Parish libraries

The revival of libraries at church parishes began in the late 80s, during the so-called “perestroika”. In the Soviet time, some parishes had “underground” libraries made up of “samizdat” (self-published) books and miraculously surviving pre-Revolutionary editions. Those books could be lent to very close and reliable people alone.

With a thaw in the political climate in the country came the rapid republication of pre-Revolutionary books and publication of new literature. Church books, brochures and newspapers began to fill the shelves of church shops. Parishioners, who had no books at home except for perhaps an old grandmother’s copy of the Bible, began to buy up Orthodox books greedily. The clergy could now use some of the books they bought for collecting parish libraries.

The recent years have seen an intense growth in the number of parish libraries and in their funds. Several factors determine the importance of parish libraries in the religious education system.

1. The book as such can be considered one of the best agents for conveying the experience of the Church, which is extremely important to do after the Soviet period of militant atheism.
2. The recent years have seen a sharp increase in the number of parishioners, actually Soviet people who need to be catechized. A priest overloaded with responsibilities as he is today cannot catechize every new parishioner personally. Therefore, books recommended for reading by a priest are a good support for him in this endeavour.
3. Young people who come to the Church today have inquiring minds. They wish to know Orthodoxy in detail and to study the lives of saints.
4. It is only natural that parishes have begun to open parish schools for both children and adults. The need has arisen to supply their pupils with books for both reading in classes and at home.

The basic funds of parish libraries are made up of Holy Scriptures, Catechism, prayer books, Books of Hours and commentaries on the liturgy. Their patristic, hagiographic and historic sections are growing rapidly. Parishes with children’s groups in their schools see to it that their libraries should contain various biblical interpretations and stories for children and color-in books. Parishes with many intellectuals among their parishioners seek to increase their libraries’ sections on dogmatics, patrology, homiletics, apologetics and philosophy. They also collect secular literature including the 19th and 20th century Russian classics.

A special place in parish libraries has been given to albums on church art and photo albums. As a rule, these are expensive editions hardly affordable for parishioners. Periodicals also form an important section in these libraries. They inform readers about church life in Russia and in Orthodox churches in other countries.

Almost every library has liturgical books, such as The Book of Hours, the service books, Oktoich, Triodion and Mineion. The Handbook for the Clergy is a necessary reading for acolytes and precentors, while church choirs and Sunday schools need music collections.

Each parish library also has a section for catechumens. Along with the Gospel, they need books explaining popularly the basics of Orthodox faith and church rites.

An audio- and videoteque has become a modern extension of any library. They give the teachers of catechism new opportunities for work with students.

The example of the Moscow diocese can illustrate the present state of parish libraries and the dynamic of their growth resulting from the development of the parish religious education system. Among the most active users of libraries are adults and children attending parish schools and catechism courses as major forms of parish education today. Most of the parishes in the Moscow diocese run parish schools. Let us have a look at the disciplines studied in them.

Along with the traditional study of Holy Scriptures and Catechism, featuring strongly in the structure of religious education are studies on the History of the Church, Church Slavonic, liturgics and church music. There is a growing number of parish schools teaching moral and dogmatic theology, apologetics, patristics, Christian ethics, church art, iconography, drawing and icon painting.

The number of religious education institutions teaching church singing, Church Slavonic, Holy Scriptures and the study of sects doubled in 1998 in the Moscow diocese since 1997, while the number of those teaching liturgics has increased five times. As parishes extend their educational work, their libraries enlarge their sections of spiritual and educational literature.

The number of study groups at parish schools grew from 62 in 1997 to 106 in 1998, that is a 70% growth. They are engaged mainly in drawing, embroidery, icon painting and modelling. This entails the creation of respective sections in parish libraries. The number of children’s choirs grew from 56 in 1997 to 91 in 1998, that is 1, 4 times. Today almost every parish school has a children’s choir, and almost every parish library has music collections.

On the whole, the number of libraries at parish schools has grown from 8 in 1997 to 166 in 1998. At present 75% of the parish schools have libraries of their own.

I would like to make some general recommendations on how to organize the work of parish libraries.

1. It is important that books for a library should be chosen by a priest (usually a rector) or an experienced lay person who has the blessing to do so from the rector. The general trend and spirit of the books comprising a library should correspond to the trend in the spiritual life of a given parish.
2. It is helpful to arrange displays of new books and books on a certain theme.
3. The best library days are Saturdays and Sundays, the time between divine services.
4. Efforts should be made to arrange Orthodox books corners at public libraries, in hospitals, boarding schools and prisons. In every case, the needs and interests of readers as well as the level of their spiritual and cultural development should be taken in account.

In speaking about prospect for the development of church libraries, it should be noted that such subjects as the History of Christianity, Basics of Orthodox Culture and Theology have now been included in the curricula of many secular colleges and universities. For these academic courses a great deal of religious literature is required, which school and district libraries can hardly afford today. This poses the question of the need to open large parish libraries in major cities, so that they could meet the needs of not only parishioners, but also various students and teachers. Such libraries can facilitate in a considerable degree the training of teachers of catechism and popular education.