoir literature of the 18th-19th centuries appeared - we gradually comprehended what people lived at that time. Hagiographies had not yet been published, so memoirs of the 19th century replaced hagiographies to some extent: although it was different literature, it showed a different concept of existence, a different vector of human development. Orthodox literature began to appear on the shelves when I was already a priest: somehow it suddenly became possible to buy books such as the works of Fr. Seraphim (Rose). The result was such a set of intellectuals...
I moved to Nizhny Novgorod, then Gorky, and got a job at the regional scientific library; there was an editor position, although there was nothing to edit - only cards. But the main thing is that there were people there, books - things that I have loved since childhood. In my semi-lonely childhood, spent among books, I read everything that was in the house. So, the library had a Department of Valuable Funds, where mainly church literature was kept. And there was a former Secret Fund, which contained anti-Soviet literature. Some priests came to the valuable fund for certain books - to read and look. So I met one priest, began to visit him in the region - First, just to talk, and then began to learn how to serve as an altar boy. For me it was the discovery of America! When this all started, I had not yet been baptized. I was such a young man without a beard, with a long tail, who was thoughtful, but did not know how to approach. There was no catechesis back then, but I still went through internal catechesis.
The St. Petersburg period of the “discovery of America” was a joint period for my future wife and me, and it was not without temptations from Eastern teachings. When I was studying at the institute, I studied a lot, in principle, all this was no longer interesting to me, I developed a calm attitude. And in the 90s, many simply went crazy - they read everything from Sri Aurobindo to Castaneda; where the Roerichs even appeared - their teachings were circulated in printouts, and all this was slipped into the hands of the familiar with a mysterious look: “Here is something that you have never read about anywhere before.” This didn’t hurt me much, thank God, I didn’t plunge into this “eastern ocean,” although there was a danger of reading it to everyone and starting practices. I know that our friends were so carried away by this that later, having become Orthodox, they still could not completely free their minds from the influences of Daniil Andreev - something slipped through their conversations here and there. But Saint Theophan the Recluse wrote about this: “They were looking for good deeds, but not in the proper way, and hoped through their own efforts to master what should only be expected by the grace of God, as His gift.”
Maybe now, more than twenty years later, it’s strange to hear this, but something was accumulating inside: the Gospel, acquaintance with Orthodoxy, and even my mother slipped me books on the history of culture since childhood - for me it was not a completely foreign country, but I knew it from the other side, as culture, art.
And here came a period in my life - I lived in Nizhny, and Marina lived in St. Petersburg, and we periodically went to visit each other on weekends, but it wasn’t possible for every weekend - it was too expensive. Although it was inexpensive then, even by plane. I remember that flying back and forth twice a month was quite manageable. I worked in a library, my wife worked in the national economy, as a director of a dry cleaner.
Suddenly one morning I woke up and realized: I had to be baptized! I went to St. Petersburg and said: “I need to be baptized.” Marina was already baptized by that time. We went to the Transfiguration Cathedral. We approached, as I remember now, to the candle box, and I very shyly: “We want to be baptized” - “Yes, please, at three o’clock. But you’re an adult - you definitely need to talk to your priest.” That is, even then there was at least minimal catechesis. I signed up, the priest came out, asked a couple of questions and said: “Come on, get baptized!” There were twenty people at the baptism of different genders, different ages - both children and adults.
I would like to find the priest who baptized me. Now I understand that he was a trainee at the cathedral - a recently ordained priest, his name was Vladimir. I was not given a baptismal certificate then, but I received a brochure about the Moscow Patriarchs, published for the 400th anniversary of the Patriarchate in Rus'. This brochure contains color pictures and the history of each Patriarch. In its margins I wrote what date I was baptized and that this brochure is in memory of my baptism.
When was the first real Easter in your life?
- The first conscious Easter was in the village, in the church of the priest, to whom I continued to visit. Lent I then had what is called “for beginners”. Although I remember in the army we also knew what Easter was and when it was. There was something in the brain: everyone knew that Easter was a great day! We then moved with Far East to Kazakhstan, where I served the last two months of my service. We were all taken to the field, and we had one barracks, which we built together. And they brought us for Easter, I remember it very well. The next day after we moved into the barracks, the commander came and said: “Today is a day off! Everyone is sleeping, getting some sleep, and tomorrow we’ll start!” One Uzbek came up to me and said: “And the Russians spend Easter.” I then replied: “Yes, good!” We rested that day, but most importantly, we were all in an unusually festive mood. Even now I can’t understand where? How?!
