Preschool near me church: Crossroads United Methodist Church – HOPE Preschool

School Schedule

When 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Monday – Friday

                            9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

                            Extended W/Th*

Kindergarten 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Monday – Friday

*Our school day is extended every Wednesday and Thursday. Any child enrolled in a three year old or older class who attends school on these days will bring lunch. The 24-30 month and 30-36 month classes will begin extended day in January. The 18-24 month classes do not participate.

MONTHLY TUITION AND FEES

Non-refundable Registration Fee: $125

• 18-24 Mo. T/Th                                  $225

• 24-30 Mo. M/W-T/Th                         $240        

• 30-36 Mo. M/W/F-T/Th/F                  $275

• 3’s M/W/F-T/Th/F                               $290

• 3’s M/T/W/Th- T/W/Th/F                    $325

• 4’s M/T/W/Th- T/W/Th/F                    $335

• 4’s/5’s M/T/W/Th/F                            $385

• 5’s (Kdg.) M/T/W/Th/F                       $420

Non-Refundable tuition for May 2023 is due at registration.

Non-refundable tuition payment for September 2022 is due by May 1, 2022.

SUPPLY FEES

Due by September 1, 2022

• 2 day   $50 

• 3 day   $70 

• 4 day   $90

• 5 day   $100

For questions or information, contact RUMCK at 770.998.8699

Program Info

Program Info

RUMCK is accredited through AdvancED, recognizing excellence in education, and is certified as a “Preschool of Excellence” by the United Methodist Preschool Association of the North Georgia Conference.

Vision Statement

RUMCK aspires to promote a loving, Christ-centered environment which prepares each child for school readiness. We seek to nurture souls and skills through a guided journey of discovery.

Mission Statement

RUMCK is a ministry of Roswell United Methodist Church to children and families of all races, faiths, and nationalities. We offer a stimulating learning program based on developmentally appropriate curriculum. Our staff embraces a partnership with families to develop a child’s unique potential.

PROGRAM GOALS

Instill Christian attitudes, values, and actions

Promote a positive self-worth in each child

Allow each child to mature and develop at his own pace

Encourage each child to think, reason, question, and experiment

Prioritize and cultivate the joy and wonder of learning

Provide for each child’s physical well-being

Promote respect for individual and cultural differences

Work with parents as partners

our staff

Our STAFF

Our teaching staff is highly trained, well qualified, and maintains professional standards. A deep love and commitment to children is evident. Each classroom is staffed with a lead and assistant teacher. Additional staff teach music, creative movement, and Spanish. All staff have completed a background check and are CPR and first aid certified.

Additional Info

Class Requirements

• All children attending 3-year-old classes must be potty trained.  This includes independence in using the bathroom facility without the use of daytime pull-ups.
• If you are registering for the five-day 4- & 5-year-old class, your child must have attended a preschool program for at least one year and turn 4 years old by May 31, 2022. This class will encompass a broader range of academic readiness.

Children with Disabilities

We recognize that all children are different and have unique needs and skills. If your child requires additional services or support to meet their physical, educational, or social needs, please contact the director. There are many areas that we can offer assistance in the classroom.

For questions or information, contact RUMCK at 770.998.8699

I felt warm in the Orthodox Church

Anna Ershova for the ABC of Faith

Anna Ershova is a journalist, editor, member of the St. Petersburg Union of Journalists, author and co-author of several books. Married, mother of four children.

About the post office, the bus, the Bible autographed by the author and holy water

In all stories about the search for God there are usually good believing grandmothers, childhood memories of a ray of light streaming through the church windows, of a prosphora suddenly presented by a passing altar boy… Such a childish faith , which then, having passed certain tests, becomes a conscious, adult faith.

And everything was completely different with me.

As a child, I did not hear anything about God. Well, absolutely nothing. I grew up in Soviet times, but only very late, when they stopped fighting with believers, because there simply weren’t any left. At least we didn’t have them in the city. My parents moved to Siberia in my early childhood: my father was a power engineer, he built the Surgut State District Power Plant. It is now in Surgut a lot of all kinds of temples. And in those days there was not even a chapel in the whole city.

