I Got Me Some Religion

This post is brought to you by the word голгофа (gal-GOH-fa), meaning “Calvary.” (Comes from the word Golgotha, the name of the hill on which Christ was crucified…)

I haven’t mentioned this on my blog yet, but one of the biggest adjustments I’ve had to make this semester has been church – or, the lack of it. When I’m at school, I have church on Sundays, Phi Lamb chapter (my Christian sorority) on Mondays, E.58 (college Bible study now apparently renamed “The Point”...thanks for changing the name on me while I’m away, guys! :-P) on Thursdays, and a few other small group meetings throughout the week. God/church/fellowshipping with Christians is a big part of my life that has been sadly absent, the past couple months. To make up for not going to church every week, I have been listening to some podcasts that my pastors put on iTunes. (Don’t you love modern technology? I can listen to sermons preached in Nashville, TN while I’m chilling out in my soviet-chic St. Petersburg apartment.) For a long time, I thought I was the only practicing Christian in my study abroad program. (I ran into a couple believers, but they aren’t the worry-about-what-to-do-for-church-in-Russia kind.) Fortunately, however, I learned that one of my classmates was also looking for a church to attend, and I no longer felt like I was alone in a sea of religiously indifferent peers.

A couple of weeks ago, I remembered that my college campus minister had some contacts that could get me in touch with missionaries in St. Petersburg. I asked him to pass along my info through the proper channels, and the next week I received an email from a missionary who wanted to meet me. Turns out he and his family live across the street from me. Also turns out that there are a bunch of other missionaries living in my neighborhood. Круто (cool), as the Russians would say.

The family that lives across the street had my friend and me over for dinner one night, chatted with us and told us about different churches on our island that we could try. (Also, their adorable 5-year-old daughter drew me a picture of a pink castle with a moat and a karate-man and pirate as guards. That’s one well-guarded castle.) Church buddy and I went to one of the recommended churches this past Sunday and were very happy with it. It was a Calvary Chapel (one of 3 in the city, apparently) and it was taught in both Russian and English. The pastor was Russian, and after every phrase or so he would stop to let the translator interpret for us. The songs during worship were completely in Russian, with the lyrics on a screen, but were translations of songs I knew in English. I really liked the Russian-English mix, because I could work on my comprehension while still understanding everything that was going on. It was good for my tongue, ears and soul. ;-)

Aside from the translation, which was cool enough as it was, the text of the sermon was the book of Numbers. Yes, you read that right. The entire book. In case you don’t usually go to church, most pastors will either preach sermons on a theme (like Forgiveness, Giving, etc.) and reference Bible verses pertaining to the theme, or they will read through a passage of scripture verse-by-verse and talk about modern-day applications of principles learned. This Russian pastor did a bit of both and a bit of neither. He basically presented the entire book of Numbers by talking about important themes and stories in the book and relating it to real life. We’d read a few verses in a particular chapter, then skip over a few chapters to the next big part in the story. It was Numbers, but the Cliff’s Notes version. This style of teaching enables people to get a good gist of what the book is about, and it also means that the church can get through the entire Bible relatively quickly. (My church back at home is sort of doing the same thing, but we’re going verse-by-verse, so it’s much slower. We’ve been in the book of John for 2 years, almost.)

I liked the whole book overview, though I think I prefer the in-depth exposition of my home church. Nevertheless, I’m happy with Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg and I plan to go back there for the rest of the semester.

Speaking of religion in general, as you know, Russia is nationally Eastern Orthodox. This means that there are a ton of churches, cathedrals and monasteries everywhere, and plenty of people frequent them. The thing is that religion here is more cultural than personal. After the fall of the Soviet Union, an entire nation lost its identity. In seeking that identity, they turned to the one thing that had defined Russia for thousands of years: Orthodoxy. That didn’t mean that Russia experienced a massive wave of Enlightenment-esque evangelization, however. It simply meant that people went to church because it was a label they could give themselves and it was inherently Russian. (Anecdote: My host mom said that “many years ago,” people would go to church simply because the church could give them bread and other material things. I don’t know how long ago she meant, but I’m guessing she meant the Soviet period, maybe during the stagnation of the 70’s.) I think the church still plays a part in modern Russian culture, but not really in politics. Unlike in America, where grassroots Christian organizations and the Religious Right lobby for political changes, the Orthodox Church mostly stays out of the Kremlin’s business, or so my professor once told me.

As a point of interest, President Medvedev’s wife is apparently a very religious woman. She constantly sponsors projects to restore cathedrals and is seen going to church often. She is known for her faith, and is seemingly well-regarded, according to my Grammar professor and my host mom – two opinions I know I can believe in. *wink*

Until next time,

Katya