There was another Easter incident in my youth, when I was studying at the institute. There was only one church in Murmansk, and it was very far away, and young people were not allowed there on holidays: there was a cordon of Marine cadets and the police. They only let in old people; it was impossible for others to get in. We had a vacation, which fortunately fell on Easter, and a classmate invited me to her village. She was from the Sami people - Lapps. We arrived there just in time Easter night. Imagine, we visited guests all night, and in every house we were treated - there was a tradition of baking pies for the holiday. We came to the teacher - she bakes pies, we came to grandma - grandma's ear, pies, Easter! This was the experience, maybe not entirely religious, but there was something in it, the people still experienced it and celebrated this holiday in their own way.
I remember how, as a child, we painted eggs and rolled them in the yard with the kids. Easter was still present in some part in our lives. All this was thanks to my grandmother. She knew more than anyone else in our family. Grandma was such a book lover - all her life she collected libraries that she lost during the war, but even then she had thousands of books on shelves four meters high. She read everything, and on the back cover she noted: “Read on September 1, 1971,” - then another inscription appeared there: “Read on September 1, 1982.” I read all the collected works in circles. Since grandfather held some important position, his wife always received a call from the bookstore - they knew that Antonina Iulianovna was taking books. “You brought the collected works of Dickens, will you take it?” − “I will!” In the district library she was the only one given a Bible to read, although it was a book “without lending.” She told me something from it, but didn’t let me read it. I remember some prayers on her pieces of paper, I tried to learn them. I don’t remember “Our Father,” but this prayer was in my childhood. I also remember the word “bysha” - now I know where it comes from, what it means, but then I remember it for its unusual sound. Grandmother wrote all this by hand on pieces of paper. She was not religious person in the full sense of the word, because there was no temple in our city. The closest ones were in remote villages of the region.
She lived in her own world. All her ancestors - and she always spoke with reverence about her mother, Praskovya Ivanovna - lived in the Donbass. Every year on Easter my great-grandmother walked to Kyiv. A certain number of women and grandmothers gathered in the village, and during Great Lent they went to the Lavra, fasted, and received communion. Then we returned back, some by train, some on foot. This was an annual pilgrimage. All her life, my great-grandmother walked like this as long as her legs were worn. I think that our pious ancestors pulled us through in Soviet, post-Soviet times. Praskovya Ivanovna’s husband Yulian (I don’t know his middle name) was a remarkable man of his time; out of a warm heart he joined the party, out of a warm heart he later left it, for which he was persecuted. During the war he died in a mine. Donbass was occupied, my grandparents left, but the rest of my relatives remained. It was there that the “Young Guard” story happened. The headquarters of the German unit was located in their house, and my relatives were evicted to garden house.
But you don’t remember your great-grandmother, maybe she told you something?
No, she died in 1968. But some of the “great-grandmother’s” stories have reached me. For example, she told the following story. During the war, a Soviet plane was shot down over their village, it crashed, and everyone ran to watch. A crowd gathered, and the first to come running was a local policeman. The pilot fell out of the plane and his head was torn off. This policeman kicked his head: “It’s arrived, Stalin’s falcon!” Then a German officer approaches him, grimacing across his face: “You have already betrayed your own people once, and you will betray us the same way later. And this is a warrior, he gave his life for his homeland. Don’t you dare touch him with your dirty paws.”
My grandfather, the husband of Antonina Yulianovna, was from near St. Petersburg, with roots from Svir, famous thanks to the Alexander-Svirsky Monastery. Grandfather graduated from the mining institute, studied with one of our saints, who was on the same course with him at the same time. My grandfather had a wonderful last name - Popov. Perhaps it is not priestly, but in the 19th century surnames were given according to affiliation. Grandfather was a golden man. In the party he was for the truth! He was also the director of various mines, he was loved everywhere like his own father. He worked in the mine almost until recent years life, up to eighty-odd. When he ceased to be a director, he remained in the planning department, then he was asked to “take a break,” and he went to work in a mine! The men who worked under his leadership understood that he could no longer do much, so they always asked him to do something that he could. And grandfather said: “If I stop working, I’ll die!” This is the kind of man he was.
I also remember the ideological and political conflict in the family. One day my grandfather brought home Brezhnev’s book “Malaya Zemlya”: “We discussed it at the mine, I want us to discuss it at home too.” To which the grandmother took the book and said: “So that I don’t have this at home!”
