Easter mass for the angels

By Anneli Reigas (AFP),

WHEN millions of Christians around the world go to
church to mark Good Friday and Easter, 78-year-old
Estonian parish priest Harri Rein will be holding mass
in an empty church on the tiny island of Ruhnu.

"It doesn't matter at all that the church is empty –
the angels are there," the dedicated pastor told AFP.
Even on days that are not high holy days, Father Rein
holds a service every morning "for the angels."
"I sincerely believe in angels and holding a service
in an empty church is a normal thing to do," he
explained.

"I have felt for years that I have to hold a service
every morning even if the islanders come to church on
Sundays and religious holidays only," he said.
Ruhnu, which measures 5.5km long by 3.5km wide and
lies closer to Latvia than to the Estonian mainland,
has 62 inhabitants, only 22 of whom are church-goers.
But the island's pastor is not disheartened by his
tiny flock. Indeed, he has a plan to publish a book,
based on his morning masses, entitled "1000 prayers
from the island of Ruhnu".
"The most important thing is to feel peace in your
heart, the feeling I found decades ago, even before I
became a pastor in 1964," he said.
"In my eyes, being happy means being blessed and
that's how I feel every morning when I wake up on this
island: I am blessed for having a chance to be here,"
he said.
Father Rein holds most of his services in a big white
church built at the beginning of last century, when
Estonia was still under the rule of the Russian tsar.
Just next to the large church is a small wooden
church, built in 1644 when Estonia belonged to Sweden.

The first time services were held in either church on
the island after World War II was in 1988, as Estonia
was preparing to throw off the yoke of 50 years of
Soviet rule when the church was used as a granary.
Before World War II, most of Ruhnu's population were
Swedes who had lived on the island for centuries.
In August 1944, just few weeks before the Soviet Red
Army re-entered Estonia, all the islanders escaped to
Sweden leaving behind a deserted island inhabited by
hundreds of cows, sheep, horses and chickens. And a
few angels.

March 23, 2005