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Dear family and friends,
Wednesday will be a day we will never forget. We started the day at four in the morning with the ladies saying goodbye to Melissa as she returns to be with her daughter in the hospital. Our prayers are with all who are sick in Pittsburgh and we lift each one up in prayer when we worship each evening.
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
We started the day going to St. Tikhon's University. We met our friend Yury who teaches there in the theology department. He took us to an third and fourth year English class. Most of the students spoke English very well and will become teachers or translators. We talked about Eastminster and our ministry. We told them about our worship that is very foreign to them. The idea that we have music and a band was inconceivable. How can you play rock and roll or jazz in church? How can you have a flexible liturgy and open prayers? When we told them we did communion once a month their eyes got very large and mouths opened wide!
They asked wonderful questions. We tried to explain how unusual it was for our church to be cross-cultural, which was hard for them to understand because their church is the Russian church. They have little understanding of our history. Class started and ended with prayer. It was beautiful watching young college students chanting a prayer together. I wish I could have recorded it. It was a wonderful time and afterwards we had tea, always tea in the early afternoon. We sat with four faculty members and discussed education in Russia and America.
K remlin
When that was over it was the time to go to the Kremlin. What a learning experience. When I think of the Kremlin it conjures up in my mind Leonard Breshnev standing in Red square as the great Red army passes through with tanks, missiles and troops for May day. These images brought to us by the media scarcely portrayed this area. The Kremlin literally means fortress and is a high-walled medieval castle that at one time protected all the inhabitants of Moscow. The humongous Red Square would have been contained homes, a bustling market and the central business district. Inside the Kremlin are five orthodox churches-- are all being restored and one new one was built were the Soviets had torn down a church and put in a bathroom!
Russia before Soviet times was a thoroughly Christian nation. The church is the burial place for all the Czars before Peter the great. We toured the Church of the Assumption and St. Michael’s. There were very old icons and the iconastases were beyond description--gold walls and amazing icons everywhere. (And to think, I’ve always thought the Kremlin was the Soviet Empire’s parade grounds and headquarters!)
Red Square in Winter
Red Square
Within Red square is the president’s residence and many government offices. The area is huge and now includes a shopping mall directly where Stalin had built a large communist building that is now used for small concerts and talks. The entrance into the Kremlin has two large doors. These were taken down during communist days so that tanks and missiles and army could fit through it during parade. Today the doors are back on and icons are now on top of the doors. There is a rediscovery of Russia's religious roots right inside the Red Square. The Russian people are a spiritual people trying to survive after years of intolerance for the faith or individual freedoms. It is great to see that after 70 years of pretending that faith does not matter, Russians are learning and watching the church at worship and service again.
My attitude about Russia is mind-boggling. I grew up thinking that normal Americans would never be allowed to travel there, that Russians were not religious and that they didn't like Americans. How far from the truth! God and His mighty power changed Russia and brought communism down overnight. Hopefully, God is leading the Orthodox church and other Christians to bring about a new Russia. It is quite a beautiful place with hundreds of years of history to be discovered and enjoyed.
God Bless and may your faith be encouraged. Pastor Paul
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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