God, church? My mind did not stop for a second on these concepts, it was something from the last century, long forgotten. Even my grandparents were completely Soviet people and firmly believed only in building communism. No talk of religion ever touched my ears.

When did I feel what is called “a hole in the soul the size of God”? And I understood that “do not rely on princes, on the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation”? At 14? At 19?

No, of course, I had friends, best friend, suitors, company. But something still wasn’t there. At first it seemed that there was no love. Then love came, but again something was missing. I needed more. And none of the sons of men, as I now understand, could give me what I needed.

Only one Son.

***

I lived in St. Petersburg for a long time, met my future husband, we listened to BG, catching strange and exciting words like life-giving jets.

I’m wounded in the heart… they won’t heal me. I am wounded in the heart, what else could I want…

By the way, I am still sure that the Lord spoke through Boris Grebenshchikov in those years.

Sitting on a beautiful hill,
I often dream, and this is what it seems to me,
That it’s not about money, and not about the number of women,
And not in old folklore, and not in the new wave.
But we walk blindly in strange places
And all we have is joy and fear0038 Fear that we are worse than we can,
And the joy that everything is in good hands.

Fear that I might be better; that there is still room to grow – yes, it has always been in me. Just to understand where.

And a vague feeling that Someone bigger than I can contain holds everything that happens around in His reliable hands. ..

***

My first visit to an Orthodox church was very strange. Yes, not even a call, but an approach.

It was Easter, our daughter was a year old, and my husband and I were a little over twenty, and our mother-in-law let us go for a walk with friends. After all, what is Easter for people far from the Church? Something that needs to be celebrated, but no one knows how, drink, walk at night, be sure to go to the procession to the nearest open church, stand or walk with a candle, knock around, then return home and continue to drink and eat.

I am absolutely not judging anyone now, I am simply describing what was in our heads in those years.

So my friends and I went to the only church on Petrogradka that was open at that time (and throughout the Soviet era) – the Prince Vladimir Cathedral. The night was dark, the cathedral was burning with windows and, probably, with candles. I vaguely remember what we did and said, there were so many people that we only managed to stand on the porch for a while. We were unable to enter the cathedral. After standing and staring around, we, with a sense of accomplishment, went to visit a friend for a night visit – to the first tram. The guys sat down to play poker (well, what? We didn’t feel any imbalance then), and I was bored in the next room reading a book all night. “We” Zamyatin.

The nineties were standing outside, “we” had already stopped walking in formation and believing in a bright future. A strange and vague time was approaching, when everything was possible – to give someone in the face, to send bandits to the neighbors so that they would not make noise, to resell at exorbitant prices, to go over the hill for clothes. And it also became possible to believe in God.

One day, a few years later, I witnessed a parallel story. She responded in me, reminded me of my first Easter.

We, already believers, churchgoers, went to our church for the night service. It was overcrowded, as always, and it was also impossible to enter, but we already knew why we were patiently standing on the porch: soon all the “visitors” would leave, and it would be possible to enter the church for the Liturgy.

And then I saw a girl with two guys, they were – well, like we were a dozen years ago – a little “date”, cheerful, ordinary young people. They climbed the porch and tried, unlike us, to squeeze into the temple (after all, there is a belief that with the candles with which they walked at the procession, they must definitely go inside and stand until they burn out). And it seems that the place has already been vacated, you can go in, but the girl suddenly changed her face and said – I won’t go. “Well, what are you doing,” her friends cheerfully pushed her inside. “Let’s go, you can come in already!” “I won’t go,” she repeated sharply, almost putting her hands and feet on the backs of the people in front.

I looked at her and remembered myself ten years ago. I think God did not want me then without faith to accept in His house. And I thank Him for that.

The next time I went to an Orthodox church – a believer.

***

Recently, at the family table, the children asked me – Mom, why did you start to believe in God?

I remember the sequence of actions very well: I worked as a teacher in a college, I had a student Lyosha, bright, friendly and serious, and once it turned out that he was a Christian, and in his backpack he carries his favorite book – the Bible. It was unusual, I began to question him, he readily answered, and once he handed me a thick black book with a cross on the cover and said – “take it and read it yourself.” I remember all this well, but why did I need it so much?

