Russian Beauties

I never tire from looking at the Russian Orthodox churches. I’ve made Scott and Justin and whoever else is with us, enter so many of them, much to their dismay at times. They said once you see inside ten, you've usually seen the same thing, but somehow entering these places of worship still interests me and helps me get a little better feel for the structure of these people's faith. Many say that the churches are more beautiful on the outside than the inside…and I’d have to agree with many of them.

Here is Christ’s Church which is pretty incredible on both the outside and the inside. When you walk inside most Russia Orthodox churches, you can usually see icons of the Holy Mother Mary or other Saints lining the walls or in clumps in parts of the church. Pictures of Saints and more recent church leaders, which might also be considered icons, decorate the inner walls of the churches too. Candles and incense are lit and fill the churches with an old, musty sort of smell. Some churches we visited seemed more in touch with the stories found in the Bible than others. I loved it when they were.

A few times, as I was passing one of the churches, I would hear beautiful singing and so, of course, had to go inside and check it out. The music consisted of singing/chanting by one of the priests and a chorus. It was really quite lovely sometimes. I may have mentioned it before, but when a woman enters these churches she must cover her head. It was really neat to enter the churches during a service as I did a few times. Either way, the believers do a series of bowing and crossing themselves at different points in the service or as they approach various icons.