Ancestors on the paternal side came to Donbass from the Tula region in the 19th century, when coal development began. I didn’t know my father from childhood until adulthood, then we met - good man; he is still alive, but his mother is dead. He also worked all his life in the production of submarines. As I understand now, he was not the last person in this industry. My father didn’t say anything about it because it was impossible. He graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute and spent his entire life doing this. He participated in the liquidation of the consequences of an accident in 1972 on a submarine, when the reactor there defrosted. Almost all the participants in that operation have already died, and he was among the liquidators; he has nothing but illnesses.
His ancestors came from the Tambov province, and the surname itself - Pchelintsev - originated in the Penza region. We even found one new martyr - priest Tryfon Pchelintsev; he was shot in 1937. He came from Tambov region, but served in Tomsk, and was martyred there. But he is not my direct relative.
They also found a nun who was shot in the same 1937 in Penza: Anna Pchelintseva from Penza convent.
The roots of my family can be traced back to former military tsarist officers, not very well-born, who became related to immigrants from Greece. There was such a family of Melomaevs (they probably got their surname in Russia). Evfer Melomaev moved to Tambov, he was a meat producer. My grandmother is his granddaughter, Yulia Georgievna, and her father was Georgy Evferovich. My paternal grandmother was a typical Greek. And my half-sister is Hellenic in appearance, with black hair. And we have one daughter who also stands out very much - she’s dark, dark-skinned. It was on this foundation that weeds like me grew. Of course, I worry that I had a typical fatherless childhood! With all the consequences...
What problems did this cause?
- There is only one problem - there is no father.
But many people grow up without a father?
- Bad. Of course, it depends on what kind of father.
What advice can you give to young mothers who are raising children without a husband? How to raise a son in such a way as to avoid the problem of fatherlessness?
- It seems to me that it won’t be possible to educate like that. But now, compared to the seventies of the 20th century, it is different. I think that now the godfather and, perhaps, to some extent, the priest in the church you go to can participate in education. What’s good about a community is that there are living people there! The main thing is not to withdraw into yourself, but to use the opportunities of the parish, even if they are very weak. Someone will help. Parents may not be an authority for their children, but the other uncle is quite an adult, and he can be a wonderful person who will not only say something, but also set a good example.
However, a family should still be a family. It must contain father, mother and children. And more than one child in the family, as problems may arise with his upbringing. It seems to me that two or three children in a family is also not enough for a family community, to create an atmosphere of communication. And when parents have five, six, ten, twelve children, the mood in the family is completely different. I don’t know many families like this, but there everything is built completely differently.
− How did you become a priest? Did you want it yourself, or was it offered to you, but you didn’t refuse?
When I was baptized, I will say in the words of Prince Myshkin, I wanted to do so many good things, and I didn’t want to do anything bad. But he did so much bad, and did so little good! I say this completely sincerely. Very quickly I became a priest. Maybe it was wrong then.
Everything was wrong. The priest we went to was interested in my future fate, but I was not aware of his plans. Once he arranged a meeting for me with Bishop Nikolai (Kutepov), then he was not yet a metropolitan. We talked: “Well, we’ll keep you in mind, we need educated people,” said Bishop Nikolai. I even quit my job, waited, but no one invited me, and I prepared: I read the Psalter, learned psalms, went to churches - I learned to read Church Slavonic. I remember being kicked out for numerous mistakes: “You can’t read like that!”
And then one day - they found me! And this in the absence cell phones, Email: “And we are looking for you, you need to see the Bishop.” I remember that this happened on September 11, when the Church commemorates the beheading of John the Baptist. That day I went to a service at the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. We had a certain “gathering place” on Nevsky Prospekt - a dry cleaner; A friend of ours worked there, and through her we could get information about who was calling and what they wanted to convey. They reported that they were looking for me. And on the same day we learned that they had killed Father Alexander Men... I saw him a couple of times on TV, his books had not reached us yet, but all this became a significant event for me: something was wrong, the murder of a priest. I went to see Vladyka, he said: “If you are ready, I’m waiting for you on September 21, on Christmas Day.” Holy Mother of God" That's how he ordained me.
Was Vladyka Nikolai strict?
He was strict in his own way, but he was especially strict towards stupidity: he could not stand it. Vladyka was an absolutely epoch-making man: a book lover, a connoisseur of deep antiquity, of which there are few. He did not collect jewelry, antiques - no! He collected candle extinguishers, carbon remover tongs, in general, various artifacts. When I went on trips abroad, I found flea markets there and carefully studied and looked for everything. There was a lot of childish light in him, but not everyone remembered this from communicating with him. When he punished, it didn’t seem enough. But he didn’t do it just like that, but for a reason. And only in close communication did he reveal some completely childish traits. Although he was a closed person - he protected his childish inner being, but sometimes something broke through...
