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Most Ukrainian villagers consider themselves believers, but attend church infrequently. According to a survey conducted by the Institute Gorshenin, the vast majority of rural residents (79.3 percent) responded that they were believers. Only one in six villagers consider themselves atheists (15.3 percent), and 5.4 percent of respondents were undecided on this issue. The study, published online on Thursday, also showed that nearly half of the villagers (45.7 percent) attend church several times a year (on holidays). More than a quarter of the rural population (26 percent) go to church several times a month (on weekends), only 5.3 percent attend services several times a week. One in five respondents (20.6 percent) doesn’t go to church. 2.4 percent found it difficult to answer this question. According to the survey, nearly half the rural population (46.6 percent) believed that the level of morality in the countryside is higher than that in urban areas. This all-Ukrainian study took place 28 March 28 to 15 April. It interviewed 2,000 adult respondents (over 18-years-old) in 123 villages located in 24 Ukrainian and Crimean oblasts.
21 July 2011
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=41582
Editor’s Note:
Actually, this survey points up reality concerning Real Christians as compared to Radical Sectarians. In the USA and Canada, amongst Catholics, the average weekly attendance of the total membership is one in six (about 16 percent), I’m told by acquaintances that this is also true for Reformation Proddies and Orthodox (and Jews, too… “You should see the High Holy Days at our temple… a flea couldn’t fart in there without disturbing all the rest!”). By the way, Krindatch’s recent figures on Orthodox attendance in the USA are crank and somewhat high, but as they’re based on unsubstantiated self-reporting, it’s not his fault (that is, the person responsible isn’t Professor Krindatch, rather, it’s someone at the GOAA, who wrote up the framework for the survey)… the good professor collected his gelt honestly, he went off to have a Margarita on the beach, he DID do his job competently within the parameters offered, it’s not his fault that the stipulations were crook and tempted all comers to cook the books.
That is, the konvertsy who stipulate that if you don’t attend liturgy every Sunday and holyday, then, you’re not an “Orthodox Christian in good standing” (a peculiar category found mainly in the USA), are off the beam and barmy (as is usual for them). Most observant Orthodox people, in my personal observation, tend to go to services once or twice a month, go to communion every other month (except in some Renovationist OCA parishes, where all go en masse every Sunday), and NEVER miss Easter services, most go to at least one Holy Week service, but Christmas isn’t as big a deal amongst us as it is with Westerns (and Uniates, as they’re contaminated by their marriage with the Westerns). Frankly, our churches are built with the above practise in mind… trust me, most parishes are packed full on Easter, “There’s not enough room here!” “Come next week, you’ll have plenty of room!” Whether the konvertsy like it or not, there’s no “legal” obligation to attend services every week.
Therefore, the above figures are above-average, confirming, yet again, that the Ukraine is the “buckle on the Great Russian Bible Belt”. Trust me… the UOC/MP is staunch, it’s had to be. The Uniates attacked from one quarter, the schismatic UOC/KP and UAOC attacked from another, whilst their American paymasters robbed the Ukraine blind (it’s why the Ukrainian per capita GDP is only 40 percent of the Russian figure). That’s why Fathausen’s refusal to meet a bishop of the confessor UOC/MP in New York is so reprehensible (JP HAD to go to a rightwing soirée in the District and kiss the bum of the First Profit of the Mormons). JP meets with Uniate slimers, so, why didn’t he embrace a brother Orthodox bishop? The UOC/MP’s beset by Uniate attacks, after all… didn’t he want to show solidarity with our beleaguered brothers? Fathausen DOES show solidarity with our Uniate opponents… ponder that. That sends a message clearly to all concerned… “I don’t care if the Uniates batter our brothers in the faith, they’re in good odour with the rightwingers in the US government, so, they’re OK by me. Victor Potapov told me so”.
Be glad whenever you see someone in Church… no matter how often or how rarely you see them… it means that they care enough to come and pray. God sees the heart… we don’t. That’s why I always cut slack on this… I know my own failings in this all too well. Always beware “church hobbyists”, beware “hobbyist priests” as well… they’re not well-grounded… they’re houses built on the sand, and you KNOW what Our Lord Christ said about that…
BMD
