[geraint.faughn]

Meet Moscow's Punk Priest, the Rev. Sergei Rybko






On a Tuesday night, a dark rec hall on the outskirts of Moscow is hosting its weekly "Rock Festival"." It's really nothing more than an open-mic night for local hard rock bands to showcase their talents, something some of the acts could use a touch more of.

Teens and 20-somethings mill about, a handful in front of the stage, the rest scattered throughout the low-ceilinged room sitting at tables or standing in groups. Skinny jeans and studded belts are de rigueur.

At 8:30 p.m., the door to the hall opens and a man who decidedly doesn't belong here walks in. Bald and bearded, he walks with the gait of a large man and the confidence of someone familiar with his surroundings.

A cursory glance immediately identifies the black-cassocked man with an oversized gold cross around his neck as a Russian Orthodox priest.

The Rev. Sergei Rybko makes his way up through the middle of the room and plops himself down in a chair 20 feet to the right of the stage. For someone who is so clearly out of his element, he doesn't get many looks from the hipsters and headbangers. They've seen him here before.

As the alternative band OffiGella finishes its set, Rybko, 49, gets up and heads to the stage. He waits in the wings while his long-haired sidekick, Yuri, introduces him as a former hippy and regular rock festival attendee. The audience of 30 in front of the stage cheers when Rybko takes the microphone and flashes the peace sign.
He keeps his talk short, keenly aware that the crowd won't put up with a long religious discourse. They've come together this night because in a way, he tells them, they're a club of lonely-hearts, like "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hears Club Band." Together here, their hearts are united but, afterward, they will be all alone.

"You don't have to be alone," he says. "If you reach out to God, you will never be alone."

Another peace sign, a slight bow, and the crowd cheers as Rybko leaves the stage. A heavy metal band starts up, with a "singer" whose roar could shatter windows.

A young man makes a beeline for Rybko as he comes off the stage. "I wanted to say a big thank you for coming and for his support," the young man says afterward. "I had some questions I didn't know who to talk to about, so I asked him and he explained everything to me."
Rybko dallies for a few moments, watching a mosh pit form before making his exit. He leaves before Gella, the lead singer of "OffiGella," has a chance to talk to him. A pretty red-haired girl, she is pregnant and her bandmates had been urging her to ask him if it's OK to keep singing at these shows.

His mission comes by way of the church, asked by the patriarch (the head of the Orthodox Church) to reach out to young people in the rock subculture.

Despite the charge from on high, however, Rybko is realistic about how successful he can be. "At least they didn't throw anything," he says when asked for a self-assessment. "My job is to sow, it is up to God to cultivate.

"If what I say changes someone, if it makes someone purer, closer to God, then that's a successful evening," he says.

It's no coincidence that the patriarch picked him for the job. Rybko has some street cred with this group because they know that before he walked around in a cassock, he rebelled against Soviet communism in the 1970s by starting a band and leading a small group of anarchists before becoming a wandering hippy. "I used to be a rocker and I will always be one," he says. "For the average person behind the Iron Curtain, it represented the only truth that you could listen to."

His first job in the church was at 19 as a bell ringer where he would mix traditional ringing with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin songs. The old ladies in the congregation loved it, he says. Working at the church wore off on him and, at 28, he was ordained as a priest.
Two days after Rybko's appearance at the hall, he's standing in front of an entirely different audience at the morning service at the St. Sergius of Radonezh church in the Moscow suburbs.

It's a full house, the congregation is older, mostly women with scarves covering their heads. They follow Rybko in prayer and take communion before the service culminates with the traditional walking of the icon around the church.

"These people have already discovered Christ and the Orthodox world is the essence of their lives," he says near the gates of the church. "In the club, I talk to people who are far away from God, from Christ, from the Orthodox religion.

"If I open the Bible [in the clubs] and start to talk like a priest, they will all run away. So I have to use their language but make sure they understand that a priest is speaking to them and that Christianity will solve their problems," he adds.

When the worshippers leave, he heads around the back of the church to a small building where he has set up what he calls his own rock club.

It's the kind of small, dark room with a funky smell that any rebellious 16-year-old would have in his parents' garage. Instruments and amplifiers lie about, multi-colored lights flash and graffiti is spray-painted on the walls.

But, then, you spot the religious art and large cross on the ceiling.

"It's very unusual," says Dmitry Rock (his stage name), a long-haired guitarist with two piercings in his lower lip. "When I first came here, I couldn't believe a priest set this up. Then we got used to it."

Musicians are free to come here and rehearse; better they hang out here than on the streets, Rybko says.

Rock is not religious and Rybko's overt goal is not to make people like loyal churchgoers. But, as Rybko did when he was younger, they've now started helping out around the church.

