The Prime Minister, on the first full day of her visit to the Soviet Union, has attended a church service in a fourteenth-century monastery. This morning she travelled to Zagorsk, about forty-five miles north of Moscow. It's the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church and her visit was seen as a gesture to demonstrate solidarity with Christianity in the Soviet Union. Mrs. Thatcher had lunch with the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pimen, at a seminary for training priests. This report from our Moscow Correspondent, Jeremy Harris, who was among those who accompanied her: [end p1]
JH
Mrs Thatcher was met outside the white fortified walls of the monastery by the religious head of the complex&em;dressed in flowing black robes, he said he welcomed her as a pilgrim, and offered his blessing. Before going inside, Mrs Thatcher took a brief walkabout among several hundred Russians, who'd gathered out of what seems genuine curiosity. She exchanged greetings in Russian, “zdrastvooite” ‘hello’ and “ochen rad” “pleased to meet you”. Several of the ornate onion-domed churches at Zagorsk are still used for religious worship. Mrs Thatcher visited two - lighting a candle, and joining the packed congregation at their normal Sunday morning service.
Actualite (Singing)
Jeremy Harris
Later, when her guide expressed the hope that British people shared the Soviet desire for peace and detente, Mrs Thatcher replied that people everywhere wanted peace “with freedom and justice”. Part of the accommodation between the Orthodox Church and the atheistic Soviet state, has been built on overt support by the Church for Soviet foreign policy. Worshippers at Zagorsk clearly welcomed Mrs Thatcher's visit as a gesture of solidarity&em;however some believers who think the official Church is too politically pliant, may have reservations.