FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
(View complete profile)
Sunday, January 13, 2008,10:17 a.m.
KIEV MUSIC AND MISSIONS AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Some of you may be wondering why I went to Kiev in the first place. Many of you knew that I, along with members of my choir and members of the student choirs from Trinity Western University, were going overseas to perform with the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. This was certainly a major objective to our visit but at the same time, we were going to take what opportunities were available to minister to the Ukrainian people, specifically groups of widows and orphans connected with the mission we were visiting.
Perhaps that sounds like two rather opposite things to do, but in Ukraine, music and the arts are a huge part of life. In fact, as one of the missionaries there said, "Music is life." Missionaries are not yet welcome as visitors to Ukraine, but musicians most certainly are. The organization that we went to work with is called Music Mission Kiev, and the music and the mission are hardly separable. The two leaders of Music Mission Kiev are an American couple named Roger and Diane McMurrin, and he is the conductor of the symphony and chorus. My own conductor, Wes Janzen, has several times been to Kiev as a guest conductor, and this is how we became connected with the organization. If any of you made it to the Christmas at the Chan concert in December here in Vancouver, we performed two of the same pieces (Paul Patterson's Magnificat and John Rutter's Gloria!). And holy smokes can those Ukrainians sing!! (I'll post pictures later of the choirs and symphony and the philharmonic hall in which we performed - I don't yet have them!)
I could probably talk forever about the trip - the music and musicians, the widows, the orphans (teenagers and older, by the way), the sight-seeing (yes, we did some of that, too), the travelling itself, the people I was with, etc., etc., etc. For now I'll just post a few more pictures with captions to give a taste of some of the trip.
This is one of the main church buildings in Lavra, which is a walled spiritual city (similar to the Vatican, but much smaller). Lavra has multiple buildings, including a monastery (there were monks everywhere) and catacombs dating way back. We walked down in the catacombs (no pictures were allowed) and I was one of the few people that didn't have to stoop! I think they made people smaller back then.... (Interesting story - this building was closed for renovation, but for a $20 bribe to the workmen, we got in and looked around! Other people took pictures, so there might be some available soon - I can't believe how many people got pictures of the insides of all these churches when we were supposed to take them at all!)
The main church in Ukraine is the Orthodox Church (both Russian and Ukrainian), by the way. Everything is gilded and extremely ornate. There is still, in every church, a holy of holies separated by a huge altar, but you can see behind, as there is of course now no curtain. Services consist of a great deal of ceremony and ritual (and music) and there are no chairs to sit on during the three-hour services. They maintain that if Christ hung on the cross for three hours, then we can stand for three hours. They believe in the Nicene Creed, but sadly, much superstition and non-Biblical beliefs have crept into their tradition. Both my dad and I were greatly grieved every time we visited a church (either as tourists or for a service) or the catacombs here in Lavra - we were struck by the deadness of the religion and how there is no assurance of salvation whatsoever. Your salvation, according to this tradition, is contingent upon how much your family prays for you during the 40 days after you die. Imagine the despair of a widow with no family - she is almost certain that she will not go to heaven. In the catacombs themselves there were many coffins containing "saints" and there were many people down underground kissing these coffins and praying earnestly to them. It was so, so sad. And so confusing to see a people that believe in the Trinity, they celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ, and yet they seem to miss the point altogether. Roger (McMurrin) says that witnessing is so easy, because it is unheard of news and it offers people an assurance of their salvation. (That in itself, by the way, was grievous to me, as I thought of all the people in North America who have heard the gospel (or even just part of the gospel) and reject it absolutely. It is not easy, and people are walking straight to eternal separation from God.)
Well, so much for just pictures and captions....
Part of the monastery at Lavra:
More buildings from Lavra: (The left cupola - gold top - is original, the right two are new. Almost everything in Kiev has been rebuilt, as much of the city was destroyed by many, many wars.)
St. Andrew's church: (You can also see the souvenir market on the left - it runs the span of that entire street, all little tents full of nesting dolls and fur hats!!)
Perhaps that sounds like two rather opposite things to do, but in Ukraine, music and the arts are a huge part of life. In fact, as one of the missionaries there said, "Music is life." Missionaries are not yet welcome as visitors to Ukraine, but musicians most certainly are. The organization that we went to work with is called Music Mission Kiev, and the music and the mission are hardly separable. The two leaders of Music Mission Kiev are an American couple named Roger and Diane McMurrin, and he is the conductor of the symphony and chorus. My own conductor, Wes Janzen, has several times been to Kiev as a guest conductor, and this is how we became connected with the organization. If any of you made it to the Christmas at the Chan concert in December here in Vancouver, we performed two of the same pieces (Paul Patterson's Magnificat and John Rutter's Gloria!). And holy smokes can those Ukrainians sing!! (I'll post pictures later of the choirs and symphony and the philharmonic hall in which we performed - I don't yet have them!)
I could probably talk forever about the trip - the music and musicians, the widows, the orphans (teenagers and older, by the way), the sight-seeing (yes, we did some of that, too), the travelling itself, the people I was with, etc., etc., etc. For now I'll just post a few more pictures with captions to give a taste of some of the trip.
This is one of the main church buildings in Lavra, which is a walled spiritual city (similar to the Vatican, but much smaller). Lavra has multiple buildings, including a monastery (there were monks everywhere) and catacombs dating way back. We walked down in the catacombs (no pictures were allowed) and I was one of the few people that didn't have to stoop! I think they made people smaller back then.... (Interesting story - this building was closed for renovation, but for a $20 bribe to the workmen, we got in and looked around! Other people took pictures, so there might be some available soon - I can't believe how many people got pictures of the insides of all these churches when we were supposed to take them at all!)
The main church in Ukraine is the Orthodox Church (both Russian and Ukrainian), by the way. Everything is gilded and extremely ornate. There is still, in every church, a holy of holies separated by a huge altar, but you can see behind, as there is of course now no curtain. Services consist of a great deal of ceremony and ritual (and music) and there are no chairs to sit on during the three-hour services. They maintain that if Christ hung on the cross for three hours, then we can stand for three hours. They believe in the Nicene Creed, but sadly, much superstition and non-Biblical beliefs have crept into their tradition. Both my dad and I were greatly grieved every time we visited a church (either as tourists or for a service) or the catacombs here in Lavra - we were struck by the deadness of the religion and how there is no assurance of salvation whatsoever. Your salvation, according to this tradition, is contingent upon how much your family prays for you during the 40 days after you die. Imagine the despair of a widow with no family - she is almost certain that she will not go to heaven. In the catacombs themselves there were many coffins containing "saints" and there were many people down underground kissing these coffins and praying earnestly to them. It was so, so sad. And so confusing to see a people that believe in the Trinity, they celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ, and yet they seem to miss the point altogether. Roger (McMurrin) says that witnessing is so easy, because it is unheard of news and it offers people an assurance of their salvation. (That in itself, by the way, was grievous to me, as I thought of all the people in North America who have heard the gospel (or even just part of the gospel) and reject it absolutely. It is not easy, and people are walking straight to eternal separation from God.)
Well, so much for just pictures and captions....
Part of the monastery at Lavra:
More buildings from Lavra: (The left cupola - gold top - is original, the right two are new. Almost everything in Kiev has been rebuilt, as much of the city was destroyed by many, many wars.)
St. Andrew's church: (You can also see the souvenir market on the left - it runs the span of that entire street, all little tents full of nesting dolls and fur hats!!)
