I forgot to mention that I went to an Anglican church here in Moscow the other Sunday. It might be interesting for some people to hear about that. If it's not for you, then don't read this entry!

I don't know what I was expecting. I had got the details from the internet so come Sunday morning I was walking round Moscow city centre with map in hand. I managed to find the turning I needed, into a quiet backstreet in an exclusive part of the city, only a stroll away from Red Square. I walked down the road for about five minutes, turned the corner, and suddenly was faced with this whopping great 19th century mock-gothic structure - like a parish church on steroids. Well, I certainly hadn't been expecting that.

Moscow as a city has relatively few genuine old churches, apart from in the Kremlin, because Stalin ordered a lot of them to be destroyed. But apparently this Anglican church was used as a recording studio during Communist times (good acoustics!), which was why it was spared. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the church building was (eventually) given back to the Church. It still needs a lot of reconstruction work as it has been neglected for a long time, but that is underway at least.

As for the service, it was quite a high church (formal) service, lots of incense and things. That's not necessarily bad, but it might take me some time to get used to. Don't get me wrong, it was a typical CofE service with all that that brings to mind. Most of all, it was great to take communion for the first time in over a month.

The congregation were mixed, the majority English and American, but also a high number of African people, and also Russian. The minister was English, but most of the rest of the church workers were Russian, I think. So that was interesting.