Despite his colorful past, Rybko admits that, these days, he feels more comfortable preaching in church than hanging out at concerts and clubs.

"Thirty years ago [that] would have been my home," he says.

"[Now] I feel more at home in church, that is closer to me. But it is my duty to go [to the clubs]. If I don't, who will?"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

for video of above article, click here.

[cheesypeetyz]

"If I open the Bible [in the clubs] and start to talk like a priest, they will all run away. So I have to use their language but make sure they understand that a priest is speaking to them and that Christianity will solve their problems," he adds. Very interesting article, Antonie! I think this priest knows what he is doing and his words above prove it. St Paul spoke to Jews as a Jew and to Greeks as a Greek in order to bring them close to God. It is nice that fth Sergei is trying to immitate him without any "discounts" in his faith.

Some years ago, monks set up a rock band in Greece to reach out to the young ones. But they got lost in the way and one of them even left the monastery and its life. It is a dangerous road but with the help of Christ and a strong faith it leads to miracles.

Panayota

[VYholden]

Thank you! May God bless Father Sergei and his efforts! VERY cool!

Panayiota--I thought the Greek monks you mentioned were a blessing to the Greek youth. I am saddened to hear that they have disbanded and that one left the monastic community. I hope that he is still working in the Lord's vineyard in his secular life...

I feel there is (besides some wonderful and dynamic priests like one we have been blessed to have as our confessor here in Athens) less reaching out to the young generation now than there was when Archbishop Christodoulos, may his memory be eternal, was alive. What do you think?

Alice

[vipBrooriErok]

I clicked on the link rather expecting something quite different--at worst, the kind of worldly syncretism one often observes in such efforts to connect with young people of a counterculture, at best the near ubiquitous media spin that would distort or make fun of this. But I found neither, and came away from the article encouraged.

[Seasmillets]

Very interesting article, Antonie! I think this priest knows what he is doing and his words above prove it. St Paul spoke to Jews as a Jew and to Greeks as a Greek in order to bring them close to God. It is nice that fth Sergei is trying to immitate him without any "discounts" in his faith.

Some years ago, monks set up a rock band in Greece to reach out to the young ones. But they got lost in the way and one of them even left the monastery and its life. It is a dangerous road but with the help of Christ and a strong faith it leads to miracles.

Panayota

Do you talk about the "Paparokades" ( Î*απαÏ�οκάδες)?

It is a dangerous road....
I agree.

[cheesypeetyz]

To Dova: Yes, I mean the paparokades. I'm surprised you know them.

To Alice: When Archibishop Christodoulos was asked about them he said "At first I was excited, then I was troubled, now I am worried".
Personally I think the former Archibishop did "open the door" to more and "different" young people but that was a little superficial and kind of a trend. There weren't more young people in the Church generally, there were more young people at the churches where the Archib. went. This is why I think this situation was over extremely soon.

I've heard about Athens that there are quite a few priests who gather the new generation around them. The same is here, in Salonika, and I imagine everywhere where Orthodoxy exists. So, no, I don't think the situation changed after Archibishop died. The ones who wanted to stay because they found the answers to their dead-ends, stayed.

I think it is vital to explain that we, young people, are a group with many variations. For example what fth Sergei does, "targets" the rockers, the rebells of that kind. Although it impressed me, if I weren't already a christian, it would never have the impact to my life -having nothing to do with the rock culture- as to theirs.

So I believe there is a sheperd for every flock. Thank God Moscow's rockers found theirs.


Panayota

[ToifvT5S]

To Dova: Yes, I mean the paparokades. I'm surprised you know them.

Panayota

Monastery rock bands? Rocking monks???

Good Lord.

Next, we'll be doing disco around the altar with a globe lampada.

I'm all for reaching the people where they are and being all things to all people; and I believe in maintaining the uniquness of Orthodoxy and not supplanting "the world" into it. WHo am I to judge if one soul is saved by their methods? At some point those on the fringe will have to come more to center or risk of always being left out on the fringe and being left out. Or is that too negative thinking.

I'm a right wing conservative so what do I know about fringe societies.

Paul

[jeaccatty]

Monastery rock bands? Rocking monks???

Good Lord.

Next, we'll be doing disco around the altar with a globe lampada.

If you read the story about Fr Sergei, you will note his remarks about what he says, how and why he says it. I think he has a good balanced approach here - not trying to remake the tradition of the Church in the modern image, but merely speaking about the Church as it exists in language and context where some people will hear who would never hear the Gospel otherwise. I think hs approach guards against what you suggest we don't want.

