If Russia Gives a Lead, by Herbert Bury

Metropolitan Macarius II of Moscow.

By an unknown photographer, no date, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Mikhail Andreyevich Nevsky (1825-1926) was elected Metropolitan Macarius II of Moscow in 1912, retiring five years later with his reputation high, especially in Siberia where his missionary work in the late 1860s had won him much affection: it was Macarius who translated the Bible into the Kazakh language. He was elected a member honoris causa of the St Petersburg Theological Academy in 1913.

If Russia Gives a Lead

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There is an intense feeling of close personal attention as the deacon carries them through the Royal Gates.* A beautifully bound copy — in ordinary churches the best they have — rests upon the altar, in its very centre, with a silken covering, and when the priest comes to celebrate he first kisses it, and then, lifting it up and setting it upon end, and laying the corporal where it has rested, with the chalice and paten upon it, proceeds to the Liturgy. The consecration takes place on that part of the altar where the Gospels have lain before, and where they will again be laid when the service is over. Then there is nothing in the ordinary services to compare with the reading of the Holy Gospel to the people, nor is any special or private ministration complete without reading some portion of these, the most important parts of the sacred Scriptures.

It is easy to see, therefore, how it comes about that the Russian sense of the living Christ is essentially that which is realized by His Apostles and described in the New Testament. If Russia gives, as we pray she may, a lead to Christendom in the direction of unity, she will have a wonderfully uplifting and apostolic contribution to offer to the common stock of our Christian heritage.

by Herbert Bury 1854-1933

From ‘Russian Life To-day’ (1915), by Herbert Bury (1854-1933).

* The Royal Doors are two swinging gates at the centre of a large screen which separates the sanctuary (where the altar stands) from the rest of a Russian Orthodox church.

Précis

Bury painted an enthusiastic picture of the honoured place held by the Gospel book in Russian church services, stressing that it was not mere ritual, but matched by the affection of the people. Indeed, he felt that this almost tangible affection was something that the Russians could teach the English, and that could even bring Christendom back together.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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