Eastern American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

Русская Версия

May 17, 2010
Brooklyn, NY: Russian television broadcast a report on the work of the St. John of Kronstadt Mercy House

Not long before Pascha, Russian Channel 1 journalist Boris Koltsov called the Mercy House of the Righteous St. John of Kronstadt. He asked permission to do a short television report on the life of the resident brethren.

Priest Vadim Arefiev, rector of the Church of Our Lady "The Inexhaustible Chalice," under whose auspices the Mercy House operates, agreed to a meeting with the journalist and cameraman Andrew Desnykh, who quietly began to talk to the brethren and film their lives, the divine services, and the various obediences.

In the words of Fr. Vadim, "We were all won over by their openness and good nature, which you don’t often come across with journalists and TV workers. Maybe it just seemed this way to us, but we were left with the clear impression that Boris and Andrew took their experience with our service to the suffering seriously, and literally co-suffered in their making of this report."

Channel 1 broadcast this sketch of life at the Mercy House as part of their "Vremya" ("Time") program, which is widely viewed by Russian people both in Russia and around the world.

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese