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Subject: [DOUKHOBOR] Doukhobor Leader a 'Beacon of Peace'
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:54:15 -0000

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Author: Jon_Kalmakoff
Surnames: Verigin
Classification: queries

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Doukhobor leader a 'beacon of peace'
John J. Verigin ( 1921 -- 2008)

Tim Lai

Vancouver Sun

Sunday, November 02, 2008

John J. Verigin, who is credited with bringing Canadian Doukhobors into the modern era during his decades of leadership, died last Sunday at his home in Grand Forks, B.C. He was 86.

Verigin had been the honourary chairman of the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ since 1962. However, he had been viewed as the leader of thousands of Canadian and Russian Doukhobors since 1939, when he succeeded his great-grandfather, Peter V. Verigin, at the age of 17.

Larry Ewashen, curator of the Doukhobor Discovery Centre in Castlegar, said Verigin was a reluctant spiritual leader at first, but knew he wanted to serve the Doukhobors, especially after the B.C. government seized their properties in 1938.

"You can give him a lot of credit for bringing the Doukhobors into modern society," Ewashen said. "He was a very dynamic speaker. He was fluent in English and Russian. He could just go from one language to another with just the most amazing ease."

In 1945, he organized a historic all-Doukhobor convention that created the Union of Doukhobors of Canada, viewed at the time as the most comprehensive unification effort yet made.

While his work in integrating the Doukhobors into Canadian society will be Verigin's main legacy, he will also be celebrated for his efforts to improve Canadian-Russian relations and for fostering a greater understanding among all peoples.

"He had a wisdom about sharing commonalities," said Koozma Tarasoff, an Ottawa-based author who has written 10 books on the Doukhobors. He described Verigin as "a longtime beacon of peace and goodwill."

Tarasoff, who knew Verigin for half a century, said his friend maintained his principles of peace in all his work, especially in the many peace events he organized.

"He insisted on love and forgiveness for anybody who he quarrelled with in the past," said Tarasoff. "These qualities are important for inter-group understanding."

In the early 1980s, Verigin was the regional director of Operation Dismantle, one of Canada's largest peace organizations, which advocated a global vote on disarmament.

Tarasoff said one of Verigin's crowning achievements was organizing the International Doukhobor Intergroup Symposium in Castlegar in 1982, the first gathering of Doukhobors, Molokans, Mennonites, Quakers and Tolstoyans.

Verigin received the Order of Canada in 1976 and the Order of British Columbia in 1996.

In 1989, he received the Order of the Peoples' Friendship from Mikhail Gorbachev for creating cultural exchanges, travel and education opportunities between Canadians and Russians.

One initiative involved co-ordinating a six-week visit to the Kootenays for children suffering from the effects of the Chornobyl nuclear accident. He also worked to collect and distribute supplies to needy communities in the former Soviet Union.

Verigin is survived by his wife, Laura, three children and their families, and all residents of Grand Forks, which is about 200 kilometres southeast of Kelowna, near the Washington border.

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