Once I was in his church at a service, then we had a simple conversation. I told him my impressions of a book about John of Kronstadt that had been published shortly before. The Bishop suddenly says so childishly: “And I have the epitrachelion of Father John.” And he brought it to show me.
For myself, I define its meaning in my life this way: it is a real connection between that past time and the present, because much has been interrupted, even in divine services, in church life the threads have been broken. And people like the ruler are bridges for us. This is not the past for the sake of the past, but the life that was - it seeps through such people into our reality.
So Vladyka ordained me, for forty days I cried out “Packs and Packs,” and then immediately became a priest.
For the next three years I served in the village. It was called Small Goosebumps. Vladyka Nikolai then said this: “I blessed you for the parish, you will serve there for a year. Then you will understand and you will thank me again. This is a school". I served for three years and realized that school was still the same! Without this experience, it would be difficult for me to continue to serve and build my life.
In the village where I happened to serve, there was a small wooden temple, but it never closed. In order to get to the church, it was necessary to drive an hour and a half to the bus station, then two hours by bus, then walk five kilometers across a field. I came there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If suddenly someone died, they sent a telegram, because we didn’t have a telephone at home, and in the morning I went to prepare everything. So we talked.
Since the village was small, death and wedding were common affairs. Everyone took part in both the funeral and the wake. They lived in one big community. Maybe not everyone went to church, but everyone was together, at the same time. Everyone is related to each other - two or three surnames for the whole village.
It was an amazing time of my formation...
Interviewed by Yulia Makoveychuk
In LiveJournal and Igor Pchelintsev on FB, he kindly invited me to visit - to photograph the service, the exterior of the church, as well as have dinner in the church refectory and capture the color lighting of the church park, installed with his own hands by Father Igor and his son. In fact, we came several times, but here I have collected in one report photographs from two visits to this most interesting place on the border of Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
Father Igor came to the Holy Land with his family from Nizhny Novgorod, and for a short time managed to travel all over Israel and made great progress in learning Hebrew. We met, surprisingly, once on the pages of this magazine, and today on my desk are two freshly picked pomegranates, given by Father Igor for Rosh Hashanah.
The Temple of Peter and Tabitha is run by the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission (Moscow Patriarchate) in Jerusalem. Next to the church is the tomb of righteous Tabitha, where, according to local tradition, she was buried. The burial is decorated with Byzantine mosaics of the 5th-6th centuries, and a chapel is built above the tomb.
The temple was built on a plot acquired with the participation of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in 1868. Even before the construction of the modern church building, a shelter for Orthodox pilgrims arriving in Palestine through the port of Jaffa was built on the plot of land, a well was dug, and fruit and ornamental trees were planted.
As a rule, the route of pilgrims lay to Jerusalem through Lod and Abu Ghosh, accompanied by guards and representatives of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, and since 1882
Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. The local shelter for pilgrims became even more significant after the opening of the Jaffa railway station.
The Church of the Apostle Peter was designed with the participation of Archimandrite Antonin, who for a long time was the rector of the embassy churches in Athens and Constantinople, where he had the opportunity to study Greek-Byzantine architecture, and the bell tower of the temple, consecrated in the name of the holy Apostle Peter and righteous Tabitha, is the highest point Jaffa.
- Father Igor, how can I thank you?
- Well, you can dig up the garden.
If anyone else has a stereotype about the image Orthodox priests, communication with Father Igor can change him once and for all. He - he's one of those benevolent ones, interesting people, with a sense of humor, flavored with a decent portion of irony - acquaintance with which adds rather large pieces of the puzzle to the overall picture of the world.
Among the parishioners of the church are residents of many cities in Israel, not only the center, but also the North and South. People even come here from Beer Sheva for Sunday services. According to Father Igor, there is not a single one south of Jerusalem Orthodox Church, so on holidays especially, dozens of people gather here in Jaffa.
Most of the regular visitors are both residents of Russia and other countries who come to Israel, and permanent residents of Israel. Baptism and wedding ceremonies are also held here; in general, the community lives an active life.
And this is an unusual parishioner. It has nothing to do with the Russian Orthodox Church, but from time to time black worshipers come here on their own.
