There was a time when people said "There are sorok sorokov of churches in Moscow" (meaning "multitudes of churches in Moscow"). By the 20th century the number of parishes in Moscow was about 1,600 which is indeed forty by forty. In the Soviet period most of the cathedrals and churches were destroyed or closed. As a result, today the Russian capital lags behind other Russian cities in terms of numbers of churches per capita. But the situation should change. In two years at least 200 orthodox churches are to be built in Moscow.
According to a recent survey, there is only one church per 40 000 people in Moscow, while 2/3 of the city population considered themselves to be Orthodox believers, priest Vladimir Vigilyansky, a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate said in an interview with the "Voice of Russia".
In comparison with other regions of Russia Moscow is in the most desperate state in terns of number of churches per capita. Sometimes a district with a 500,000 population has only one small church. Many people including pensioners and invalids have to spend several hours on the road to the center to go to church.
During their meeting on Monday Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and Patriarch Kirill gave start to Program-200.
The traditional methods of church building is a time and money consuming task. That is why the program envisages the construction of typical churches which can be assembled in several days, priest Vladimir Viglyansky says.
Brick walls will be built around a typical iron and concrete carcass. Each church will have the room to receive 250 -300 people. If it is necessary it will be possible to build it up for 100 more people.
The idea of mass church construction is not new. In mid 19th century the government financed a similar project. Then even a series of simplified wooden churches was built. However about 100 churches were built on individual projects by such outstanding architects and Shchusev, Shekhtel and Bondarenko.
The construction of new churches in Moscow will be mainly financed from charity funds.The Moscow government has already defined 35 sites in different districts of Moscow and the Moscow region where the new churches will be built. Mainly these are the new districts beyond the Moscow Ring Road. There the churches will be erected by the end of the year while another 165 churches will be built in 2011.
Though if we take the recent statistics of baptizing in Moscow, 200 churches won't be enough and the capital needs at least 600 new churches.
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