Fr David Moser

[ToifvT5S]

Sorry Fr. DAvid,

I was speaking to the term paparokades and not to Fr. Sergei specifically. I agree what he is doing is more "to my liking" but if you google the word paparokades, you get images of monk rock band members. They are more to what I was referring to. My comment about coming back to center would be a good descripter of the Fr as his previous life led to where he is now and the youth he is reaching out to one day will need to return.

Paul

[geraint.faughn]

This priest is putting his life and eternal future in peril by placing himself in dangerous and tempestuous environments in order to spread the Gospel message to young (and for many, lost) souls. God knows who and how many young minds he has kindled with a burning love for Christ. The future will tell, but I have high hopes for this priest's mission which follows along the priestly mission of The Good Shepard Who 'ate with tax-collectors and sinners'. I believe such witness and sacrifices should be done by more of the clergy given the direction this world is taking. And not only the clergy, but for every disciple of Christ.

[VYholden]

I think the important thing with youth (I am speaking of those who are a bit troubled, and they can even be children of religious people) is that they feel loved and feel that they are important and that they matter. Again I am not speaking of those who have direction and stability in their teen souls...but those who are confused and enticed by the subcultural life....This is why many youth get enthralled by Evangelicals in the U.S. and elsewhere and leave the Church.

One comment made by the parents of teens at a dinner party here in Athens I was at the other day, is that church services are way too early for teens (who medical science has proved need more morning sleep). I don't think it would be a strange thing to have a later Divine Liturgy here and there. I heard that the Metropolis was going to do this (have two DL's, the latter one being for the sake of the youth) on Sundays, but you hear alot of things here in Greece that never materialize, and right now there are renovations being done on the Church, and they have moved to another church temporarily, so there is no way to check.

I listen to a religious talk show every Sunday which is on television here, right after the live Divine Liturgy is aired, hosted by a Bishop who has guest speakers. A priest and well known youth worker were his guests, and they were saying so many of the same things I am. The youth here in Athens have so much enticement of the 'world', and it is not a conservative society, to say the least. They also mentioned the example of a teen who went to church and commented: "no one said hello and I said hello to no one"...in other words, no one went out of their way to greet him, not the people manning the candle stand, not one congregant, not the priest. I think that Arch. Christodoulos was on the mark in that we need to give youth our priority and we need to reach out to them and show them that we love them in a non-judgemental way. We are religious people here or we would not be here, and I am assuming that to some degree or another, in one denomination or another, we always thought about God... We cannot judge what the majority of teens are going through and feeling by how we were as youth. Too many youth will *never* come to the Church if the church does not *come* to them through gestures.

In Christ,
Alice

[ButKnillinoi]

Sorry Fr. DAvid,

I was speaking to the term paparokades and not to Fr. Sergei specifically. I agree what he is doing is more "to my liking" but if you google the word paparokades, you get images of monk rock band members. They are more to what I was referring to. My comment about coming back to center would be a good descripter of the Fr as his previous life led to where he is now and the youth he is reaching out to one day will need to return.

Paul

Well, obviously that little experiment did not work out quite so well. It is important to reach out to people where they are, but we have to remember that they are not necessarily supposed to stay there, nor are we. It is a good and brave thing to run into the burning building to save others, but if you forget to come out, nobody gets saved. I think it is one of those discernment things...

Herman the not so discerning Pooh

[strongjannabiz]

The Orthodox Word mentions there are a few priest monks that do this in Ukraine also Fr Savastie Bastavoi is famous for doing same missionary work as well.

[Seasmillets]

I really don't know what he ( Rev. Sergei Rybko) doing?

Like a Church and popular culture often uses the term "freedom or free" but only in terms of the sex act or anarchy. This is one of reason why popular culture (known as pop - rock culture) don't have any sense with Church extra with Orthodoxy.
We always must remember what Church Fathers say about theater, music etc.

[jeaccatty]

I really don't know what he ( Rev. Sergei Rybko) doing?

Read the article at the beginning of this thread - it describes exactly what Fr Sergei does. He goes to the places where those who are in need of Christ gather, he speaks to them in their language telling them of the love of God and then he prays for them. He also provides a refuge where those who are lost can come and find some solace in a safe place where they will also find a priest to guide them. Most importantly, he prays, he serves in the Church which is his environment and thus serves as a bridge between the lost and the found, bringing a little of the light into the darkness and providing a way for those who live in the "clubs" to come and exchange their life of self for the life of Christ and begin to live in the Church. All this he does without compromising the faith or changing it in any way. He is a missionary.