Yes, because without it, nothing “beat”, did not grow together in my life. No rules worked. And a beloved husband + beloved daughter + a separate, finally, apartment – did not equal happiness. “Well, everything was just bad,” I answered the children non-pedagogically.

To make everything a little better, as it turned out, it was not the world around that had to be changed. And change something in yourself. More precisely, look for yourself, go to yourself for many, many years. To my true self, to myself as the image of God, as to the person whom God intended.

***

But back to the student named Lyosha. I still have that Bible, it’s almost 30 years old. There is an inscription on it: “To Anna Yuryevna from the Author.” Such a daring and youthfully bold approach to all things divine touched me. This Bible, which I read just like that, in transport, like an ordinary book, led me to faith.

Unconventionally and illogically, I began the New Testament with the Gospel of John. I read it as a plot literature, but even from this point of view, at some points I was surprised by the amount of detail. This disciple was sitting at the right hand of Jesus. This one ran first, and the second student overtook him. Why these details? They seemed a little strange on the scale of universal history.

But when I got to the end of this gospel and read the phrase “This disciple testifies of this and wrote this; and we know that his testimony is true,” it was as if cold water was doused over me. That is, this very one, who was sitting on the right and who later overtook Peter when he ran to the Sepulcher, is the Apostle John? Who then just sat down and wrote it all down? With details and nuances. So it really WAS?

I remember that later I even began to “scroll” the Gospel back again in order to get a grasp of some lines already with new knowledge – that this is the testimony of an EYEWITNESS.

However, my first prayer, my first appeal to the Living God happened after reading another book. It was the famous work of the American researcher Josh McDowell. As a student, Josh was convinced that believing in Christ meant being out of his mind. He looked down on believers. It was precisely in order to prove that Christians were wrong that he decided to independently investigate the documents of two thousand years ago … As a result of his research, he came to faith.

Josh’s story hooked me, and I began to read this rather simple book distributed in the 1990s by Protestant missionaries. At the end of the book was written the usual appeal for Protestant publications, they say, I shared with you what I learned myself, and you decide for yourself. But know that you can always turn to God, for example, with such words.

Next were the words – a short prayer. And I acutely felt that I CAN say these words to the One Who “on the other end of the wire” really IS. To the one who hears me.

At that moment, on my way back from work and reading a book on the way, I was walking from the bus stop to my house. I stopped at the post office, where I often went to receive parcels from my mother. Parents then lived in the Stavropol Territory and tirelessly prepared jam for all their three children. Most of all there was apricot, and also cherry, quince. Mom tied the jam in several plastic bags, put the bags in a parcel box and sent them to us.

So, I stood at this same post office, lowered my hand with the book down, just in case, placing my finger on the right page. And she said these words to God.

Like a warm wave touched me. No, more precisely, it didn’t touch, it went over me from head to toe. After that, I felt the physical warmth from God’s presence more than once. For example, when she sang hymns with Protestants. When she stood at the Orthodox Liturgy. When something struck me in a theological lecture. When the melody of some chant especially touched me. When I walked through the old park past the tall fir trees and talked to God. Yes, many more times.

I believe that when a person is touched by the Holy Spirit, it can be felt physically. In particular, N.A. Motovilov:

“What else do you feel, your love of God?
I said:
– Extraordinary warmth!
– How, father, warmth? Yes, we are in the forest. Now winter is in the yard, and there is snow under our feet, and there is more than an inch of snow on us, and groats are falling from above … what kind of warmth can there be here?

***

Let me remind you that I was an unbaptized person. There were 9 in the yard0, and there were no announcements, catechesis, conversations before Baptism at that time in churches. My only “spiritual father” was the same student Lyosha.

“You can be baptized in any Church,” he told me tolerantly, although he himself went to a Protestant church in Vyborg. – Although you know … be baptized in the Orthodox. The energy is better there. And pray there “warmer”.

Interestingly, 10 years later, Lesha and I met and recalled that conversation. He remembered it differently. Perhaps for some reason I myself understood him that way.

