Seminar in Ulyanovsk

The seminars we've been conducting are part of Bradn's work for the Lutheran Church here in the area of theological and parish education. The theme both in Omsk and Ulyanovsk was the Lutheran Law/Gospel approach to reading the Bible and preaching. This is the particular focus of the Crossings Community, on whose board I have served for the past five years or so. I drew heavily on Crossings material for my presentations, and if you're familiar with Crossings you might recognize the Crossings matrix in some of my pictures.

We began our work on Friday evening with close to thirty people in attendance. We were expecting maybe 12-15. More than half were members of the local congregation. 

P5 - The place where faith takes hold.

Clarifying a point with Andrei, soon to be pastor in Saratov.

Vladimir and Alyona's daughter Anisia was also in attendance.

Stained Glass Window in the Church

That's me up there preaching

Tea after the service.

The seminar continued after church.

Rustem from Ufa (East of Kazan)

Tatiana from Tolyatti (between Ulyanovsk and Samara), one of the final year students with Vladimir during our first year in Russia.

Lyubov from Ulyanovsk giving positive feedback on the seminar. She appreciated how the Crossings matrix necessitates Christ.

Seminar participants and facilitators, minus some from Samara who left early because of impending weather.

After the seminar, members of the congregation led some of us out-of-towners around town. The church is in a part of town known as the "V. I. Lenin Hometown Conservancy Area." Ulyanovsk was formerly called Simbirsk, but it was renamed in 1924 after Lenin's death after his original last name, Ulyanov. This is where he was born and raised, and there plaques everywhere that say either "Lenin lived here" or "Lenin was here" - kind of like "George Washington slept here" in the United States.

"V. I. Lenin Hometown Conservancy Area." This is right across the street from the church.

85 Lenin Street, formerly Moscow Street

Lenin lived here from 1878-87.

Just down the street from the Lutheran church.

Statute outside the photography museum. There are 12 different museums in the conservancy area.

Back to the church.

Rainy Day in Kazan

The Lutheran Church of St. Peter and Paul in Kazan

 The train arrived in Kazan at 6 a.m. Moscow time (all times on Russian Rail Road schedules and tickets are on Moscow time), which also happens to be local time here - three hours behind Omsk, Tomsk, and Novosibirsk. I was met by Eduard, a member of the Kazan Lutheran congregation, who drove me to the church,where a breakfast of bread, ham, cheese, and tea was waiting for me. He had to leave to go to work and then pick up Bradn at the airport at 9:00. So I happily sat in the church's newly-renovated kitchen and continued my story. By 9:30 or 10:00 Bradn had arrived, as had Vladimir Provorov, another of the final-year students during my first year in St. Petersburg. Pastor David (a Russian pastor who arrived in Kazan only in December of last year) gave us tour of the church, and then Bradn, Vladimir, Oleg (from the local congregation) and I had a walk around town in the rain.  

Interior view.

 The main attraction is the Kremlin (fortress) in the center of town, which contains both an Orthodox Church and a Mosque. Kazan is located in the Tatar Autonomous Republic, a component part of the Russian Federation. It's history with Russia goes back to the 16th century when it was conquered by Ivan IV (a.k.a. "the Terrible").

 After our walk we had lunch at a restaurant in town and then Vladimir drove us the 3+ hours south to Ulyanovsk.

36 Hours to Kazan

Train Station in Novosibirsk

I've never taken a train this far in Russia, so I was a little concerned about how I would pass the time. As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried. I'm listening to Pillars of the Earth via the Audible app on my phone, plus I just discovered Minecraft a few weeks before my trip, so I'm building my own cathedral along with Tom Builder and Prior Philip. From time to time the sun came out and I took some pictures. As we approached the Urals I noticed that more pine trees began to be added to the ubiquitous birches of Siberia.

Some pictures of the inside of the train:

Brushing teeth before bed.

The view from my bunk.

Using my Audible subscription.

These next pictures were taken as we were coming into Tyumen. I know, you've never heard of it. But it's the oldest city in Siberia, and important in Russia's gas and oil industry, with more than half a million inhabitants.

This is a clever logo. Almost as clever as the FedEx logo, but not quite. At first I kept thinking it was Р/Д. But what would that stand for? Russian / Road? The slash is a rail? Then all of a sudden it hit me. The middle letter, Ж, takes it's left and right side from the other two letters. It's РЖД, Russian Rail (literally "Iron") Road. Well played, graphic designer!

I didn't take many pictures after this as it began to get dark. We pulled into Ekaterinburg in the evening, Russia's fourth-largest city (1.3 million - Novosibirsk is 3rd at 1.5 million) and the administrative and industrial center of the Urals. It is famous in Russian history for being the place where the Russian royal family was killed during the Russian Civil War between the Reds and the Whites in 1918. It was too dark to take pictures, though, and I was tired. I lost my cabin mate here and gained three more, so I got to experience a full compartment for the first time on this trip. Two of us got off at Kazan. I don't know where the other two were headed, but the conductor told me that the train finished in Sochi. I forgot to ask him where it had started.