Why is the Bible Important to Christians?

It’s Sunday morning. I woke with a sore back. That’s better than yesterday. Yesterday I woke at 4 am with a sore mind.  My sore back is from lifting good stuff and doing good work.  I guess my sore mind comes from that too.  No good deed goes unpunished by this government. My job is to focus on the blessings not the curses.  Only my back hurt this morning.  All my other body parts were in good working order.  I slept in till 830 am and Gilbert let me.  and what a blessing that was.
Now I’ve not been to church in weeks. I say I’m a winter Christian because summer and fall I’m usually at sea sailing,  or camping in the woods.  This year I was on my lawn chair out back lot enjoying the sun and  reading a lot.  I read the Holy Bible most days.  I talk with Christian friends and do Christian service.  I’m praying all the time and meditating some.
The Holy Bible is a source of comfort and wisdom for me.  I began reading it as a child and studied it seriously in various theological institutes and courses. It’s a part of all church services no matter how “liberal”.  I learned in theology that one should not ‘cherry pick’ the Bible for phrases to support one’s own position but rather see it as a gestalt.
There’s an ‘old testament’. It includes the Torah or Jewish Bible and prophets.  Jesus was Jewish. His first disciples were Jewish. The writers of the Bible were Jewish.  The translators, not necessarily.  Neither were the interpreters.  Christianity is a ‘universal religion’.  It’s open to all. It’s inclusive and not exclusive.  According to the Pew Report, as of 2010 Christianity was by far the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31 percent) of all 6.9 billion people on earth.”
Once a ‘word of mouth’ religion with many writings over time the Holy Bible became the collection of writings of the church. The Bible was a collection of the ‘books’ or ‘writings’ of the Christian church with some ‘books’ such as St. Thomas being considered questionable as the orthodox Christian religions have rejected the ‘gnostic gospels’ as being ‘outside’ the mainstream that continues till today.  The Councils of the Church through the years have addressed these ideas and come to a consensus of truth, or orthodoxy.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Mathew 5:17.
To me that means that the Torah and the writings of the prophets are still important.  I love the Psalms which are the Songs of David and quoted by Jesus. The Holy Bible of Christians is divided into an Old and a New Testament.  Testament simply means ’tale’ or ’telling’.  The Old Testament comes before Jesus and the New Testament comes after Jesus. It begins with the four Gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.  These give witness to the life and death and teaching of Jesus.  The latter parts of the New Testament are the stories of the Apostles, the leaders Jesus surrounded himself with  while he was alive, and the writings of St. Paul, the Rabbi who converted to Christianity and along with the apostles started the first churches. Paul, as well as being a Jew, was a Roman citizen and a tent maker. Only the rich could afford tents and travel so Paul was part of the then ‘tent-setter’ group and travelled all around the Mediterranean of the Roman Empire of the day.
The Old Testament is preempted by the teaching of Jesus.  It is  an older version of the truth.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14. 6.
I loved the matter of fact way a Theologian said, “The Jews were wrong then and they remain wrong today.”  What he was referring to was the fundamental rift between the Old Testament and New Testament. Christians see Jesus as the Messiah or God/Man  which the Old Testament speaks of but the Jewish authorities rejected him and with the Romans, the ruling world empire of the day, killed ‘Son of God.’  Today the Jews continue to believe that Jesus was a prophet and his teachings were summarized in the ‘teachings of Q’, a source of wisdom sayings which appear to overlap with the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, especially Mark.
The fact is, much of what Jesus said, is common sense and spiritually un original, except in it’s godliness.  Prophets and religious leaders including Zarathustra and Moses and others have said similar things. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, the law of divine retribution or karma, is in one of it’s various form central to all great religions.   Ecumenicalism is about finding the ‘similarities’ in various religions and focusing on these rather than the differences, yet the differences count, since to name a thing one must scientifically speaking have ‘sensitivity’ and ‘selectivity’.  Fraud is best maintained in generalities.  In the 60’s it was called ‘drug talk’ or ‘tarot talk’ because as long as anyone didn’t refer to money, drugs, sex or action everyone could be ‘free and love’.  As long as someone else is paying the bills, it’s easy to ‘love one another’.  This is the difference between adolescence and adulthood and was for a long time the difference between men and women as until recently the female and children of society were cared for and protected by the men. The Devil is said to be ‘in the detail.’
So each division in the history of religion and specifically in the church revolve around one key factor.  Jewish men were ‘circumcised’ as children. a tribal genital mutilation of boys.  St. Peter and St. Paul in the early days of the church when Christianity was seen not as a new ‘religion’ but as the ‘new’ Judaism, a ‘universal’ religion versus the ‘local’ Old Testament, tribal Judaism, debated circumcism.  The decision was that Christians did not need to have their male genitalia tampered with to be spiritual.  Jews to this day believe otherwise.
