Russian community in Brazil celebrates Christmas.
Rio de Janeiro. The Orthodox Church in Rio de Janeiro celebrated the birth of Christ. On Friday in the Church of the Holy Martyr Zinaida a celebratory service was held which was conducted by the senior priest in the Rio de Janeiro Orthodox Church, Father Paul (Feoktistov).
Renovative work is currently being done in the church. It has been going on for over a year, Father Paul lamented. So the parishioners have halved, there is no way all can fit into the small room, which also serves the holy father as an office.
As always there is not enough money to finish the work, and the local workers a not very prompt, so he welcomes any donation toward the completion of renovation on the church that the Russian community built in 1935.
"Restoration of the icons is already done and the are finishing the altar and walls," says Father Paul. Everything else is all done. October of this year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the church of the holy martyr Zinaida, which basically was the first Orthodox Church in Brazil. Metropolitan Kirill is visiting us. On the best of days, during Easter and Christmas celebrations, up to a hundred people assemble in church. We hope that repairs will be done in time to celebrate Easter. Then we will be able to thank our Lord in a renovated church."
The church cornerstone was laid in 1935, when finally the Russian Orthodox community got official registration as a legal person and was allowed to buy a lot in the center of Rio de Janeiro, on the picturesque hill of Saint Teresa. The project and construction plan was done by Russian immigrant Konstantin Trofimov, who, like most true Russian intellectuals, completed his technical construction engineering training with the rank of academic-archeologist and specialized in church architecture.
The gilded cupola of the Church of the martyr Zinaida, with the typical Orthodox cross at its summit distinguishes it among the other structures on the hill of Saint Teresa. The church had its heyday back in the 50s & 60s of the last century, when many immigrants were flooding into Brazil after the Second World War from Europe and China. Today they no longer have the choir that once numbered up to 25 people.
From 1937 to 1976, the church was legally part of the Russian Orthodox church. In 1976 the parish converted to the American Autocephalous Orthodox Church. In early 199 the Russian community expressed a desire to be under the holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Aleksei II. Father Paul is the first clergyman to come from Moscow and work in Rio de Janeiro. Until he arrived, church services were held by Father Anatoliy Topal, who has a large parish in Porto Alegre and had worked in Brazil since the early 1990s.
"Orthodoxy has progressed in Brazil and this is comforting. Even more so because new parishioners are coming to us. These are not just Russian emigrants, so this means that the Orthodox congregation is growing," Father Paul believes. After all, a church is not only a place for cult betterment, but also a community of Russian-speaking people, who find and support new acquaintances and friends, and so have connections to the historical homeland.
Source: RIA Novosti, 8.1.05, Andrei Kurguzov
