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Orthodox church fills gap

Romanian patriarch's visit draws community eager to welcome new space for worship

By Lisa Nuch Venbrux
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
July 18th, 2007 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Patriarch Teoctist blessed the cornerstone; the structure will be shipped from Romania.
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On July 13, Patriarch Teoctist, leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church, joined Archbishop Kryštof, head of the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia, to announce the consecration of a church cornerstone in Most, north Bohemia.
Flanked by black-robed clergy at the Romanian Embassy in Prague, the two leaders met ambassadors from places with Orthodox followings — namely Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Cyprus, Georgia and Ukraine — as well as members of the Romanian community.
The patriarch’s visit is about more than blessing a stone, however. The plans to build the St. Valentine Romanian Orthodox Church signals what Kryštof calls a renewal of relations between Orthodox churches in the two countries, and provides the first dedicated worship space for Romanians, most of whom are Orthodox, in the Czech Republic.
“We hope the church will offer a space for spiritual encounters,” Kryštof says. “At the same time, we hope the church will remind [people] that there were Romanian soldiers who contributed to the liberation of Czechoslovakia.” He notes that 40,000 Romanian soldiers died fighting with the allies at the end of World War II.
Patriarch Teoctist, 93, says relationships among different Orthodox denominations have improved with increased dialogue over the past several years, and expresses optimism about the future. “The relations that we have now, and in finally building this church, can become eternal.”
The church’s cornerstone was consecrated in a morning ceremony July 14. The rest of the structure will be built from wood in the Maramures region of Romania, then dismantled and reassembled at the Czech site in Most, a city that had been “very friendly” about providing a place for the temple, Kryštof says.
“Our contribution lies in the fact that we have trained our carpenters,” Teoctist says. Craftspeople from the region, known for woodwork, have already built similar churches transported to Paris and Caracas, Venezuela.
At the July 14 ceremony, architect Taťána Tzoumasová, who is involved with the project, told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) the church is estimated to cost 24 million Kč ($1.2 million), a cost covered by both the Romanian and Czech Orthodox churches. Building is expected to be completed in 2009.
Once work is finished, the structure will become the first Romanian Orthodox church in the Czech Republic.
“It’s an important event for the Romanian community,” says Cristina Muntean, a reporter who moved from Bucharest three years ago. “It’s a recognition of the Romanian people here.”
Now, she says, many Romanians meet at the embassy to build social networks and establish a sense of community. The four Orthodox churches in Prague hold services in a number of languages, but do not offer services in Romanian. Twice a month, the community brings a Romanian priest from a Moravian monastery to hold services in Prague.
No priest has yet been chosen for the new church.
While the community is not very big, Kryštof says the church is being built to serve a number that’s constantly growing. According to the Romanian Embassy, 2,800 Romanians live here legally.
Despite these small numbers, Muntean anticipates the church will be well used by the community. “For Romanians, religion is a very important moral aspect” of their lives, she says.
The Ecumenical Council of Churches estimates that the Orthodox church has 20,000 believers native to the Czech Republic, while roughly 200,000 Orthodox followers from abroad live here.
— Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Lisa Nuch Venbrux can be reached at lvenbrux@praguepost.com


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