Muslims like Jews believed that Jesus was a prophet,  Muslims, Islam, believe in the genital mutilation of men, called ‘Khitan” or circumcision.  It is not mentioned in the Qur’an but in the Hadith. The Muslims in contrast to Jews and Christians also believe and practice genital mutilation or circumcision of female children.  However it is less widely held as a requirement of Islam than male circumcision.
Catholics and Christians don’t disagree on children genitalia but Catholics insist the Pope is the direct descendant of St. Peter.  When Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire made Christianity the State Religion he became the head of the church as well.  Later the role of Spiritual Emperor for the World Catholics remained even though the Pope’s earthly territory had been shrunk to only the tiny state of the Vatican by various wars and invasions.  In Anglicanism or the Church of England the Queen is the head of the Church since King Henry VIII rejected the authority of the Pope and made himself head of the Anglican world Church.
The Catholic Church has the most centralized contro,l even more so than the Orthodox church.  When Constantine moved his seat of power to Constantinopolis, today’s Istanbul, the first major political division of the Church took place, with Roman Catholicism headed by the Pope in the Vatican. The Eastern Orthodox Church is headed by a Holy Synod.  It is the second largest Christian church. Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have Bishops as leaders but whereas leading Bishops are chosen to ’select’ the Pope in the Catholic church,  in the Orthodox church government is by the Holy Synod (council) and each Bishop is considered equal though a head bishop or patriarch is somewhat equivalent to the ‘arch bishops’ of the regional Catholic churches.  This first ‘East West” split of Christianity occurred in 1054 ad.
In the Anglican or Church of England begun by King Henry VIII there is a Synod but the Archbishop of Canterbury, is representative of the Queen and akin to the patriarchs.
The first division of the Christian churches in the West or Roman Catholicism were political and territorial with Germany separating from Papist Vatican rule.  Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation of the church given rise to the division today called ‘Christian’ and ‘Catholic’ , the first principle of reformation being ’the proper source of authority in the church.’  Protestantism rejected the notion of Papal Supremacy.
Protestantism is now one of the three major divisions of Christendom after Roman Catholicism and Othodox.  They do not have a central human authority or structural unity. The Holy Bible and the local Church tend to have primacy in Protestantism which accounts for 900 million adherents and nearly 40 % of Christians worldwide.  Since the initial ‘territorial or political separations’ from Rome, the subsequent Protestant divisions have been more to do with biblical interpretation and theological divisions.
A major division between Martin Luther and the Pope in his day was the belief in ’transubstantiation’.  These divisions are really deep and superficially they look like any family argument to an outsider  over time.  Organizations and religions and countries and all human endeavour beginning with family and divorces contains the humanity of emotions and especially anxiety.  Jesus said over and over again. “Do not be afraid”.  Yet obviously even the leaders of the churches had their share of humanity.  It’s been said that Anxiety is ‘measure of your distance from God but equally a measure of your humanity’.
Transubstantiation refers to the ‘conversion of the substance of the Eucharistic elements into the body and blood of Christ.”  Eucharist is the central rite or ritual of Christianity.
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat, this is my body.”  Matthew 26:26
This occurred a couple of thousand years before quantum physicis and modern interpretations of ‘reality’. Dualism, the idea of the separation of matter and spirit was central to Plato and much philosophy and thought prior to Jesus.  Even today ‘blood’ is powerful and in medical science divisions like ‘genetics’ compete with the influence behaviour or of ‘environmentalism’.
The questions comes down to the crux of whether one believes we are ‘material beings living in a spiritual realm’ or ‘spiritual beings living in a material realm.’
The power of the priest and Pope was central to the ‘transubstantiation’ process given that the ‘bread’ became the body of Jesus with his touching and saying so but later Christians felt that there did not need to be an intermediary between Jesus and oneself.  Hindus have little difficulty with the notion of transubstantiation because of their and subsequent Buddhist concepts of the nature of creation are fundamentally different from the west philosophically.  They perceived reality as dualistic, but not so much as matter and energy or matter and spirit, but as ‘true or false’.  Moksha is the ‘false reality’.
When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment in the Law, he said.
“'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40.
Another area of debate in the church has been surrounding the idea of the ‘prime mover’.  This is expressed in the ‘faith’ and ‘work’s and ‘grace’ debate.  If God is first and first mover then ‘GRACE” the love of God saves us. Salvation in Christianity is the saving of the soul from sin and death.  Sin was the description of the world as not perfect.  St. Paul said in this life, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
Today’s ideas of ‘addiction’ and ‘habits, good and bad’ all focus on this central premise of ‘imperfection’.  The word to ‘sin’ came from archery where the archer wanted to hit the bullseye every time but simply didn’t for a variety of reasons.   Newton and other physicists and ultimately Quantum Physics looked at these relationships just as Einstein and St. Augustine both considered ‘time’. With Grace we are saved because of God’s love whereas with ‘works’ we are saved because of human’s work.
The disciples asked Jesus “‘ Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Matthew 19:25-26.
