Missionaries - to whom?

Our archbishop ordained a new priest in the cathedral last Sunday. Fr Vladimir. Nice chap, I don’t know him very well, computer programmer, early 40s, two grown children, I think of Russian origin, has done basic theology studies.  I have co-deaconed with him on a number of occasions and liked his style in the sanctuary (http://www.archiepiskopia.be/index.php?content=article&category=news/2013&id=2013-04-21-1&lang=ru)

I think he will make a good priest. As will the previous priest the archbishop ordained, a few weeks back, ten years younger, a builder, this time a refugee from a CIS state, just had their first child.

The archbishop made a little speech in the sanctuary after the priests’ communion, in which he spoke of his desire to ordain several more men in the coming years, speaking of the importance of ‘missionary’ activity.

This desire is laudable – more than that, it is all what being a Church is about. And I don’t want to lapse into easy cynicism, but I do have some comments:

Whom does the bishop see as ‘missionary’ targets?  Is this just the Russian-speaking community in Belgium or is it Russian plus local?

For the Russian-speaking community there are two problems:

- cultural alienation. Most members of the Russian-speaking community who come to church regularly are in Belgium to stay – for most of them there is no way back to Russia and no economic sense in doing so.  The new generation, those brought up in Belgium, and especially (and this is critical) those too young to have learned to read and write Russian properly in Russian schools, are going to integrate into the local community fast, and I see little way of stopping this. The last two priests to be ordained are just old enough to have learned to read and write Russian correctly in the CIS. Those ten years younger, who have done their schooling in Belgium in French or Dutch, are a lot less steady in the language.  And assuming they are to be married priests, and that the matushkas are to be Russian speaking, where are they going to come from? Men can be idealistic, women are tough-minded, and I see few women age 20ish now what will be ready to partner a husband for 40-50 years as a matushka in a shrinking community, with very few people of their own age.

- social alienation. This is a problem we don’t talk about.  The average social level of the Russian communities is low. Not the sort of people educated people naturally associate with (and, despite 70 years of Communism, Russians are probably more class conscious than Europeans!)  As a member of the Russian intelligentsia living in Belgium put it to me bluntly recently: “I come to church just occasionally for communion. But in terms of Christian community, what have I in common with Moldavian bricklayers and Polish cleaning ladies?”. And, incidentally, a disaster zone for the better educated clergy, who almost all of whom build up their circles of personal Christian friends outside their own flocks. Not to mention their wives: very few of whom actively support their husbands' church work.

Outside the Russian-speaking community, two unresolved questions stare us bluntly in the face:

- language. Hardly any of the new/prospective priests could preach in the local language (French and Dutch) with any level of fluency – though to be fair, many of them have tolerable English, which is rapidly becoming Belgium’s de facto second language.

- relations with the other Christian churches. We are desperately unclear theologically on our own position here. We run the full gamut of people who think the local majority RC church to be of Satan, to those who think it a fully valid church and the logical choice for native people. With a lot of people most of the time acting as if it just did not exist. Until we have a clear line here, we should probably not step one foot out of the ‘ghetto’.