Внебогослужебные собеседования в деятельности приходских священников Нижего-родской епархии в последней четверти XIX века

Abstract

Based on archival materials of the Fund the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Consistory the process of formation and development of the practice of non-liturgic colloquies in the Nizhny Novgorod diocese is examined. The subject and methods of colloquies, number of them, number of attendees are considered. The diocesan administration controlled the organization of non-liturgic colloquies in parishes, recommendations for their implementation were developed. The author identifies problems in the organization of colloquies involving the selection of subject and methods for their implementation, the lack of attendees because of the temporal affairs, the spread of old-belief ideas, the lack of motivation, etc. The role of conversations in the sphere of religious and moral education and upbringing of Nizhny Novgorod governorate Orthodox residents is determined. Even the first year of colloquies resulted in the form of more diligent visitation of churches in less than half of the parishes in the diocese. The comparative analysis of data on the number of persons involved in the main sacraments of the Church in the period of Lent before and after the non-liturgic colloquies is made. It indicates a slight increase in the number of communicants of the Orthodox after the implementation of the colloquies into Church life. During 10 years (1887-1897) most of the temples of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese started to practice colloquies. However, they resembled religious readings more by their nature. The author comes to the conclusion that in general readings and colloquies contributed toward religious education, raised the moral level and the returned part of the congregation of the diocese to the official Orthodox Church.