Since Luther in the 16th century Protestantism has grown and divided while maintaining a lose association under the heading of “Christian".  Some are local or community churches while others are world wide. Some of the main Protestant Christian churches are Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist, Mennonite, Adventist, Reformed, Evangelical, Non denominational and more. All Christian churches refer to the Holy Bible, most importantly the 4 Gospels, or ‘good news’, the stories of Jesus, by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
An area of debate in the church and religion in general is the ‘divinity of Christ’.  The Christian God is said to be a Trinity, ‘three in one’ God, best taught to my mind by St. Patrick.  It’s not specifically a teaching of Jesus in the Bible though it’s implied as he says “I and the Father are one” and promises the “Holy Spirit”.
Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
Dr. James Houston of Regent College talked of this as the Personhood of God, three persons in one.  My friend Bernie while alive loved to pray, “Holy Spirit Come”.
To become a Christian as with all religions, one can be born in a Christian family or raised Christian. Christians baptise or christen their babies with sprinkling of water or immersion in water as John the Baptist first Baptised Jesus.  Once christened or baptized a Christian remains a Christian for life unless they renounce their relationship. It’s a bit like being a member of a Country.  Unless you renounce your ‘citizenship’ you can always return. It is not uncommon in all religions for the youth to leave the family and family religion only to return to the religion with having their own family or matuation.
For a person who has not been born and christened or baptized as a child the way to become a Christian is to walk into a church and observe. I call this being a ‘church tourist’.  Christians invite others to attend their church like they do inviting people to go to the movies with them. Christianity is not a ’secret society’ but a welcoming religion.  Christian services are great entertainment and everyone is welcome to attend and observe. They are the source of the greatest music with the likes of Bach and Elvis and countless others getting their first experience of music in the church.  The ’sermons’ are often great lectures, like those of Dr. Peter Elliott  or Dr. Carl Ridd when he was alive or Dr. James Houston.    The key to understanding a sermon is that you don’t have to agree with it but rather it, like any ‘lecture’ forms the basis of discussion and is by nature ‘thought provoking’.
I often tell people to explore churches and other religious organizations much as you would when picking a cafe or night club. For young men I say ‘hang out’ at the church with the highest density of beautiful women. For young women I say choose to return to the church with the highest density of handsome young men. For those with small children perhaps return to a church with lots of small children.  These people are principally neighbours and it’s a spiritual club no different than the local gym is a ‘physical club’.  Spirituality is however much more comprehensive than a mere gym. It’s also relatively ‘free’ at first, as everyone is invited to attend and the old church adage was to ‘put a buck ‘ or even 25 cents or a penny in the basket when it was passed around. Ultimately when one chooses and becomes a member of a church they voluntarily contribute and are encouraged to by the board who pay the rent at the church and physical taxes and tuitions and salaries. Some churches remain small and poor while other churches become ‘mega church’ major corporations of great wealth.  Neither is ‘better’ in a spiritual sense anymore than a martial art sensie with a few students is less than a major dojo with many franchises.  Such discussions of size refer more to quantity than quality. Personally I’ve liked little and large churches.
To participate more specifically in churches there are classes and ultimately baptism or formal joining with the church membership in some ceremony.  Historically this often meant simply saying “I believe in Jesus Christ” as the name of Jesus Christ which is derived from the words “God within and God Will Come Again” is itself considered holy and transformative. Yahveh the name of the Jewish , God the Father, meant “I am, that is who I am”.  Hence, the beingness of God, the creator.  The third person is the Holy Spirit.
Various councils over the 2000 years of Church history and the individual churches have come up with a legalistic formulation much like the ‘articles of faith’ which one signs whenever one gets new software from Apple or Microsoft.  I don’t read the whole agreement and sign ‘i agree’ without consulting a lawyer. There is the possibility that Apple or Microsoft have slipped in a line ‘you will give your left kidney and testicle if you agree’. I have faith at this time and joining a church have considered overall the ‘details’ but even while I’ve not ‘agreed fully’ with some details I’ve ‘agreed in principle’ as I do with Microsoft and Apple, a couple of human companies not even known for their holiness.
When I join a church or any club or even accept software I am today making such decisions.  But ‘joining’ comes after being a ‘tourist’ and people join churches because they like the people. Churches are the ‘people’ especially the more local, community and independent churches which are commonly formed today around someone with a Bible who says let’s get together and talk about this Holy Book.  Then because they want a place to meet as they grow in numbers they get into renting then owning spaces and developing schools and more. Ultimately in the past groups of Christians created hospitals, universities and whole nationstate and even continued world empire. Some might say we’re seeing the third Christian empire today.
Being a Christian then comes with study and association. It’s about community and consideration.
“I believe.”  It’s a joy for me to say this today.
Thank you Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord God. Holy Spirit Come!

Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Patriarchal Church of St. George, Istanbul, Turkey

My guide, Mehmet Tetik (www.turkishguides.org\tetik) drove me in his car to the see of the Orthodox Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate is the highest see of the Orthodox Church and has retained it’s centre in Istanbul (Constantinople) for over seventeen centuries.  Orthodox means “right belief” and “right worship”. Orthodox Christianity adheres to the teachings of the seven ecumenical councils, all of which took place in or around Constantinople.The Ecumenical Patriarchate is known as the “Great Church of Christ” and it is the reference point for liturgical and administrative matters. It is also known as called the “Phanar” or “lighthouse” which derives from the name of the old Greek neighbourhood where it is located.
The church of St. George (the Great Martyr and Trophy Bearer) is the fifth church to house the Ecumenical Patriarchate since the 15th century.  Before that it was a convent for Orthodox nuns.
The Church of Constantinople was founded by St. Andrew, the first apostle.  His disciple, Stachys, was the first bishop of Byzantium (38-54). After Constantinople became the capital of the Roman Empire in 330, the Church’s status was elevated to it’s present position. The Fourth Ecumenical Council (453) granted Constantinople equal ranking to Rome.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, a citizen of Turkey was elected 270th Archbishop of Constantinople - New Rome in 1991.
Mehmet explained that often famous and important people from Greece will bring their children here to be baptized or their marriages will be held here.  He said that he believes it’s the hope of the Greeks that they would once again have Constantinople as their own. They lost it in the Turkish War of Independence when Ataturk leading the Turkish forces pushed the Allies and Greeks out of Istanbul to establish the present republic.  The main black entrance door remains closed to the church as a reminder of the atrocities that occurred at that time against Christians and against the Orthodox church.
Mehmet also explained that the twin headed eagle is the symbol of the Orthodox Church since the early days of Constantinople as it represented the Eagle looking to the east and to the west.
Apparently the Pope comes to visit here and when he does he returns relics that the Crusaders stole when they invaded Constantinople.  The joke is that it will be a thousand years before they’re all returned at the speed of the present process.
There's a marvellous piety those I know who are Othodox Christianity. Personally I'm attracted to the celebration of Christian Spirituality in the church. There's an overt appreciation of the mysticism of the "Cloud of Unknowing" , the teaching of a European middle age monk, in the church. My very positive outlook on the Orthodox church might well be coloured by the first member I grew to know well, a poet and book store manager.



St. John the Baptist.

Moscow - hiking about

It was my last day in Moscow.   I visited some churches then went on an adventure looking for St. Andrew’s Church of England. There was supposed to be an evening service and meeting there. The evening service turned out to be off because an opera recital was taking place.  I actually was sitting in a cafe, showing a girl the google internet map of the area, and street the cafe was actually on asking, where the church street was, showing her the names of the streets,   when it was only a couple of blocks away and she said she didn't recognize any of the streets.  They were in her language and alphabet but they were all Greek to me.
I eventually got a map which had both the cyrrilic and latin naming. Then I asked a young man and he pointed me to the very street the cafe was on. He used his Samsung gps and rudimentary English to make sure I was pointed down the street to the church a couple of blocks away. It was across from the Marriott Courtyard.  I’d already gone to the Marriott Moscow Grand.  This was beyond the great Russian writer Pushkin's statue. There a lovely Marriott trainee got me all sorted out finding the right Marriott and gave me the indispensable tourist map.
Up until now I’d not needed such a map because Barrett had been reading a regular Moscow map in cyrrilic code.I’m convinced the Soviets use the cyrrilic alphabet just to ensure that no invader will ever get through Moscow or anywhere in fact in Russia because it’s all Greek.
I finally found St. Andrews only to encounter a busy surly chaplain.  Travelling, I’ve enjoyed meeting priests around the world, but this one was the first rude one.  Later I told Barrett about this and she figured he’d probably osmosed the Russian brevity and abruptness and not to take it personally.  As his church was being turned into an operatic forum for the evening he was probably preoccupied and didn’t recognize a sweaty Harley Davidson t shirted sneaker wearing blue jeaned pot belly older sort of Canadian as a true Anglican of the faith.  A regular colonial, and here in Moscow, is probably what he thought, Brits being Brits. That said I’ve got the very best priest the British could have produced in my parish so it balances out.  The poor fellow is also probably mad with the alphabet.
I wandered a bit.  Walked down by the Kremlin.  Checked out some statues. Some a porcelain moose in a window so am convinced beyond doubt moose are in Russia.  I also saw my Harley with a different paint job.  Made me want to ride. Got back to the apartment where the washer wasn’t working, It had captured Barretts clothes holding them hostage. She’d arrived later to tell me she waited for a repairman to release her clothing but he’d not arrived.  She’d  gone off to the Gulag Museum but found it closed.  I’d had an hour nap and a snack of Riga sardines and the repairman hadn’t come.
I was off to the church again where the opera was in full swing and the meeting was the normal tragicomedy in foreign accents.  We laughed downstairs while the piano thumped upstairs.  It was a marvellous way to spend the last evening in Moscow. Later I’d walk and talk of walruses and things with an English fellow married to a beautiful Russian.
