Quakers, Monarchists, and A Hero For Our Time

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Last Sunday I looked up online to see if there was a Quaker meeting in Moscow. I was attending the meeting in Ann Arbor and thought it would be really neat if I could go to one in Moscow. As unlikely as it sounds, there are indeed Quakers in Moscow. About 20 of them.
The meeting was unprogrammed, which means that everyone sat in silence meditating. Three people broke the silence to speak. Their messages were simple (and in Russian) about how we need to try to love everyone even people who have harmed us. In unprogrammed meetings, messages are never planned. People who feel like they want to share what they have been thinking about speak.
I enjoyed the meeting. It was different than I had expected though. Everyone was Russian except two Americans. And most of the Russians don't speak English. I was also suprised that one of the Americans is a missionary. She's an evangelical Quaker, which is a very different branch of Quakerism than the Quaker meeting I attend in Ann Arbor. Evangelicals base their entire spirituality off of the Bible, believe we should follow a literal interpretation of the Bible, have programmed meetings, and believe in converting people. I had never met an evangelical Quaker before. They do share the same commitment to peace, inward reflection, and social justice that other Quakers share. Although their commitment to social justice is different-most Evangelicals think that gays shouldn't be allowed to marry.
It was quite interesting that the meeting was in Russian too. And afterwards everyone gathered to drink tea from the samovar.
Today we went to the house of Mikhail Lermantov, who is famous for writing A Hero For Our Time.
On the way we passed a protest of Monarchists. They want Russia to have Tsars again. They had huge banners of Icons and about fifty of them were crowded around the speaker. I asked my professor who they want to rule Russia. He said that they want someone from either the English royal family or Spanish royal family to rule. The Russian royal family was killed but both the English and Spanish families had intermarried into the Russian royal family.
We continued walking to Lermantov's house. It's amazing its still there after about 150 years. We were able to see some of his drawings-he was an incredible artist as well as writer.
Tomorrow we are going to visit a chocolate factory and Sataurday we are going to go to a small village about an hour from Moscow.

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Comments

[steve]

Hey! great to hear from you (and see pictures!!! :) msu is going ok. It's kind of been a letdown, after ecuador, but i suppose i expected that. I'm working at noodles and co., which is wonderful because i get to eat there for half off on days i work, and i loooove noodles. I'm also night receptionisting once more, and every now and again I put on a giant banana suit and dance around to help people in africa. anyways, i think i'm going to see sam and wendy this weekend! we think about you a lot! hope you continue having a great time in russia!