Religious activity

Last week I went for a long evening walk after dropping Alla at the train station. Once again, I noticed a church in the middle of the block I go behind when walking home from Yakuba Kolosa Square. In no particular hurry, I decided to figure out how to get there. I went almost all the way around the block before I found the opening that gives access to the church yard.

It turns out that it’s a Catholic church in bad repair. I am guessing that it was unused for some years following the end of the Soviet Union. (Catholics haven’t gotten their buildings back as quickly as the Orthodox.) In any event, there wasn’t much going on in this church when I got there at around 8:15 in the evening. Theoretically there had been a 7 p.m. service, but if it happened there weren’t many people left by the time I got there.

More interestingly to me, I noticed a congregation singing a hymn in a building next door, where a wall of glass windows looked onto the same church yard. At first I thought it must be the Catholic congregation using a newer building, but then I realized that it seemed unlikely because there was no access to the newer building from the church yard.

Further investigation brought me to understand that the congregation I saw singing occupied a conference room in the back of an old expo center. By the time I approached the building, people were streaming out so I asked a lady if this were a church.

“Oh no,” she replied. “It’s just a meeting. We learn about the Bible.”

So I asked her if this were Catholic or Orthodox. (I’m not sure I know the word for “Protestant,” and since they were studying the Bible I figured this group had to fall into one of those groups.)

Once again, the lady deflected my question a bit. She told me that since they simply study the Bible, it’s interesting to everybody, regardless of their religion. She went on to invite me to come at 11:00 on any Sunday. I checked my watch and concluded that I must have misunderstood her.

“Eleven o’clock?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “It only lasts about 45 minutes and then there are other meetings during the day. Bring your Bible.”

OK, so I went yesterday. I got there just as people were sitting down, and I sat near the door. I also happened to be near a nice young couple who made me feel very welcome. They loaned me their hymnal and borrowed another, and then when the preacher (or should I say speaker?) started calling out Bible citations for us to find, she helped me find them. It turns out that she knows the names of most books of the Bible in English, and I definitely don’t know most of them in Russian. The preacher would say something like, “Turn to Isaiah 43, verse 9,” and he would have lost me at the word “Isaiah.”

It was an interesting experience. I can’t say that I’m in full agreement with their theological views, but then I can’t claim that I fully understood everything the guy said, either. At least it felt a lot like church, I got to sit down, and I got some practice listening to Russian language spoken at a normal pace. And I’m beginning to recognize the names of a few books of the Bible. I’ll go back.