By the blessing of the Most Reverend Filaret,

Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchate Exarch of Belarus

Present the first project of the International Programme THE EUROPEAN BRIDGES

PAUL CLAUDEL

"L’annonce faite á Marie"

Dramatic miracle-play

in translation of Olga Sedakova

With participation and performance of M. Gorky National Academic Drama Theatre,

director: B. Lutsenko.

December 15, 2003, 19:00

The heroes of Paul Claudel live, struggle, love and suffer in extraordinary life circumstances. The France of the beginning of the XV century, ruined and disgraced, deprived of the king in Paris and the Pope in Rome becomes the historical background for the eternal drama of the good and the evil in a human soul. Heroism and Christian sacrifice, earthy passions and vices are twisted in critical dramatic collisions. The high human ideal of the main heroine of the drama - Violena, and the divine forgiving grace are the main moral imperatives of Paul Claudel’s works.

For us – the people living in the beginning of the IIIrd  millenium of the Christian era the questions of finding and loss of faith, the search for spiritual life and inner guidelines remain acute. The crisis situation caused by the collapse of the great country, devaluation and loss of aims that used to seem eternal  - all this makes this drama so topical here, in the Post-soviet area though it was written almost a half a century ago in a different country in a foreign language.

Catholic by religion, Paul Claudel worked as a diplomat for many years, was the French ambassador in a number of states. The French text of the drama was translated into Russian by Olga Sedakova – the Russian Orthodox poetess recommended for the degree of doctor honorus causa by the Theology Faculty of the EHU and the Saints' Methodius and Cyrill Christian Educational Centre.

International and interfaith composition of the creative group preparing the project is an important factor in the implementation of the main concept of the International programme “THE EUROPEAN BRIDGES” under which the staging of the miracle-play is performed. It is especially important in the social discourse in Belarus where the Orthodox and Catholic churches have rich historic and cultural traditions that are closely tied, mutually complementary and enriching each other.

THE BRIDGE is an excellent example of a human genius in the engineering and architectural spheres and exactly expresses more broad humanitarian relations. The bridge is a symbol of union and movement towards each other. It is a construction created by deliberate efforts for closing the gaps: those of misunderstanding, old conflicts, heavy but often muddy flows of political and other situations.

            Cultural space as an area for dialogue with modern intellectuals free of the historical experience of negative relations between the churches is a unique opportunity for interconfessional dialogue on common humanitarian level and also for a joint analysis and consolidation of the ethical aspects of the European integration acceptable both for Western and Eastern Europe.

The performance project "L’annonce faite á Marie" is also dedicated to the long friendship and cooperation between the French bishop Pierre Duprey who was the head of the Commission on cultural cooperation under the Pope Council on Christian Unity and his Orthodox colleagues from Belarus.

The Programme THE EUROPEAN BRIDGES is introduced by the leading specialists of the International Voluntary Association Saints' Methodius and Cyrill Christian Educational Centre - A.V. Danilov, Professor of Philosophy and Doctor of Theology, Head of the Chair of Religious Studies at the Theology Department of the EHU, director of the Institute of Religious Dialogue and Interconfessional Communication; G.A. Dovgyallo, director of Saints' Methodius and Cyrill Christian Educational Centre, co-director of the Institute for Religious Dialogue and Interconfessional Communications.

What regards the current discussion on whether the Constitution of Europe should include the article on Christian values, the founders of the THE EUROPEAN BRIDGES programme state their clear position: the fundamentals of a single Europe lie not so much in political but in spiritual and intellectual spheres. The spiritual bridges are invisible but it is they that bring together the separate parts of the whole called Europe. The bridge’s pillars erected by people everywhere are stable load-carrying structurs supporting the whole construction. These pillars are Christian values, the aims and the moral frame of humanitarian communications of the European civilization. The programme is oriented mainly on the Christian environment as there is no reason for political controversies and consequently for shaking the foundations or pillars. The bridge spans the banks divided by the unimportant currents that pass quickly. The bridges built by people bring them together.

THE EUROPEAN BRIDGES programme considers cultural self-identification of Belarus as an European state living in conformity with the general Europen discourse while preserving its local specific features. Integration into the European cultural space requires universal means of communication and dialogue, universal bridges – for the sake of reconciliation, cooperation and prosperity. International Voluntary Association Saints' Methodius and Cyrill Christian Educational Centre invites to build “The European Bridges“ from two sides at once towards each other since nobody can build a bridge alone. Building bridges presupposes combined efforts of free and non-forced unification. Parts of Europe should preserve their cultural and historic identity not absorbing but mutually enriching and replenishing each other.

Through its system of cultural, scientific, interchurch and even interconfessional activities, the program THE EUROPEAN BRIDGES is called upon to assist the establishment of interaction and cooperation between Western and Eastern Europe and is aimed at the following objectives:

§         intensification of real practical dialogue of the Church and society while simultaneous reducing the formality of the internal church communication;

§         actualization of attention to various European traditions: spiritual and religious, cultural, social and historical;

§         creation of social and institutional niches where the interaction of religion, culture and arts will be supported by the necessary resources.

The most important aim of the play “L’annonce faite á Marie” staging lies in the search of new forms of announcing the Gospel truth to the people brought up in the atheist society and helping them to find the answer to their spiritual demands in an intelligible language.

The prerequisite for the creation of the programme THE EUROPEAN BRIDGES has become the opening of THE INSTITUTE OF RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE AND INTERCONFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION in Belarus in December 2002 as an official structure of the Belarussian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. During the Institute’s presentation Metropolitan Filaret and Cardinal Casper emphasized the necessity of more active involvement of the Church in modern processes of social, scientific and cultural life through such organizations.

In addition to The Institute of Religious Dialogue and Interconfessional Communications” and “The European Bridges” projects, International Voluntary Association Saints' Methodius and Cyrill Christian Educational Centre fulfils many other programs aimed at strengthening of the dialogue and cooperation of the Church and Society. Among them: «The Lay People’s Academy» carrying out educational series of seminars and lectures for different categories and social groups of listeners, annual International Cyril and Methodius Readings, within the framework of which the research activities of the Centre are presented, A Sunday school for children and many other projects, the most important and permanent among them being the work of the theology faculty of the European Humanities University (founded in 1993). The aim of the faculty activities is the revival of the national theological school.