Russian Church wants to bring back bells from US

[Natasha]

Russian Church wants to bring back St. Daniil Monastery bells from U.S.

MOSCOW. Dec 15 (Interfax)

The Russian Orthodox Church has called on the country's citizens to help raise funds to finance the return of 18 bells to Moscow's St. Daniil Monastery from Harvard.

"I think that we unanimously support the need to return these historical relics to the monastery, which needs to regain its original voice," the monastery's head Archimandrite Alexy told a news conference on Monday.

Representatives of the Moscow Patriarchy and Harvard University completed talks in the United States a few days ago. The negotiations produced a plan for returning the bells, which were sold by the Soviet authorities to U.S. industrialist Charles Crane in 1930.

Under the plan, Harvard will finance an assessment of technical possibilities and construction costs for the planned replacement of the bells. Further talks will take place if the assessment has a positive outcome. Russia, for its part, will provide funds for removing and transporting the bells, as well as installing new bells at Harvard.

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II has already asked Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to help bring the bells back to Russia. "This event would be of tremendous importance not only for the Church, but also for the country's secular society and our entire culture," Archimandrite Alexy said. [RU EUROPE EEU EMRG REL POL] tm tj <>

MOSCOW MONASTERY TO REGAIN BELLS. HARVARD PROMISES TO BE QUICK

MOSCOW, December 15, 2003. (RIA Novosti) - The Harvard University and St. Daniel's Monastery of Moscow are equally interested in a quick passage of monastery bells back to Russia, Archimandrite Alexius, St. Daniel's Father Superior, said to a news conference in Moscow. He had led a Russian Orthodox Church delegation to the USA for recent talks on the issue.

The Parties agreed to settle the matter as soon as possible, says a statement summing up the Harvard talks and signed by Alan Stone, university Vice-President, and Archimandrite Alexius.

Preceding the passage will be technical expertise and feasibility studies of removing and transporting the eighteen monastery bells, and their replacement by new ones at the university, point out the negotiators.

Russia has assumed all replacement, construction and transport costs, says the statement.

The St. Daniel's belfry had been Moscow's second-best, coming after the Kremlin. Its largest bell, of twelve tons, was cast toward the end of the 19th century. The two oldest, made in 1682, were donated by Tsar Fyodor Alexeyevich, Peter the Great's elder brother of a short reign and great piety.

The godless Bolshevik regime closed the monastery down in 1930 to confiscate all its property and possessions. The Father Superior and all the monks met their death by the firing squad.

The bells were to be smelted. Affluent American industrialist Charles Crane offered to purchase the entire set on request of Thomas Wittemore, Harvard staff researcher. The Soviet government ceded the precious bells for the price of a batch of bronze of equal weight. The rescued bells first rang at Harvard a year after the monastery met its doom.

St. Daniel's Monastery re-opened twenty years ago, in 1983. US President Ronald Reagan visited it the same year. That was when the prospect of the bells regained first came under consideration.

[bogoliubtsy]

Last weekend this Russian archimandrite was a concelebrant for the liturgy at the OCA cathedral in Boston(my former parish). Afterwards, he went to Harvard and picked up the bells. I imagine the bells are back in Russia now?

[Natasha]

Russian Monks Ask Harvard to Return Ancient Bells
Mon Feb 2,10:08 AM ET

By Sonia Oxley and Georgina Cooper

MOSCOW/CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters)

Father Alexei looks out of the window at the bell tower of the Moscow headquarters of the Russian Patriarch and wonders whether his prayers will be answered.

The bells in the monastery tower peal loudly and tunefully enough, but their chimes are a cause more for rancor than religious reflection because they are only replacements for originals whisked away by a U.S. benefactor 70 years ago.

Seven decades ago the American diplomat and plumbing magnate Charles Crane bought the Danilov monastery's 18 bronze bells and donated them to Harvard University to stop Soviet ruler Josef Stalin from carrying out a threat to melt them down.

"The bells are valuable -- they are an inalienable part of the soul and culture of the Russian nation," Father Alexei told Reuters, explaining that some dated back to the 17th century.

"The bells call people to worship ... They are like the voice of God on Earth -- they call people to turn to God."

Stalin closed the central Moscow monastery in 1930 and it was turned into a prison under communist rule which sought to actively discourage religious practice by closing monasteries and destroying religious artifacts such as bells and icons.

When the 700-year-old monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1983, the monks gathered bells from around Russia to hang in the empty pink and white bell tower. But Father Alexei says it is not the same as having the originals.

He said Harvard, the elite university near Boston, was not getting the most from the bells because people there don't know how to ring them properly.

"They do not produce the traditional Russian sound of bells because they are hung up differently," the bearded monk said. "And there isn't anyone there who could ring them like they should be rung.

"In this monastery there are brothers who are able to ring the bells how they ought to be."

STRANGE NOISE

Every Sunday, Harvard's bell ringers sound the bells for 15 minutes, and students agree they sound rather unconventional.

"I think it sounds like a little kid just banging on pots and pans," said student Skyler Mann.

The monks do not dispute the bells legally belong to Harvard but they are asking for them to be returned to Moscow out of good will. The university is not against the idea, but says Russia will have to foot the bill itself.

Both sides agree the logistics of transporting the bells are the deciding factor in resolving their fate.

With the heaviest of them weighing nearly 13 tons and measuring 9 feet wide, removing them from a tower specially built to house them will be a major challenge.

The bell tower on top of the university's Lowell House dormitory building houses 17 of the bells. Another hangs in the Harvard Business School.

At a meeting between the monks and Harvard in December, the two sides agreed Russia must provide a new set of bells for the university in exchange for the Danilov set. It must also bear the full cost of the swap.

"Upon completion of this analysis and a favorable assessment of the possibility of going forward with the project, the two parties will resume discussion," Harvard said in a statement.

"Further costs such as construction, transportation and bell-replacement would be borne by the Russian side."

LACK OF MONEY

Father Alexei says it is not clear how much it will cost but he knows the monastery does not have enough money.

"The monastery is of course not in a position to pay for it itself," he said, adding that it was appealing for donations.

"It is difficult to talk about that the cost at the moment ... but if we talk about just the molding (of the new bells) it could be around $700,000 or more."

Father Alexei says he is optimistic the bells will once again toll in the Danilov monastery.

"We believe, we pray that it will happen."

He admits the bells are important both to Harvard and to the Orthodox Church. On the university's campus, students are divided about the future of the bells.

"I think we have a claim ... I guess the Russians do too, historically," said Andrew Bitto. "But as far as actual ownership goes they are Harvard's."

Others would be glad to see the back of them.

"They wake me up every weekend so the monks can have them," said Rob Wheeler.