"There is an intellectual desire, an eros of the mind. Without it there would arise no questioning, no inquiry, no wonder." Bernard Lonergan

"It seems clear that humans cannot significantly reduce or mitigate the dangers inherent in their use of life by ccumulating more information or better theories or by achieving greater predictability or more caution in their scientific and industrial work. To treat life as less than a miracle is to give up on it." Wendell Berry

"Do not be afraid, my little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Luke 12:32

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Russia Report - Day 3

I am going to reverse a couple of things tonight (today). I am going to start at the end and work backward to the morning.

(This is a new development in Moscow, called Moscow City. 1square kilometer of high rise modernity. Yes, that building is twisted.)

There are a little over 12 million people in Moscow. Which is like putting all of North Carolina into one city. There is nothing old world about Moscow. It is modern, glitzy, flashy. There is no doubt that it has gotten more upscale since I was here last in 2003. Of course one can wonder about the rest of Russia...has it benefitted economically as certain parts of Moscow have? 

I am told not. Tomorrow we take the train to the west, to Smolensk. There we work with partners in the Smolensk Baptist Church. This partnership with WMPC has lasted over 2 decades and is by every measure a success story.

(Olya, Phlippe - her son -, Ilya - her husband, Joan and Jean at dinner this evening.)

Part of our wonderful dinner was eating with Olya, one of the Russian mission partners who has been near and dear to us since she was a very young child. She has been with us many times in Raleigh. In fact, she was there on my first Sunday at WMPC. She even quoted parts of my sermon back to me tonight. Sunday I preach in the church which raised her. Separated by 7 times zones? Yes. Sharing enough common faith that those time zones do not prevent the development of real relationships? Absolutely! We are friends whose hearts are brought closer together through trust in God.

More pictures from Moscow. 

Again, they set the stage...to understand the fragility of the church in Russia, not only the small Protestant, Baptist, Lutheran, and Evangelical churches, but every church in Russia, one must have some idea of the grand collapse of the church.

Before 1917, churches were everywhere. Thousands of them. Russian Orthodoxy was the standard bearer of the Orthodox-faith branch of Christianity.  After 1917? Destroyed, repurposed, or forgotten for 80 years.

As Anatoli, our tour guide said, "It has been a really hard century for the churches." 

To understand that history you must go to Moscow. See the interrelatedness of the Czars and the Patriarchs. And then and only then can one grasp the magnitude of the fall of the church.

(St. Basil's at night. That's right. They once built churches like this. Other magnificent churches barely meters away were destroyed. Most famously the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was turned into a swimming pool. That destroyed church, not pictured, was rebuilt in the early 2000's).

(Looking across Red Square at night. As a child I was afraid of Red Square. Everyone I knew was in the 1970's. Tonight we saw families walking. Couples jogging. People shopping. Peaceful. Tranquil. Beautiful and lovely. I wonder now - how well did all that fear in a very perilous time - how well did it serve us?)

(Pictures at night are never great. So much of Russia, Moscow Russia, at least, is bathed in art. This is a subway station near the Bolshoi Ballet. Collin and Jean and Lydia stop to take a picture of one of more that 70 bronze sculptures in this ONE station. Most stations in the central city are adorned with similar art. Here is a poor close up of one of the sculptures).


If you ever get to Moscow. Tour it at night. Not so much traffic. 


And monuments like the Bolshoi with her four muses - music, art, literature, theater - are even more spectacular at night.

Speaking of traffic. It should be noted that parts of Moscow were laid out for 500,000 or so cars. And now there are as many as 5 million a day in the city. Moscow traffic is a wonder to behold.


I'll post a video to my Facebook page later with the greatest U-turn (across two turning lanes, and 6 lanes of traffic, I have ever seen. But it took us 90 minutes today to go 6 or 7 kilometers).

Our day had started at Novodivichy Convent and its amazing cemetery. I am a sucker for old cemeteries. And I really wanted to see this one. Our mission partner Ellen stated it well: how do people with no church or "official faith" or "religion" bury the dead? If there is no belief structure in immortality or eternity, no faith tradition to uphold it or proclaim, then what do people do? Remember - this was the reality for Russians from 1917 until 1989 or so.

This cemetery is an example of what they did. They immortalized themselves in granite. In marble.





Jean and Jack and Joan and Mary Grace take in the grave of Nikita Kruschev. Note in the above pictures the size and magnitude of the grave stones.

Anatoli, our guide leads us today. Here he leads us through the cemetery. Ellen and Jean in the foreground. Collin and Judy near Anatoli. Great guide. If you ever need an English-speaking guide in Moscow, he was wonderful.

We also went to the childhood home of Peter the Great at Kolomenskye. It was a reproduction of the wooden palace where he grew up. Part of the history of Russia is contained in its memory. How Peter turned Russia's gaze from South and East, that is Asia, to firmly West and Europe. It is the great moment of cultural transmission in Russian history. It just may have set the stage for the fall of the Czars and the demise of the church. We'll see more of that in St. Petersburg.

For now...to Smolensk in the morning!

Prayer requests:
- that we get on the right train
- safe travel to Smolensk
- health and safety for families back home
- that our time of ministry and sharing with our church partners would be one of growth and joy for them, and by grace, for us.
















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