When I got back to the apartment the repairman had been. Barrett was pleased her clothing had been freed. “He simply broke the door with his knife,” she said.  I could see she’d taken vicarious pleasure in the ill fate of the offending laundry washer door.  Now her clothing is drying out on the balcony.
We’re on the 14th floor and the view is spectacular.  Last night I was having salmon in the cafe down the street and a delightful businessman joined me. He was drinking beer and I was drinking coffee, A Russian born Russian with a Texas accent. He said he’d represented American oil men here and travelled back and forth to Texas.  He said the district we were in had several embassies. He gave me a copy of the English Moscow Times which I read while I finished my dinner before he joined me again to chat some more while I had ice cream and he had another beer.  Being in the business of oil he knew Alberta as well and waxed poetic about the Calgary stampede.  I’d just been to the Bolshoi and he was glad I’d so enjoyed the opera.  He loved the city of Moscow with all the cultural achievements but loved the West and the oil business.
I confess I enjoyed speaking English.  Other than Barrett, that gentleman, and now the fellow tonight, I’d not spoken more than a few broken phrases with anyone the last two weeks. Probably that’s part of the maker’s plan. Give my voice and mind a rest since the spoken and heard word are so much a part of my work. I’ve enjoyed watching people , their gestures and expressions.  The young are so animated here whereas a lot of the old are suspicious and scowl, more than in the West, much more.
I saw a man wearing a catchy t shirt, which said, “EAT Your Enemy”.  He was built and looked just like a Hollywood Russian bad guy.   I smiled at the shirt and he didn’t smile back.  Best to keep moving.
We’re up at 4 in the morning.  Barrett’s a great traveller. I’m so glad she said she was only travelling with two bags.  We’ve done well, washing linen of course, but the light travelling has made everything so doable.  There was no room on the train for more suitcases and we’ve had to carry and wheel our bags all over trains and planes and metro. It's been a fast paced trip with lots of walking and hauling gear.  Totally unworkable without travelling light.  It’s really a great way to travel.
I travelled with just a pack sack in my 20’s and 30’s but with all the medical conference travel I’ve become fat and lazy with a big suitcase and a little bag. I pack enough underwear and socks for a week or two and multiples shirts and pairs of pants.
Barrett calls this ‘camping’ but it’s really been the very best way to travel.  I love my Eagle Creek wheeled and shoulder strapped luggage.  It’s done extremely well.
All that didn’t work this trip was the gps maps I downloaded for Russia. Also my Iridium satellite phone connects me with some Russian speaking woman rather than dialling through to home. Getting a cell phone card here was worked just fine along with internet email.  I really would have liked to have had my hand held gps. That would really would help in city travel.As it was Barrett has scouted and conversed and found our way wherever we’ve had to go.  A top notch tour guide.
She says I’ve been most helpful and as well as a pleasant sort of travel companion.  I'm fairly non plussed by changing plans and disruptions.  It's all an adventure.  Everything is so novel.  She does get into conversations with people about their cats and children though.  I’ve had to be patient as she’s learning that some lady’s son is in prison or some daughters husband drinks too much.  She delights in these conversations.  So while I’ve been enjoying architecture,  paintings, churches she’s been having a very different experience of language, stories and people.  She’s been so happy to be with her family and friends again too.  She really animated after spending time with them.
I can’t help but think that a lot of my personal journey here has been about ‘loving your enemy’ and ‘forgiving’.  My childhood was so impacted by the Kennedy Missile Crisis and the Cold War.  Sure we got great James Bond OO7 movies but really I lived in the fear of nuclear war and threat of the apocalypse.  It wasn’t until the SALT talks that I thought that we just might have another future than the Mel Gibson’s Road Warrior one. So I really was resentful, I’m sure, at the communists who no doubt were resentful at us and vice versa.  The Stalin era architecture are a sharp contrast to the beautiful onion and cross churches.
Here I’m seeing that the Russians  are much like the Russians I’ve known back home. I was telling Barrett about the Russians I scuba dived with.  They certainly were trustworthy. And here so many people have been so helpful.
The women are so beautiful too with their love of fashion and especially their devotion to high heeled shoes. I tried to take a few pictures of shoes then but it's not as easy as it might seem.  Besides I'd not want to be arrested as a photog with a foot fetish.  I couldn't do justice to the fashion moments that happen every few minutes on the downtown streets.  Women that really could have stepped right off the catwalk saunter by.  The culture overall  is so global it’s just a different world than at some level I expected. Really, I guess, I expected more drab.
I love the Orthodox Catholic church, the devotion and revival I see happening here.  It’s miraculous really.  A real revival.  So much hope too. Rebirth.
So again I face my fears, have faith and am rewarded.  God is good.

Ulyanovsk to Moscow Train Trip and Reflections

36 hours overnight. Compartment of 4.  Bunks. Towel, sheets, blanket, pillow provided.  Comfortable.  Each cabin in the train car had storage and a fixed half table for sitting up. Clean windows, great view. Altogether the train was clean and efficient.