Fr David Moser

[Seasmillets]

Read the article at the beginning of this thread - it describes exactly what Fr Sergei does. He goes to the places where those who are in need of Christ gather, he speaks to them in their language telling them of the love of God and then he prays for them. He also provides a refuge where those who are lost can come and find some solace in a safe place where they will also find a priest to guide them. Most importantly, he prays, he serves in the Church which is his environment and thus serves as a bridge between the lost and the found, bringing a little of the light into the darkness and providing a way for those who live in the "clubs" to come and exchange their life of self for the life of Christ and begin to live in the Church. All this he does without compromising the faith or changing it in any way. He is a missionary.

Fr David Moser

You don't understand me.....of course I recognize Fr Sergei works but I ask does he know......this situation could be critical and not Church road. We are not social community or red cros we are Church and always must ask what Fathers doing in this situation.
But I think Fathers dont go similarly place.

[biannaruh]

One comment made by the parents of teens at a dinner party here in Athens I was at the other day, is that church services are way too early for teens (who medical science has proved need more morning sleep). I don't think it would be a strange thing to have a later Divine Liturgy here and there. I heard that the Metropolis was going to do this (have two DL's, the latter one being for the sake of the youth) on Sundays, but you hear alot of things here in Greece that never materialize, and right now there are renovations being done on the Church, and they have moved to another church temporarily, so there is no way to check.

I find your comment interesting, Alice. Many of my Greek friends (some admittedly of an older generation) grew up with the practice of their local church serving two liturgies on any Sunday, and very often, on weekday feasts as well. This wasn't only in cities and large towns, but even in villages. Even in comparatively small communities, it was not unusual for there to be at least one church which had two (and sometimes three) consecrated altars, so, if there were two priests available, an early and a later liturgy could be canonically served. Even here in Australia, I know of Holy Week services held very early in the morning (depending on the parish, beginning between 6AM and 7.30AM), which are surprisingly well-patronised, particularly by working folks who can attend, and still get to work on time, or be only slightly delayed.

[CHEAPPoem]

Yes, the term rock and roll I have been told that alludes also to sex.

About the paparokades, I have an interesting story. There is a wonderful, older lady (grandma of friends). She always made us listen to the preaching of a great priest. He was very tough. I got scared many times because the talks were apocalyptic and that the end of the world is coming etc. It was very hard for me to listen to this kind of preaching because I had not been used to it. Then I hear that the priest formed the paparokades... This stunned me because it was from one extreme to the other. I know they are famous and that many young and old people are attracted to them. However I am turned off. I was turned off from this 'phenomenon' since that grandma forced us to listen to those apocalyptic talks.

As Geronda Paisios has said "we can't do obedience to everyone". So I choose to bypass some things. If the paparokades work and win souls and save them, glory to God. And only God can judge us all and He will decide. I am just a sinner and this post is not meant to judge, but just personal experience. Tough talk and love did not win me, and neither did the rock stuff thrown in to the mix. Had I been far from the Church, I might have considered if they had thrown in Disney . Just kidding because I would not have looked at a Church that used Disney, or any other non-divine things as a bait. But that's just me.

[cheesypeetyz]

To put a closure perhaps to the subject of the paparokades, they didn't have the blessing of their Bishop and they are not popular in anyway anymore. Their experiment was like a firework that exploded and went back to non-existence. The outcome was rather sad.

But that's not the case with fth Sergei and the other fathers as I assume from the article. And if you are worried about what the Fathers would say, Dova, then discrimination could be a good answer. The way may be a little unorthodox but the purpose and the message are very orthodox. Afterall Jesus ate with prostitutes and thieves, didn't He. And He visited them in their unholy and sinful places. And He brought them back to His Father.

Alice, I can understand what you meant now that you've explained it. The not-so-friendly attitude at the church to those we don't know is something that troubles me a lot. I think that is the true crisis in our Church. Sometimes I feel we've lost our ability to just be (like) a human to another person. We pursue the blessing of this holy priest or a word of wisdom of a saint monk and at the same time we fail to do the simplest thing, say hello to a newcomer to our church (as you wrote in your post). Excuse me if I am too pessimistic but I believe we will have to answer some tough questions in the after life and I fear they won't be the ones we expect.

ps: priests start slowly to realise second liturgies are needed. My spiritual father does one and the attendance is high. I attend the earlier because I get too hungry but the later one suits many people. It wouldn't kill though the parents to convince their children not stay too late on a Saturday night so as to go to church for a change. Just a suggestion...


Panayota

[Seasmillets]

Dear Panayota thank you for the equal opportunity especially when you think that the problem involves discrimination but I want to share what I have finally found in Church.
In Orthodox we are the Church and we witnessed God’s great plan in action so we must be very careful with what we are telling and what we are doing. Everything what we are doing Agion Oros and Prayer of the Heart is model ..... When any of as want to speak with children about Christ first we must speak with his parents and helping parents get their kids back.
If that goes well as well and if parents get well then both parents and children will meet Church.