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23 September 2005, 13:41Entrance fee may be introduced in an acting church in Kazan for the first time in history
Moscow, September 23, Interfax - Kazan may become the first city in the world to introduce an entrance fee to an acting church and a mosque for the faithful.
As Izvesiya daily writes on Friday, the formally acting churches at point belong to their Kazan Kremlin museum preserve, and its leaders would like to cover its public utilities costs in this way. The faithful however, both Orthodox and Moslem, are shocked.
This summer a Kul Sharif Mosque and a Cathedral of the Annunciation were opened in a solemn ceremony in the Kazan Kremlin. Over 3 thousand people come to these churches every day.
The director of the museum preserve, Ildus Vakhitov, reports that the tickets have already been commissioned to a printing house and box-offices will soon be installed at the mosque and the cathedral. The motivation is this: both the restored cathedral and constructed mosque belong to the state and are maintained at the expense of the same museum preserve, while the maintenance is an expensive affair.
Meanwhile, the faithful believe it is a sacrilege to pay for entering houses of worship, the newspaper writes. Besides, as the rector of the Cathedral of the Annunciation, Father Matfey predicts, if the entrance fee is introduced, the attendance will decrease by half as it is not everybody who can afford the fee, and if one comes with the family the amount to pay will prove substantial.
Among those discontented with the novelty is Sharif Ramil Yusupov, imam of the mosque, who says Islamic theologians have not supported this initiative. ‘It is altogether prohibited to sell or buy anything in a mosque’, he observed. |
