Archive · 2018 · From the print edition of Thursday 24 May 2018, Vol. 26, No. 7,888
CultureArcheparchy asks Russia again for the Chu Psalter
For the third time, the archeparchy has asked for the return of the manuscript. This time the ISEZ has put its name to the request.
IYIK JANYL — The archeparchy of Iyık Janyl has asked Russia for the return of the Chu Psalter, the third such request since 1993, and for the first time the ISEZ government has formally backed it, a church spokesman said yesterday.
The archeparchy asked for the manuscript in 1993 and again in 2007. Both requests received the same answer: that the Psalter was lawfully acquired and is part of Russia's collections. The church said this year's letter, sent through the archeparchy's contacts in Moscow, was accompanied by a letter of support from the Office of the Governor.
"It is not a political request. It is a request from a family for its prayer book," the spokesman said. Russo deputies in Nurzhan disagreed, accusing Talas of "politicising scholarship". One said the Psalter was "better kept in Moscow than it would be in a damp library in the south".
The seminary library in Iyık Janyl, which holds the 12th-century Talas Gospel Lectionary and the 13th-century Gospels of Iyık Janyl, said it had a space ready. "It has been ready for twenty-five years," said the librarian. "We dust it every week."