Biography of Father George

The life and fate of George Edelstein is a descendant of the Polish gentry, the son of a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the father of the vice-speaker of the Knesset and the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church above all awards and titles, Father George venerates the opportunity to walk in a cassock and with a cross of the cross. Go to trees in deaf villages at the first call - in any weather, off -road.

Often he fell completely exhausted in the snow, lay and did not find the strength to rise in himself, but he got up and went on. And this despite the fact that he constantly experiences the discontent of the hierarchs of the Church with his unshakable reverence for the dogmatic definitions of the seventh universal cathedral, knows the opinion of officials from religion about himself personally and about all other descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

How did such a son of a Jewish communist, a former head of the University, a member of the Moscow Helsinki group, come to life? And myself, of course, I never call anyone and never with this word. The last time, I remember, so A. gloomy pop turned to my fellow brother - this is definitely about Edelstein, only such an understanding came to him after a dozen years. His grandfather worked at a power plant, which gave light to the royal Livadian palace.

Later, in the rank of the White Guard officer, he emigrated with the army of Wrangel. He was a year older than his wife. By education-an engineer-economist, a member of the CPSU B with G. was realized, understood, and did not make a decision. Perhaps, the prayer of the great -grandmother Carolina, the eager Catholic, who had been dreaming of at least one of her five grandchildren to become a priest and pray for the rest of the deceased relatives, reached his heart.

Maybe Catholic hymns led to such a decision that her mother sang so often in childhood. Maybe too early and too much, as he himself admits, fell in love with F. Dostoevsky, F. Tyutchev and V. And then he could not perceive the official doctrine - from Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky to Zhdanov and Stalin. The priesthood Edelstein had to wait 24 years. They said there were no vacancies.

Then they often explained that there is, of course, there are vacancies, but many priesthoods are looking for. In addition, the authorized district committee for religion, “does not tell you such ordinance, especially if with higher education. And if a candidate of sciences, assistant professor, heads the department at the university - and even more so. And very bad, honestly admit that a Jew: they are troubled by people.

” The blessing of the archbishop, the deaf wall suddenly collapsed at the end of the city for about 40 minutes, and there was nothing encouraging in this conversation. And on November 18, he was already ordained the rank of deacon, next Saturday - to the San of Priest, four days later Father George by the decision of his Eminence Archbishop of the Kursk and Belgorod chrysostoma was appointed rector of the Church of John the Theologian in the village of Korovino Volokonovsky district.

Since then, on the present day, Father George has new suffering and a new struggle. Those who today go to temples and defiantly pray to the cameras of photo and telecorrhevers, then did not allow to restore churches and parishes. The party committee of the party, in order to report to the regional committees, squeezed out money from the poor diocese in the notorious world of the world.

In the spring of G. there was a criminal case sucked from a finger on the “fact of tax evasion”. Both an apartment unauthorized by hacking, and a search in the house "On the fact of theft in the church of dozens of books and icons." And the investigation was carried out, but everything, as already mentioned, was sucked from the finger. The attitude to the slogans of Father George has always been alien to ecumenical ideas and currents - starting from the international call “proletarians of all countries, connect!

But negative views are negative - this does not mean to be at enmity. He himself told me about this: “We met Father Alexander Menem in November G. especially often we met when he served in the village of Alabino. I'm afraid we never took each other seriously. He was a progressive ecumenist-both the first and second was always alien to me. For the same reason, my books were never interesting to me.

The last time we met five days before his death, when he was already a metrophore Archpriest. Fifteen minutes joked about his Mitra. All this is in Soviet times. But now, in the 21st century? On the initiative of Father George, the Munich organization “Christian assistance to the youth of Russia”, led by I. But the restless priest is not enough: “The colony for minor criminals has turned into a vacation house,” he says.

Now it is more useful to invest in another colony. Or at least in the restoration of the poorest parishes. Irina Sergeevna annually passes on to the Choets orphanage near the euro. But this is the income of our temple in three years! He himself earns. His lectures on today's Russian Orthodox Church, about the church and the state in post -communist Russia, and the new legislation on religious organizations was listened to by students and professors at the University of Georgetown, the Higher Diplomatic School and the Catholic University in the US capital, at Princeton University.

Almost all the earned father George gives.For others, this would be considered charity work, for him - once and for all the adopted order of life. Speaking about the current connection of the state and the Church, Father George notes that although the church is separated from the state under the constitution, but today the Russian Orthodox Church and the state are connected by extremely close bonds.

And the farther, the more they become closer. At the same time, in the forefront of the prayers in all cathedrals - yesterday's communist leaders and militant atheists. How many opponents have such a straightforward person? A lot, and even very much. Especially among the highest clergy. Usually I just step aside oh, does not leave, swear, achieves his own means - both with the mind and cunning.

I always consider it to be my duty to any friend and the enemy, if possible, to state what I consider with my worldview. ” Father and son Georgy Mikhailovich - a person, of course, emotional. And he loves Russia eagerly, and energetically protects it from the attacks of critics: “I do not believe that a civil war is constantly going on in Russia. During the Civil War, no one is a hero.

Now in our society, as in any other, there are honest people, there are not very honest people, there are crooks. According to the laws of physicists, gold is drowning, and sewage pops up. But to believe that our whole society consists of some sewage is erroneous. ” It would be his eldest son as a deputy, say, the State Duma of Russia, Mikhailovich might have had an idea to turn to him for help in the repair of rural churches and nursing houses of Russians.

So, after all, he, his son, is the orthodox Jew, the vice speaker of the Knesset. So you have to seek help from Canadian Baptists and Norwegian Lutherans. By the way, being in Israel, he asked the son of Father George by phone the question: “Do your voters know about the father-priest? Of course, they know about the fate of my father.