Vladimir, Historian (Tver): ‘Brotherhoods are a natural way of life for the people of God – Life with a capital L. Brotherhoods are needed in the church to enable both the church and the people to live, because no other comparable form of Life has yet been thought up. In brotherhood there is fullness and beauty of life – life’s fulfillment’.Valentina, Interior Designer (Moscow): ‘Brotherhood makes it possible for you to assess how much of a Christian you really are. It helps a believer to live in this world without dividing his life into religious and secular, to strive for integrity and overcome division’.Dmitry, Private Entrepreneur (Ekaterinbourg): ‘Brotherhoods provide the church with a personal dimension. The Brotherhood is the place in which I live, where the nerve centre of my life is located and where the events that really touch me take place. Ups and downs in business don’t make my heart beat faster in the same sense’.Michael, Engineer (Moscow): ‘True brotherhoods appear when God miraculously prevails in the battle between the Church and the devil. Any form of brotherhood within the church bears witness to the fact that the genuine Church is alive’.Priest Pavel (Archangelsk): ‘Brotherhoods in the church are needed so that we may serve God. The more brotherhoods there are, the more spiritual gifts are realized in the life of the church. The setup in a parish makes it difficult to understand what your personal responsibility for the Church is. Life in brotherhood provides a personal measure of Christian responsibility, which is acquired by living in small groups and communities, in being responsible for the particular people of whom the church is comprised’.Julia, Economist (Kishinev): ‘For me, the fullness of the Christian life is embodied specifically in brotherhood. How can I bear witness to this? It’s impossible to prove, but I just feel joy from having a large family – family in Christ – my spiritual relatives, and this relationship can’t be replaced by anything else. It is a revelation that comes through life in brotherhood and community’.Michael, Computer Programmer (Moscow): ‘Brotherhood for me is associated with the image of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the image of ascending the mountain where God is. To me, life in brotherhood and community is also a process of ascent. If we are really reviving the church, then this is a difficult reality, which implies spiritual effort and spiritual ascent’.Olga, Economist (Severodvinsk): ‘Brotherhood is a form of life in the church. Brotherhoods can be a support to priests, to their own members, and to the world. For me, brotherhood is life with God and with brothers and sisters. Here, as in any good family there are those who are older and those who are younger, the teachers and those who need special care. It’s all very natural’.Sergey, Chemical Process Engineer (Archangelsk): ‘These days, church life is often understood as nothing more than pious behaviour in church and with people from the parish and the performance of rituals…while at the same time the person remains alone – all by himself – just as in secular society. If the minor brotherhoods manage to be a genuine and faithful witness to the unity of the church and the unity of people in Christ, then I think the Transfiguration Brotherhood will accomplish its mission’.Dmitry, Electrician (Moscow): ‘Speaking about brotherhood returns us to the origins of early Christianity, to the true nature of the church… Due to certain historical circumstances, including the loss of catechesis, the catechumenate itself, and the principles of life as ecclesia, brotherhoods now appear as if a recent revelation. They are perceived as something new, when in fact they are just an expression of the a genuine communion of Christians with one another and with God’.Pavel, Administrative Manager (Moscow): ‘Brotherhoods are necessary within the church in order that church life might be lived to the fullest, uniting faith, prayer and life. They give us the opportunity to realize God’s truth in our everyday life, to live according to God’s will. Without brotherhood, it is easy to retreat into one’s own problems, to become detached from the real life of the church. Brotherhood helps us to view our lives in the context of the church’.Tatyana, Teacher (Velsk): ‘Brotherhood helps us grow in Christ. It is specifically the common life of brothers and sisters – the true Christian life – that makes it possible to grow in the Holy Spirit. It is in brotherhood that we find such a “live” life, and see the lives of our brothers and sisters truly transformed’.Galina, Manager (Moscow): ‘I don’t see how else the ecclesial nature of the human person, true service or communication between people can be accomplished in the church if not through life in brotherhood and community. Life in brotherhood opens up great possibilities in terms of realizing one’s gifts and using them to serve, while at the same time receiving help, council, and – perhaps most importantly – seeing the fruit of all one is doing’.Alexander, Structural Aviation Engineer (Moscow): ‘Brotherhood is a living testimony to the fact that it is possible to live according to the Gospel even in the modern world, that the church can aid a person on his path to God –on his path of spiritual transfiguration both of himself and the world around him. For me, brotherhood is the setting which makes it possible for me to move towards God together with those close to me. It is a real way to the Lord’.Irina, Travel Agency Director (Moscow): ‘There has been a need for brotherhoods since the very beginning, from the time of the apostles, when the church had just been born. What is the need in our own time? Outside the brotherhood you constantly digress from conscious living and find yourself yielding to compromise. Within the brotherhood I obtain freedom in everything. Here my heart is opened through relationships with other people, by accepting them. In this way the brotherhood is responsible for forming me and bringing me up’.Alexey, Businessman (Moscow): ‘Brotherhood is a real force which is capable of revealing the Church with a capital C. It is real light, which can change things and serve to revive the church and change the consumerist attitude that is very common among believers nowadays. Brotherhood is the force that makes it possible to serve God and do something tangible for the church’.Alexey, Heat and Power Engineer (Voronezh): ‘We need brotherhood to restore true meaning to everything and God’s design to the world, because brotherhood is the very form of relationship which God intended for us. It is an attitude of love and mutual forgiveness and the readiness to carry each other and bear each other’s infirmities’.Ilya, Construction Engineer (Moscow): ‘Brotherhood helps us in our struggle to live according to the Gospel. In brotherhood, we can really live this way. There is much less rote routine here and the relationships are very much alive. In terms of me personally, brotherhood has shown me the living God’.Ekaterina, Historian (Moscow): ‘Modern people have an inner yearning for family – for Home with a capital H – where there is a father, a mother, brothers and sisters. Our common life is something very natural for me. Each person must have his own family and his own friends – he must be able to find himself, to serve God and help other people. All of this together is a brotherhood’.Igor, Cook (Moscow): ‘It is almost impossible for a man to find his way to the church alone. He needs the help of the church itself – of a big family of believers – who are also on the path towards God. When we stand together it is much harder to go astray and miss the goal. Brotherhood is the type of community in which the church of Christ reveals itself, which bears witness to the fact that the Spirit of Christ is life-giving and makes all things new’.Oleg, Orthodontist (Tver): ‘The experience of brotherhood and community is the cornerstone on which the revival of the church stands. Life in brotherhood most fully reveals God’s gifts and His will. In this sense, it is easier for God to act through those faithful whom he has collected together in community or brotherhood’.Anna, Layout Designer (St. Petersburg): ‘In the present climate, communities and brotherhoods can become the embodiment of life according to the Gospel and the fulfilment of Christ’s commandment to love God and neighbour. Community, as the fruit of the life in brotherhood, is a space where personal communication is possible – where it is possible to accept the “other” as one’s neighbour’.
Interview by Darya Makeyeva, Elena Kudryavtseva, Natalia Adamenk Photographers: Alyona Kaplina, Alexander Volkov
