RELIGION IN EAST EUROPE
Sts.,The Rev. Stanley Evans, with a devotion in an Anglican clergyman worthy of-a better cause, returns to his defence of the Russian Chureh and of the Politburo which controls it. His main thesis is (1) organised religion has not disappeared from the U.S.S.R., and (2) one of the " false arguments " against Russia is thus removed. How right he is on the first point! But the " organisation " is done by the Kremlin, through the Committee on the Affairs of the Orthodox Church, attached to the Council of People's Commissars. As I said on August 5th, the Russian Church is an instrument of Kremlin policy, only allowed to exist as a subservient, department of the Communist State.
What " Abbot Seraphim Rodionoff of Paris " said in 1947, or what " Yaroslaysky estimated before the war " is not relevant to the present situation. The reason why the Russian Church is allowed to exist, and Catholics and Protestants in East Europe,are persecuted and imprisoned, is precisely because the Russian Church is subservient to the Krenilin and is not an all-out-Opponent of Communism. The " false argument " against Russia is thus snot removed. For a clergyman, Mr. Evans postu- lates an extraordinary situation: " when the policy of a Church compels disloyalty to a State." The policy of a Church ? It is not policy but the fundamentals of Christianity which are opposed to Communism. On which side, one wonders, is the Rev. Stanley Evans ?—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, . HERBERT ASHLEY. Aahors' Chi, 2 Whitehall Court, S.W.r.
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