Anyway, I went to the Transfiguration Cathedral (for some time we lived in the center, next to it). There, I and several other people were baptized and immediately received communion. I vaguely remember the baptismal font, the liar, some people standing on the right. I don’t remember anything anymore. I didn’t even remember the date of baptism, and then they didn’t give evidence. I left the cathedral and went home. I don’t think I even told my husband that I was baptized. Or mentioned in passing.

Perhaps this was my first visit to the temple after that first Easter, and I really was already a believer, but baptism turned out to be a formality for me. God touched me even before that, earlier – and not in the Sacrament of Baptism.

***

My life went on. I found the core, the essence, but everything around me was centered around this core very slowly and not easily. There were several difficult conversations with loved ones, because I did not want to leave any more lies behind my back. There was also disappointment in friends – or, to put it more simply, I was no longer satisfied with the pastime that I had before. In all my previous life, I did not feel what I had already found for myself – this diamond, modest, quiet, but shining.

I read the Gospel and knew well that “where two or three gather in My name, there I am among them”…

I needed to find these two or three.

The Orthodox Church for me was still something like a factory for the production of ritual services (one of which I received by paying a certain amount of rubles and bringing a towel for some reason). What else was going on there, I was not interested, but began to try to go to different Protestant churches, which at that time were many around.

That so many people believe in Christ, whom I love, touched me endlessly. We sang simple words to Jesus, I was joyful and warm. But I could not come to any of these churches more than once. In one, I was offended by the overly artistic behavior of the preacher; in another, everything was sincere, but they spoke in English through an interpreter; in the third, the preacher for some reason energetically walked up and down the stage; .

As the same Grebenshchikov sang: “Something, something, something is wrong. There is definitely something wrong with this game.”

***

When I was pregnant with my second child, I became friends with Yulia. She was also expecting a son, and our older children went to the same kindergarten group. We often walked together: as folk wisdom says, “walk more – it’s easier to give birth.” Once, terribly embarrassed and finding words with difficulty, I told Yulia that I believe in God.

— Oh, yes? Are you a believer? Yulia exclaimed loudly (I involuntarily looked around). – Me too! I even went to one parish for a while.

— To the parish??? Did you go to an Orthodox church?

– Well, yes. And what else?

It was a shock. More precisely, no, not a shock. Cautious surprise. As if you are opening some kind of veil, rather dusty, with a faded, once luxurious pattern. You look in, expecting to see something dusty, even mummified, but suddenly you see people just like you, young, cheerful, interested, profound…

By the way, I remembered a funny thing. Having already become a church member, I decided to go to the early liturgy. More precisely, the daughter persuaded. She didn’t like crowds, and she got up early. “Mom, there will probably be much less people there,” she said. She wanted to go to the temple, she was on fire, like me. But here I drifted. It seemed to me that only notorious outcasts go to the temple at such an early hour. Some aunties in long faded skirts and warm, tightly wrapped scarves. They stand all the time on their knees and bow to the ground.

Imagine my surprise when at the early liturgy I found a younger “public”, mostly male: apparently, on a weekday, men came to the service before work.

***

With Yulia, I slowly began to “look” into an Orthodox church. What struck me most of all was that I could come and tell someone my sins, share my doubts and problems. And it will be a spiritually experienced person who will be able to listen to me and maybe give some advice. It was infinitely important to me.

We baptized our daughter, then we decided to baptize our son, Yulia became a godmother. My husband was also baptized. I walked towards conscious faith in small steps. As if getting used to what is happening in the Church. Looking closely.

I didn’t want to follow all the instructions from the brochures that were flooding the bookshops at that time. “And he will go in, and he will go out, and he will find pasture,” for me these words of Jesus were about freedom. I continued to pray to God in my own way, but some of the prayers from the prayer book were very touching. “Lord, cleanse our sins, Lord, forgive our iniquities, Holy One, heal our infirmities for the sake of Your name. ” I liked these prayers, and I gradually introduced them into my “everyday life”.

