Yesterday was the final Sunday of Epiphany. Lent begins Wednesday with Ash Wednesday. This last Sunday of Epiphany is the day every year when Christians around the world recognize the Transfiguration of our Lord. Readings from 2 Kings, Psalms, 2 Corinthians, and Mark lead us into this contemplation. I've decided to post here a section of a paper that I wrote where I explored several events in the life of Christ (and in the Christian life) and how they relate both to orphan care, the Russian context, and Eastern Orthodoxy. In this paper, I propose that the Incarnation teaches us about heritage, the Baptism teaches us about identity, the Transfiguration teaches us about potential, the Resurrection teaches us about realization, and Metanoia (a life of daily repentance) teaches us about endurance. Here is the section about the Transfiguration...
‘This divine light, seen by the three disciples on the mountain – seen also by many of the saints during prayer – is nothing else than the uncreated energies of God.'
Children live in the periphery. They live in the corners of the room, under beds, in trees, in play-forts and make-believe houses. ‘Children are at the margins of cultural meaning-making throughout the world.’ In making these statements, orphaned and abandoned children have not even yet been considered. To be sure, their prospects for inclusion, meaning, and potential are severely less than typical or normal children, ‘family kids.’ Much of this lack of potential can be traced to the evaluation orphaned and abandoned children undergo by Russian Ministry of Education officials upon entering the system.
‘It is impossible to overstate the crucial importance of this test to an orphan's future. It is a crossroads which routes the child either to a life of limited opportunities, or to a life of doom. Many Russian experts interviewed by Human Rights Watch sharply criticized this process, and could readily identify children who were certainly misdiagnosed. Although Russian law provides for the child to appeal through his legal guardian, it is almost impossible for a four-year-old in the custody of the orphanage director to lodge a complaint.’
And so they are branded. And the bottom line is, according to the authorities and prevailing cultural stereotypes, that these children have no future. This perspective informs the way these children are treated by orphanage directors, caretakers, and teachers. They are trained. Not cultivated, nurtured, challenged, and encouraged. They are trained. Not to succeed, thrive, contribute, or flourish. They are trained simply to survive. Children are ‘house-broken’ early. They eat quickly and quietly. A number of orphanage staff have compared this process to the training of an animal. This is, in their perspective, the reasonable and most efficient way to handle ‘bad blood.’
This bleak situation becomes miserable for orphaned and abandoned children who legitimately suffer from cognitive, physical, or developmental disabilities. A segregation of the harshest form will follow these children throughout their short lives. These children are ‘are segregated into lying-down rooms. Confined to cribs, staring at the ceiling, these babies are fed and changed, but they are deprived of one-to-one attention and sensory stimulation and are not encouraged to walk or talk.’ After all, what ‘animal’ with ‘bad blood’ needs more care than this!? Emotional and mental stimulation is limited. Physical stimulation is almost nonexistent. These children do not exercise, nor do they have opportunity for outdoor play in fresh air. These children atrophy. Those children gifted and graced enough to attend school, will often only study through the sixth grade, yet receive the equivalent of a ninth grade diploma. This may seem like a shot in the arm, a vote of confidence, but the long-term effects of a child receiving a diploma he or she did not earn are quite negative. This policy only sets them up for failure. Future educators and employers will expect something from them that they are unable to deliver. One can imagine that future opportunities would be cut short once this fact comes to light.
The options close in around them when they are removed from their families. The space grows tighter still when physical, psychological, emotional, and educational diagnoses are documented, carved in stone. Claustrophobia sets in as the day for ‘graduation’ from the orphanage draws near. ‘Under Russian law, the state must provide all orphans leaving the care of the Education Ministry with an initial stipend, housing and employment. But the economic crisis since, the introduction of market reforms, and privatization of apartments makes this increasingly difficult. Indeed, the prospect of life in the outside world is a source of great worry to the orphans and child welfare experts alike.’ What was once the sliver of potential quickly disappears, like a flash of lightening that leaves the sky quickly dark again.
Though it enters and exits one’s vision quickly and sometimes deceptively, the electricity of lightening is actual. It is real. It can be accessed empirically. Just as the light of God, known also as ‘the uncreated energies’ in Orthodox terminology – is not merely a symbol. This light can also be accessed through the senses. This light explodes creation into existence and provides sustenance and nourishment in the new heaven and new earth. But in the history of the relationship between God and humans, this light is seen most clearly on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration is an identity-forming event in the life of Christ in much the same way that the Baptism is. The Father speaks, the Holy Spirit descends, this time, not as a dove of peace, but as the light of glory. One difference applicable to this anaylsis is worth noting. The Baptism defines the identity of Christ by looking backward to his heritage in the Incarnation. Conversely, the Transfiguration defines the identity of Christ by looking forward to the realization of his mission to live a glorious and resurrected life. In this way, the language of ‘image’ or ‘ikon’ signifies ‘man’s potentiality for life in God.’ And it is this life that is not only a distant dream or passing flash of lightening, but it is the life that is possible, accessible, and even expected for all people, even and especially people marginalized and oppressed.
It is true that under the current and prevalent circumstances, the potential for orphaned and abandoned children to be ‘transfigured’ into a healthy and whole life is eclipsed by dark obstacles that threaten to snuff out that light of life. But aware of these circumstances, motivated and moved by awe of the Transfigured Christ, and electrified by the invitation to all Christians to participate in this life, individuals and organizations that work for the justice and mercy of orphaned and abandoned children in Russia have a brilliant goal. In addition to the rights already noted, UNCROC seeks to protect the rights of all children to education. All children includes children of tragedy, children at high-risk, children with harrowing diagnoses, and children with disabilities and delays. All children deserve an education. This education, to truly prepare children for life in the ‘real world,’ demands to go beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic. Maria Osarina, a pioneering Russian scholar and advocate for children’s rights has identified five categories for what this education must teach and where it must take children:
‘to motivate and aid children to achieve that which they fear… to expand the horizons of children… to introduce the natural environment… to develop a sense of one’s native country and homeland… and to teach children their moral and ethical relationship to the surrounding world.’
As children are motivated, expanded, introduced, developed, and taught to embrace and engage the world at their fingertips in positive ways, they will move closer and closer to the brilliant potential they hold as living ikons of a brightly living God. Many practical programs should be implemented in order to cultivate this potential. CHC offers mentorship, tutoring, computer and job-skills training, and life-skills training, such as budgeting, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and using public transportation. These initiatives remove the shadow over an orphaned and abandoned child’s potential by shining brightly on them the future they have in Christ.
The following resources were used in writing this essay:
'Seeing Children, Seeing God: A Practical Theology of Children and Poverty' by Couture.
'Russia's Abandoned Children: An Intimate Understanding' by Fujimura, Stoecker, and Sudakova.
'Abandoned to the State: Cruelty and Neglect in Russian Orphanages' by Hunt
'Advocating for Children: International Perspectives on Human Rights' by Smith, Gollop, Marshall, and Nairn
'The Orthodox Way' by Ware
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