Sunday morning was quite cool at the conference center and we had to get packed before events started for the day. I met a small group at 8:20 for a half hour of morning prayers before breakfast. There was oatmeal at breakfast - hooray!
Worship started at 10. Bishop Vladimir decided to use long form for worship (Liturgy of St. Basil). I persuaded him to turn the table we used as altar so we were standing facing the people instead of with our backs to them, and to have at least one woman reading scripture which isn't seen in the Orthodox churches here. I also suggested having a Dutch minister preach.
After the scriptures, the Bishop went right on with the liturgy so I reminded him that we were having a sermon and we did. After the sermon, we had the wedding of Misha and Denys. I had spent an hour with them on Saturday evening when Denys arrived. I showed them how to write their own vows and suggested that they not show them to each other before the ceremony. They looked right into each others eyes as they read their vows. Their sincerity and devotion to each other was so strong that there wasn't a dry eye in the house, including mine.
Then the Bishop went on with liturgy which took almost 3 hours by the time he was finished. There had been two hours alloted for Sunday worship.
After a brief coffee break, we had our closing session and with lots of hugs, people began to scatter. At 3 o'clock, those of us going back into Moscow got on the bus. A reporter from the English language Moscow newspaper had been with us Sunday morning. He interviewed me briefly and I couldn't place his accent. On the bus, I found out that he was from Boston, grew up in Waltham. We had a great talk about our home city.
Yury had arranged a bus tour of Moscow from 5-7. Our big bus dropped us off in the middle of Moscow with our luggage. We were supposed to have another smaller bus immediately. Well, it didn't come and didn't come. We left some folks with all the luggage and found a coffee shop. The bus finally came at 6:30 when it was too dark to take good pictures. I left the group at the Kremlin because it was a short walk to my hotel.
I dropped my bag and went out to a good coffee shop in the neighborhood to get a cappuccino and a ham and cheese sandwich. Then I sat in the lobby and caught up on email. It was after 10pm by that time and my taxi was coming at 5 to take me to the airport on Monday morning.
Some photos of the conference and Moscow are HERE.
Worship started at 10. Bishop Vladimir decided to use long form for worship (Liturgy of St. Basil). I persuaded him to turn the table we used as altar so we were standing facing the people instead of with our backs to them, and to have at least one woman reading scripture which isn't seen in the Orthodox churches here. I also suggested having a Dutch minister preach.
After the scriptures, the Bishop went right on with the liturgy so I reminded him that we were having a sermon and we did. After the sermon, we had the wedding of Misha and Denys. I had spent an hour with them on Saturday evening when Denys arrived. I showed them how to write their own vows and suggested that they not show them to each other before the ceremony. They looked right into each others eyes as they read their vows. Their sincerity and devotion to each other was so strong that there wasn't a dry eye in the house, including mine.
Then the Bishop went on with liturgy which took almost 3 hours by the time he was finished. There had been two hours alloted for Sunday worship.
After a brief coffee break, we had our closing session and with lots of hugs, people began to scatter. At 3 o'clock, those of us going back into Moscow got on the bus. A reporter from the English language Moscow newspaper had been with us Sunday morning. He interviewed me briefly and I couldn't place his accent. On the bus, I found out that he was from Boston, grew up in Waltham. We had a great talk about our home city.
Yury had arranged a bus tour of Moscow from 5-7. Our big bus dropped us off in the middle of Moscow with our luggage. We were supposed to have another smaller bus immediately. Well, it didn't come and didn't come. We left some folks with all the luggage and found a coffee shop. The bus finally came at 6:30 when it was too dark to take good pictures. I left the group at the Kremlin because it was a short walk to my hotel.
I dropped my bag and went out to a good coffee shop in the neighborhood to get a cappuccino and a ham and cheese sandwich. Then I sat in the lobby and caught up on email. It was after 10pm by that time and my taxi was coming at 5 to take me to the airport on Monday morning.
Some photos of the conference and Moscow are HERE.
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