***

It was Easter again. Easter, 7 years away from my first Easter, when I could not enter the temple and read “We” Zamyatin. Again we did not go to the service, still not knowing how “should” be celebrated. But in the evening, having again left my mother-in-law with two children, my husband and his friend decided to go to the evening service.

You know how beautifully any church choir sings this beautiful hymn: “You are God, work miracles, You are God, work miracles. Do, do, do miracles! That evening God did a miracle with me.

At first I realized how much I wanted to take communion. I began to ask the candle-maker, who angrily told me: “Well, take communion, I woke up! As soon as the long fast ended, everyone fasted and took communion. And now what! Look for the father now, ask him. It was rude, tears welled up in my eyes.

And holy water splashed on my tears, with which the priest sprinkled either the belated Paschal meals, or the departing parishioners. My husband and comrade had already left the temple, I began to hastily catch up with them, smearing tears and spray on my face.

And after a short time I discovered that the ailment that had tormented me for quite a long time had disappeared somewhere.

After the birth of my son, apparently due to some hormonal changes, I began to get sick often. Immunity sank, the doctor even prescribed gamma globulin, which the same Yulia pierced me. But nothing helped. My “favorite” disease – sinusitis – turned into a chronic form, I often felt unwell, I felt a breakdown. In particular, because of this house there was a tense situation. Leaving the temple, I suddenly felt that someone had dropped a vasoconstrictor into my constantly stuffy nose. He gradually began to breathe. After some time, constant colds ceased to torment, the protective functions of the body returned to normal.

God clearly showed me that He can do a lot. That He loves me. And that He is in this Church.

However, I no longer needed proof.

***

When, a few years later, my dad tried to understand why I chose this particular denomination, I answered him:

— Dad, imagine that you need to get to the goal. And in front of you are a dozen cars that you can drive. You tried everything and chose the newest model – let’s say a Mercedes. What will you answer the question if you are asked why you chose this particular car among all the variety?

No, I don’t think at all that the plot “shouted means it’s good, through hardships to the stars” is the only true one. He is generally unfaithful, and it’s great that a lot is changing in our Church, now this is becoming less and less common. Also, I do not think that only such strange (at least when viewed from the outside) miracles can come to God.

I just learned faith with my mind. And the Church searched with the mind. And in Orthodoxy it turned out – through the heart.

Something touched him. Warm. close. Very similar to the first feeling I had at the post office, where I received parcels with my mother’s apricot jam.

What kind of housing is provided for priests

Sergey Antonov

learned the details

Author profile

The priest does not choose the place of residence.

But at the same time, he knows that in any case he will not be left without housing: the parish is obliged to provide it. A reader of Tinkoff Magazine told about what it is like to be the wife of a priest, how many times they moved, what houses they lived in, and why many priests build their own houses.

This is a Community story. The editors asked leading questions, carefully edited and designed according to the standards of the journal.

About myself

Natalya Astafieva

married to a priest

Author profile

All my life I have lived in a big city – Nizhny Novgorod. Shops, amenities, transport, medicine and education – all this was familiar and affordable. Almost every week I went either to the theater or to a concert, I was not afraid to stay up late in a cafe, as I could get home at any time. These were the days of my student days and the first years of my work at school.

In 2015, I was a teacher of the first category. Around that time, I began to visit the temples of Nizhny Novgorod often. I liked the services, and despite the fact that I worked six days a week, I still went to church on Sunday. That’s how I met my future husband – he was a seminary student.

My life has changed. I was preparing to become a mother, that is, the wife of an Orthodox priest.

We traveled a lot before the wedding. And now we also love to discover new places. This photo was taken in Kolomenskoye

Before marriage, I lived with my mother. I had my own room, but I didn’t have enough personal space. Plus, we lived far from the city center, so I got a job at a school closer to home so as not to spend a lot of time commuting to work. I did not hope to buy an apartment myself: I have a philological education, I wanted to work only by profession – a teacher. I also could not count on the help of my family.

After the wedding, my husband and I had to go into the unknown. This is the fate of all such families: you are not free to choose the place of your service, and, consequently, the place of residence. However, I knew that a priest would never be left without a roof over his head, and therefore I did not worry about this topic.

