Billy Graham preaches from Moscow pulpit

The Rev. Billy Graham preached to a Baptist congregation here May 9 while several hundred worshippers unable to gain access to the service prayed and sang hymns outside.

Monitor correspondent Ned Temko reports one of the sermon's most forcefully rendered passages dealt with the horrors of nuclear weapons, with the possibility that humankind could destroy itself ''in an hour'' in nuclear holocaust.

Dr. Graham also told the congregation that the Bible advocates loyalty to the state. God, he said, could help the faithful become better workers and more loyal citizens.

The US evangelist is in Moscow to participate in a Soviet-sponsored religious meeting on the dangers of nuclear war. He has dodged all questions on the potentially thorny issue of a visit to six Siberian Pentecostals who burst into the US Embassy nearly four years ago seeking to emigrate, and have been there ever since.