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Miracles and Wonder in Moscow

  That’s a 13-minute film about a fairly stunning Moscow exhibition of Orthodoxy’s revival in Russia. I recommend it even if one isn’t Orthodox — though you can skip the first three minutes, which show the erecting of the exhibition — for the reason that Jim Kushiner cites: What is most moving about the video, […]

 

That’s a 13-minute film about a fairly stunning Moscow exhibition of Orthodoxy’s revival in Russia. I recommend it even if one isn’t Orthodox — though you can skip the first three minutes, which show the erecting of the exhibition — for the reason that Jim Kushiner cites:

What is most moving about the video, perhaps, is the inclusion of footage of Communist church demolitions, and the shocked looks in the eyes of onlookers, especially children.

25 years ago the scene in this video, right in Moscow, was unthinkable. Things do change. How and why? The Soviet Union was not invaded by an enemy, but somehow 70 years of Communist repression of the church, including the executions by the atheists of tens of thousands, if not more, because they were Christians, ended almost overnight with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and today one is free to worship and build churches. Before, believers risked arrest and death in the camps by even hanging an icon in their homes; now people openly cross themselves in public whenever they choose, and many do by custom whenever they pass by a church. I honestly thought I would never be able to visit Moscow and openly practice my faith, but last June I was able to do so.

This is a miracle. Here is the Russian language website for the exhibition. Here is a gorgeous clip of a four-man Orthodox choir chanting the Our Father in Russian, polyphonically.

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