 “Train is the way to travel in Russia. This is my seventh time taking this train too.”  said Barrett. Each car had a clean and spacious toilet, all stainless steel. As well there was a hot water samovar in each car so people could make their own tea. There was a diner in this train as there was in the last one we were on.
When we arrived at the train station it was a hub of chaos as these are.  I always ensure my wallet and passport are in a zippered pocket.  Never leave bags of course and be vigilant. It’s very hard in the crushes of people though. Nice to be with another and thereby watch each others back and stuff.
A whole train car of soldiers was embarking with all their families and loved ones seeing them off.  Barrett had said good bye to her family in the train station. She says it's so kind all the generosity family and friends show her. She didn't want them to wait longer at the station though she knows it's the Russian way to give great importance to departures. The young soldiers and their loved ones were certainly having a very passionate Russian parting.
A group of musicians from Argentina were on our car.  Barrett, who speaks Spanish, and  who’d done a law locum in Argentina,was, ironically, asked by the conductor to speak to them because they couldn’t use the toilet.  She laughed.  Here she was an American being asked by a Russian conductor to speak to an Argentinian.  “Maybe she thinks all foreigners speak foreigner.”  As it was Barett enjoyed explaining to the Argentinians that the toilets are closed in the city and don’t open till we’re moving through the country.
She went right  to bed in the upper bunk but continued to communicate down to us from her comfy loft.   I was sitting with a pleasant young Russian who wanted to know about the orthodox icons we wore on our necks.  He’d become an Othodox Christian because of a famous monk in a nearby monastery.  Barrett’s brother in law Vlad had spoken about a similar monk and I wondered if they were the same.  Barrett explained as best she could I was Anglo Catholic (Anglican) and she was atheist.
The young man apparently said, the difference was that the Orthodox expect to go to Jesus whereas in the west they expect Jesus to come to them.  So I said, “Jesus is here.  Where two or more are gathered in his name, there to is He.”  Barrett translated this and the man nodding, laughed. “They have the same saying, here, “ She then said.  “Why must there be two or more?” she asked. I couldn’t resist, “Aetheists can be alone but we say,  you can’t be married alone, and you can’t be a Christian alone.  It’s a buddy system”.
We’d been meaning to asked about moose in Russia.  So Barrett asked now.  He didn’t know of any such creature locally though thought there might be some in Siberia. Later I’d see 3 young red fox.  I told him. He thought they might be ‘wild dogs or coyote’ but I was certain they were red fox if these were in Russia.  (Sure enough, I've just looked them up on the internet. Red fox  are ‘eurasian’ origin and a picture I found of  young fox matched identically the three I saw playing in the woods near the tracks.   It was an exciting moment. Reminded me of seeing young cougar last year in my headlights driving down a logging road by Prince George.)
I saw a hawk and pointed to that.   He saw it and responded with something like ‘scuba’.  Barrett translated that as falcon. Sure enough he was right, because it had been a falcon.
Barrett was asleep when we were drawing pictures of deer and moose. He was a better artist than I but mostly he said only rabbits were hunted locally and that people went up north to hunt deer.  He thought there were moose in siberia when I drew a picture of the great horns.  (I’ve just checked the internet and there is a Eurasian moose in Siberia.)
I took pictures and eventually slept. Since I didn’t get any murderous looks in the morning I thought I’d not snored too loudly thanks to taking an antihistamine.  Barrett said otherwise. “The fellow on the lower bunk was wearing head phones and the fellow on the upper bunk was competing with you for a bit.”  I gathered he lost.  Barrett has ear plugs but sleeps lightly.
Meanwhile I'd had a very pleasant though disrupted sleep.  I enjoyed waking early at dawn to pee, then going back to bed for another couple of hours of sleep before getting up  to wash and change.
Now we’ve taken the metro into Moscow central where Barrett has arranged another rented apartment.  I’m at this lovely outdoor cafe with wifi. We’d come here unable to find the apartment until Barrett called the cleaning lady and she came by to fetch us.  A couple of women and kids are still clearing out so we won’t be able to get in till 2 or 3.  We’ve left our heavy bags there. In the wait for the cleaning lady I had terrific eggs and bacon here.
Barrett said she was going off for a power walk.  I told her I’d rather a second cup of coffee.  So she’s joining me later when we plan to do a leisurely walk.  I forgot my razor in the last place so I’m working on the Don Johnson look. I’ve got tickets to the Opera at the Bolshoi Theatre tonight.  Barrett’s planning to meet with friends while I’m getting cultured.
I enjoyed Ulyanovsk. I admit there’s a lot of ‘loving your enemy’ going on for me.  I realize that since the Kennedy Missile Crisis, Cold War and tales of artists and scientists jailed and Gulag, and even the recent arrest of Pussy Riot, I’ve been afraid of Russia as a totalitarian state.  No doubt this is the way North Korea is and likely parts of China.  Human life isn’t worth much individually in these places and more people go missing than ever did in Argentina.