I was ready to move and inspired by everything that was happening. By that moment, it became hard for me to live in the rhythm of a big city, to fuss and spend several hours on the road: from school to work, and then home. Rural life seemed to me very romantic and tempting.

Where do priests live

The apostolic injunction from ancient times calls on people who attend the temple to provide the altar server with everything necessary so that he does not care about earthly things. It turns out that the future priest should not worry about where to live and what to eat.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, only a married man can be ordained, that is, become a priest. Therefore, housing should be designed for his entire family. The second path to the priesthood goes through the adoption of monasticism, but this is a completely different story: monasteries, sketes, own households, special prayer rules – all this is for the elect.

The altar server must take care of the heavenly, not the earthly, so the parishioners provide the priests with food, including

A priest can choose a diocese himself, but at the same time, the bishop is free to assign him to any church in this diocese. Usually they are sent to where there is not enough personnel, and they are also guided by what virtues the clergyman has.

As a rule, the priest gets a house or apartment that originally belonged to the temple. This dwelling is called the parish apartment. Light and gas are paid for from the proceeds of the temple – the so-called donations.

In villages, priests often live in a house near the church. This is very convenient: the priest is always at the temple, ideally it should be so. You have to pay very little for such a house, except for heating in winter.

If the priest serves in a large city, then the parish gives him a certain amount so that he can rent a house for himself. For example, 15,000 R per month. He can rent an apartment for 20,000 R, but then he will have to pay the difference himself.

First home

Hotel in the central diocesan city and the house of the clergy

Two months after our marriage, my husband and I left Nizhny Novgorod for a small diocese and ended up in the central diocesan city. My husband served in the cathedral. It was located on the banks of a beautiful river, private houses stood nearby, chickens, goats and sometimes even cows roamed freely. As a city dweller, animals evoked almost holy awe in me. I was ready for any difficulties, just to live in this quiet place.

You won’t meet a cow in a big city, but in a small town it’s a common occurrence Almost rural landscapes of our city

The fall of 2016 has arrived. Difficulties began, and with them our wanderings. My husband came to the diocese first, without me. He was settled in the house of the clergy – this is the name of the residential building in the complex of church buildings. Initially, such houses were built near the temple for the priest to live there with his family. In such a house, there could also be an office, a sacristy and a room for a Sunday school. At our temple, the priests did not live permanently in the house of the clergy, but only settled there for a while. My husband lived there while he was waiting to be ordained to the priesthood. At this time, he attended services and got acquainted with parishioners. Even in the house of the clergy, laborers stayed – people who helped at the temple free of charge.

When I arrived next, it turned out that there was no place for me in the clergy’s house. I had to check into a local hotel.

A hotel in a provincial town would be better described by Gogol than by me. In such places, I immediately move the bed away from the wall and put it in the middle of the room: who knows who from the wall decides to crawl into bed? The so-called room did not even have a sink, water was dripping from the tap, you could brush your teeth somehow. And the price for those times was decent – 600 R per day.

I lived there for three days. We have not yet entered the clergy, that is, speaking in worldly language, my husband has not yet started work, and, accordingly, he has not begun to be paid. Therefore, the expenses for my hotel fell on us, and after the wedding and the move, it was problematic to find even such a small amount. We began to actively look for more affordable housing.

As I later realized, there were few visiting priests in this city. And the locals already had their own houses or apartments, so there was no separate church housing that would belong to the diocese: there was simply no need for it.

Later, two more young families of priests came to our town, and they had similar problems finding housing. But none of them cursed and left. We took everything for granted, because difficulties often haunt any young family and you need to be able to overcome them.

Second home

Hut with a Russian stove

In our searches, we asked both parishioners and church workers about housing. Everyone sincerely tried to help us. However, all the apartments that were rented out were already occupied by students of the local medical college. The result – in the whole city there was not a single free room. But during one of the attempts to rent a house, the hostess of the house, who rented out beds for students, sent us “to Zinka”.

