New Freedom Provokes New Challenges for Soviet Women, Exchange Delegation Discovers
Episcopal News Service. November 29, 1990 [90317]
Claire Woodley
In late September and early October a group of 19 women from the Episcopal Church traveled to the Soviet Union as part of a Women to Women Exchange. They had a burning question on their minds: "So what does this glasnost-- this openness and perestroika-- look like?"
The question was asked again and again as we visited women and men in all walks of life in official groups and as private citizens in their homes.
The USSR is the quintessential land of the "already, not yet" that Christians know so well -- the kingdom is both established and yet to come. Changes have been made in policy, but there is a wide gap between policy and reality, the old structure and the new vision.
There is a sense of great chaos -- and yet also hope and expectation. Despite the possibility of civil war in the Ukraine, secession by the Baltic states, and food shortages in Russia, there is hope.
The church in the Soviet Union is experiencing resurrection. Many buildings are being returned to the Russian Orthodox Church, and they are filled at all hours of the day. We detected a difference between what we called the museum churches and the live churches. Nancy Grandfield, president of the National Association of Diocesan Altar Guilds, described it this way: "The museum churches had the famous icons but had no human life reflecting the symbolic life of the paintings. In the live churches, we could feel the holiness -- see it reflected in the faces of the worshipers, the voices of choirs and priests."
The Rev. Helen Peters, a deacon from Alaska and a Native American, said, "The worship was so physical, bending and kissing the earth, lighting candles, moving around the room, meditating on an icon, kneeling on the stone and praying. It made me sad that there is nothing like that in our church -- something to speak to the body as well as the soul."
The church enters into the lives of the worshipers in unique ways. "At one church there was a priest hearing confession. The women frequently went up to him two by two," said Grandfield. "When I asked a bystander why, she responded that they were best friends. The priest heard their confession together, his head between theirs. He then leaned back, took his stole and wrapped it around the two women in absolution."
The stated purpose of the Women to Women Exchange was "to share the stories of our lives, our burdens and seek understanding with one another; and through this process of understanding begin to work together for new paths for world peace, deepening Christian fellowship and sisterhood."
In Leningrad we met with Olga Pomomarova, the first woman to receive theological training in the Russian Orthodox Church. She studied in a Russian Orthodox theological school in the United States after attending the World Council of Churches assembly in Vancouver.
Pomomarova's story was a powerful testimony of the struggle to change the attitudes of men toward the role of women in the church. She reported that many of her colleagues in seminary changed their minds about women in the church and accepted her as an equal. Yet, when she returned to the Soviet Union, she found her participation in church leadership severely limited. She now directs the school for choir directors at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Leningrad.
Although other Soviet women have applied for permission to study theology, none has been given permission yet. We asked Pomomarova whether she expects change in her church to open doors for women. Her answer said a great deal in few words. She smiled and told us, "There has not been much change in our church since the 13th century."
Everywhere we traveled, we saw that the life of women throughout the USSR is incredibly hard. Before, during, and after a day at work they stand in long lines to procure the simplest of goods and food. At home they must prepare food, care for children, and hand wash the laundry. What we call the "double day" they call "overburdening."
Ironically, many women are looking to a capitalist system to establish the family configuration where the woman works in the home and the man works outside the home. Although many women wish to continue their careers, they want the choice whether to stay home or not.
The Soviet Women's Committee in Moscow shared with us its fear that, with perestroika, women will lose many of the gains they have made over the past 75 years. Members of the committee spoke with great anxiety over the new economic initiatives. Women are not involved in the high-level decision making. Quotas and affirmative action guidelines in favor of women have been swept away.
One woman expressed her confusion about the new restructuring of the economy and its implication for the social order. "We have been taught that it is immoral to work for oneself alone. The good of everyone is very important to us. There is a basic conflict between what we feel and the restructuring as it is being presented. The immoral ones will be in charge. This worries us very much," she said.
In the USSR children graduate from high school with solid educations but are not motivated. The principal of one school said that to be an educator today one must have courage -- to try new things and to change. At this same school children are allowed to create new classes if a subject generates enough interest. What do they want right now? "Religion," stated Oksana, a 12-year-old, "but there are no teachers who feel they know enough to lecture on it." We encountered the hunger for meaning and recognition of human spirituality in virtually every encounter.
A powerful environmental movement is growing in several areas of the Soviet Union. In many places this "green" movement is linked closely with the independence movements of the Soviet republics. Citizens who were concerned with the environment told us that much of the industrial pollution is a result of central planning which has shown little concern for local health and welfare.
The despoiled countryside -- especially in the Baltic states -- forces local leaders to say, "Enough! We cannot endure this any more."
An invisible cloud hangs over the city of Kiev, only 60 miles from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear accident a few years ago. Cancer is becoming epidemic, but no records are kept. Nearly everyone complains of headaches, fatigue, and nausea.
Knowledge of nuclear power or alternative energy sources is very low. We visited one family that had received a cash settlement because the husband was a manager at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and had likely been exposed to high amounts of radiation. The family home contained consumer goods that reflected the monetary compensation from the government, yet family members denied the serious problems that may continue to haunt them.
Whenever we asked them questions about health, ethics, or responsibility regarding the accident, the family would change the subject. Yet, when we visited a classroom in Kiev, the schoolchildren were not so cautious. "The government says everything is all right, but we know it is not," said one student.