I’ve thought I’d never survive in a communist country with all it’s authoritarianism, militarism, parentalism and powerful demand for conformity.  I guess I think of myself as ‘different’ , not ‘special’ but seriously prone to ask the wrong question of people in authority, especially the dirty ones, whether in the university, my own government or wherever. I’ve been thankful that while it’s been very hard to be truthful in Canada I’ve not been knocked off.  Arrested, civil rights disregarded, subjected to the worst abuses of power, blacklisted, true,  but I’m still alive and living a relatively free life.  I guess I felt I’d possibly not survive here.  In the past that may have been true but oday I doubt that.
There’s a creativity and a European flavour with little left of the Soviet era except in the scowls and judgemental looks of a few of the old people. There’s a nostalgia.  Barrett says there was ’security’ in the old regime and that people have been very upset about their losses of pension. The same is true in Canada. Government promises of ‘work hard now’ and ‘we’ll reward you in old age’ have certainly turned out to be a lie to a large extent for many. To my mind nothing fuels gangsterism and outlaws more than this deceit and betrayal by government. And all over those in power make laws that serve them and young people increasingly see the criminals as little different from those in power.  In this vacuum then the church offers much.
Corporatism is everywhere.  All the transnational names we know are everywhere. MacDonalds, Chevrolet, Chanel, Gucci, Kentucky Fried Chicken, KIA, Toyota.  It’s all a matter of scale and distribution but the question of ‘responsibility’ for the people arises.  This comes out in minimum wage discussions and discussions of the cost of education and old age pension.  The state taxes and the corporations function as a third or fourth body of business.  It makes government that much more complex.  Barrett and I have discussed with concern the increasing 'slavery' in the modern world. "Why call it 'trafficking', it's slavery'" she says. "We should call a thing what it is."
There’s a sense of powerlessness in the size of things.  Billions and billions on the planet right now.  Yet people all over go to work and make the best of the time when they’re there or apart.  We’re vacationing now. Barrett and I both have enviable positions in the ‘wage slave’ part of the world.  A man once said to me that he felt sorry for those like me who ‘worked’.  He said he was thankful that his family had learned generations ago to make money work for them so now he lives off the incomes of ‘parking lots’ they own.
I told Barrett I’d heard a corporate leader wanting all water to be ‘paid for’ as a ‘commodity’. She actually surprised me by saying, ’that may be necessary, so people don’t waste it. There’s so much waste now.”  I then mentioned ‘air’ and tried to recall that great sci fi movie where one of the big male actors (Schwarzenagger maybe) was on a space station where the people worked for ‘air credits’.
Dr. Ney, the great ‘pro life’ advocate says this all naturally follows from the abortionists claim that ‘life should be wanted’.  He says instead ‘life is and life is sacred’.  There’s a whole lot of horse and cart thinking in this area. I so enjoy his genius and clarity of thinking on the topic, though he’s a prophet in the desert.     Life has become a ‘commodity’ as has air and water.  It seems to me that commodities should follow life and that the capitalist system taking to this absurdist extreme becomes as cold and uncaring as the enemy ‘communist’ regime.  Both are silly in their extremes whereas each has so much to offer in the middle ground.
The more I talk to people here, the more I hear that Lenin is admired still.  Stalin is criticized. Indeed one person told me that Lenin had wanted to restore basic capitalism and was promoting what the Chinese now are doing. Stalin in contrast wanted the strict centralization and certainly was the killer of millions to achieve it.  In the museums theres the term the ‘great thaw’ for the times following.
I remember hearing of the people years back who bought a car but had to have relatives ship them tires from abroad because there were no tires available because of the short thinking of central planning. I remember the ‘awe’ the Russian athletes showed when I took them to our supermarket back in the 80’s.  They simply could not get over so much choice and so much ’stock’. They described how little was available in their stores. Now all the stores here are the same as stores in Canada.  But just like Canadians Russians struggle to 'afford' the 'commodities' now available.
Moscow is no different in nature now from a major western city except perhaps things break down more. At our first apartment we were to have wifi.  It worked then it didn’t work. Barrett, said ‘we paid for it.’ So being the lawyer ,she got on the phone and contacted the owner. Soon a young man arrived on a motorcycle. He went through all the permutations I’d already done without success. A while later another fellow arrived on a motorcycle and this one checked the wiring and replaced one of the cables. The wi fi worked overnight but was not working the next day.  In the next apartment it was the washing machine that didn’t work.  It all seemed normal to me, since I live on sailboat a lot and sailboats are notorious for things breaking down in the harsh elements. But Barrett says it’s common for odd things here in Russia, in home and in the neighbourhood, to not work.  Barrett’s friend told of the uncertainty of plane flights with the trains more reliable because planes in the interior can suddenly be cancelled without warning.
