The Russian Orthodox Paradox

This past Sunday, our group of international students woke up at 6a.m. dragged ourselves to the Metro and managed to make it to an Russian Orthodox church service. The service was pretty cool, there are no pews for sitting and there is a lot more movement throughout the church than would occur in a North American service. My pastor once upset the pulpit in rage, kicked a speaker off stage, and screamed at me for dropping my pen during a service. That last sentence was a lie, but hopefully it enhances the contrast between the activity in an Orthodox service and the relative lack-there-of (minus the obligitory hand shaking session mid service) in the North American Church. The service also last nearsly two hours, so needless to say I had a prett good stand-sway going by the end of the time.

All jokes aside, towards the end of the service I had a really unique experience with one of the members of the Church. I was watching as the priest was burning some incense and conducting what appeared to me as a mini after church service, and an older lady approached me and started talking to me in Russian. At first I thought that she was scolding me for failing to cross myself at the appropriate times but after we communicated for a minute or two, I found out that she was actually trying to teach me this basic practice of the Church--explaining what every stage of the gesture meant as she led me in the actions. After this happened and I told her that I was a visiting student from Canada and she showed me a few of the icons present at the church and explained that they represented St. Mary, St. Vladimir, and St. Gregory. Following this tour of the church, this sparkling-eyed, stereotypical babooshka (grandma) told me to follow her into the church foyer and then proceeded to show me pictures of her family, pointing out her son, her grandson, and her husband, explaining that he had died a few years ago. When this was finished everyone was ready to leave and she told all of my friends (who had come to rescue me if she was lashing out in anger) to stay in school and not do drugs, and that all around the world we are one family in God. It kind of caught me off-guard that this lady who I thought was coming to scold me, ended up sharing a message of hope and unity with me. Hope, faith, and kindness are universally present: they often show up in ways I wouldn't expect.