That said, this year so many in the city of Winnipeg were without water because of the deep freezing that affected the main water supply for whole sections of the city.  A major city reduced to depending on water trucks for months.  It happens everywhere. We’ve just become expectant of the increasing ‘reliability’ and ‘functionality’ of the modern world.
“It’s been a bit like camping’ , Barrett said.  “Not really. I think it’s been a grand adventure.”  
At times I’m reminded of Mexico City then I realize it’s a bit like New York. There's parts of the town with poorly up kept roads and others which are beautifully maintained .A real effort has been made in Ulyanovsk in the tourist area and main shopping areas to maintain streets and sidewalks.
In the West we can't be too judgemental as I’ll never forget the cockroaches that were all over the floor of my fine New York hotel room the first time I stayed there.  Then there was the rat I saw running across the fine dining room in Vancouver.  Now in Canada we have coyotes ranging through our suburbs along with racoons and deer eating our gardens.   As humans we push nature back a bit before nature pushes back. We get to the moon and set up an international space station then struggle to contend with drug addiction and obesity in the increasingly affluent societies of the world.
As the secular atheists are attacking the liberal Christians the fundamentalist Moslems are attacking the schools and libraries.  There’s no end to the variety. If only we could sit back and watch it all as ‘entertainment’ but we actually live in it like a bizarre reality show.
I’m always thankful for the distance I get from home when I travel. I can reflect positively on the benefits I know.  Even now I’m missing the routine which was becoming a tad repetitive before this trip. I’m missing my little dog Gilbert and looking forward to camping in the wilderness. Being in the press of people in the city I am again reminded of what a privilege we have in the wilderness we have in Canada. I look forward to sailing soon even if I’m always responsible for all the myriad things that
can and do go wrong when I’m out sailing or backwoods camping and hunting.

I have been ripped off by a couple of taxi drivers.  I think every country and city that presents itself as a ‘tourist’ destination should have routine ‘sting operations ‘ on taxi drivers. Then take away the taxi licenses of any taxi driver who dupes tourists. After each of these experiences I feel that I am loathed as a foreigner by these people, that they ‘prey’ on ‘my vulnerability’ and hate tourists. I know everyone else in the system longs for the tourist dollars and yet repeatedly it seems the taxi drivers who are in such a position to be the ‘ambassador’ of the city turn out to be the lowest of smegma crooks stinking rotten and corrupt.  Barrett has been keen to use the metro and public transit. The Moscow metro has been just fine though I have trouble with the alphabet. We’ve actually had very good experience flagging down ‘gypsy taxies’ .  We were really fortunate that Vlad arranged for us to have a reliable taxi driver get us to the airport.  In Rome I was ripped off by taxi drivers too.  I wonder if Vancouver taxi drivers rip off tourists to our city.  I’d recommend a ‘sting’ there but this would only work if it was tied with ‘loss of license ‘because these ‘rip offs’ amount to ‘highway robbery’ and ‘downright theft’.
I worry a lot about theft travelling.  Even in the woods in Canada I hate leaving my truck and such. Thieves are increasingly my nemesis.  We speak of the value of people but civilization must protect ‘property’ as well.  I don’t think putting people in jail is nearly as effective as making them pay back to the victim what has been stolen. Maybe I’m still like a person with PTSD reeling from the theft still by the girl I gave a job to at the office years back and recently the theft of $20,000 by a girlfriend’s family member.  My concern is always with the failure of the system and law, and law enforcement, that allows these psychopaths and sociopaths to infest civilization.  I see that Moscow is listed as a risk for ciminal behaviour but my experience in Vancouver is that it’s as unsafe as anywhere in the world when it comes to theft.  In South America and Africa people are kidnapped and ransomed .Thank god we don’t have that in Canada.  My family in Ottawa reminded me that I was no longer in Vancouver when I was there and that I didn't have to think every other person was a thief.
I’ve enjoyed the outdoors stores here. There's pharmacies, fashion, computer stores and all that.  I've seen everything I'd see in Hong Kong, Milan or any other major city. But other than Canada and America, I've not seen many outdoor stores.  They're likely around, just not mainstream.  Here though I've come across several outdoor equipment stores. Nothing I’ve seen as good as MEC or REA, or Cabella but some very fine wilderness equipment. Excellent knives and some very fine workmanship. I love the engraving on some of the working knives.  I expect there’s bigger camping stores given the Russians I know love the outdoors like Canadians do.  We are spoiled in Canada with Canadian Tire everywhere. Here there's a tendency for smaller stores for functional items whereas there are big superstores for fashion wear.
 People here talk of ‘dachuas’ . I thought of them more as luxury country palaces. They of course can be but the term is as much used for ‘cottage’ as we refer to our’ cottages back home.  Some are mansions while others are one room cabins.  Here Russians like to have a place out of the city and it may just be a little house in a nearby town. It doesn't have to be a scenic lakeside place. Barrett thought some of the little houses we passed with people out gardening in back might well have been dachaus.