Zinka turned out to be a frail old woman of 82 years old. She lived in a rickety hut with a Russian stove, in which she baked pies every weekend. In another room there was a Dutch stove. The house had one and a half rooms. The main room is a normal room with two beds, a wardrobe and a table. The second room was the kitchen, in which there was a stove and a bed – Baba Zina slept there.

She put us in a big room. Is free! She simply said: “Live, and there how much money you give, so much and it will be good!”

Baba Zina cooked breakfast for us, took us to a neighbor’s bathhouse and talked about herself. It turned out that eight people once lived in this cramped room, where everything was unusual for us! Grandmother became a good friend to us for many years, but alas, after the city, living in such a house was, to put it mildly, not very comfortable for us.

But walks around the city inspired

As a result, we lived with Grandma Zina for two weeks. We were even among the guests at her birthday party. It was very atmospheric: Russian folk songs, talkative neighbors, pies from the oven and many memories of the difficult post-war life in the village. Our temporary problems seemed to us then not so significant.

The parishioners were very worried that the young family could not find a place to live, and actively helped us to find it. So later we still found a full-fledged apartment in the city: with a bathroom, heating and two rooms. Word of mouth helped – in such places it works best.

When Baba Zina found out that we were moving out, she was very upset, because she lived alone: ​​her children and grandchildren had long since left. But we had to somehow equip ourselves. We paid her a little – 2000 R, of which she took only 1000 R.

As I found out, then students moved in with her. She welcomed everyone all the time.

Third housing

Apartment in a wooden house

Our new housing was located on the first floor of a two-story house and cost us 5000 R per month. We had very calm and friendly neighbors with children. There was a shop, a stadium and a place for evening youth gatherings nearby.

My husband was already passing magpie then, that is, every day for 40 days he had to attend morning and evening services, so the parish paid for the apartment, including utilities. If we draw an analogy with worldly life, magpie is like a probationary period at work. In addition, the spouse was assigned a salary of 15,000 R per month.

/svyashchennik/

“What I have is enough for me”: how much does a ROC priest earn

The apartment had two small rooms. The bedroom contained only a bed and an old wardrobe. Almost all the time we spent in another room, it was more spacious.

The kitchen was also very small, with two cupboards and a work table. We brought our own dining table. The stove turned out to be old, with a non-working oven. I remember that in the first place I was going to bake the meat: I cooked everything, started lighting the gas, and from there – bang! I didn’t approach her anymore. For our birthday, relatives gave us an electric oven – for me it turned out to be the safest and most convenient option.

The only thing missing in the apartment was a washing machine. We immediately bought an old Ryazan at Avito, which I affectionately called “a bucket with a motor.”

Under the windows of the apartment there was a plot for a garden, which made me very happy. True, later it turned out that no one had grown anything there for a long time, and the soil turned out to be bad, and we didn’t even have greenery. Only three lilies grew, and then by autumn.

In the garden, I planted tulip bulbs. Then we still grew tomatoes and zucchini there

We were sorely short of money. At that moment, I was not familiar with the secrets of family savings, and we spent the money we received thoughtlessly. As a result, they could not afford repairs or new furniture.

By that time, I had quit my previous job and naively hoped to find a place for myself in a new city. Then I was sure that teachers are required everywhere. After five years of my life in small provincial towns, I understand that in such places it is very prestigious to be a teacher and, alas, it is very difficult to find an open vacancy.

The same compassionate and active parishioners who found us housing began to look for a place for me. And – lo and behold, two months later, a vacancy for a Russian language teacher appeared at a local school, which was only a 10-minute walk from home.

I was lucky with the place of work: I liked the team, the fresh renovation in the building, and the students. And most importantly, salary. My income per month ranged from 17,000 to 21,000 R depending on bonuses. I always knew that for participation in competitions, open lessons and school events I was guaranteed to receive an additional payment.

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“I was tormented by the administration, not by the children”: how much does a teacher of Russian and literature earn

Despite everyday difficulties, we even got pets — cats and guinea pigs

At the end of winter, the most joyful news came: our daughter was to be born. In the local hospital, again, with the help of parishioners, I got to a very good doctor.

I don’t complain about medicine in small towns. But, of course, some examinations still had to be carried out in a big city – it took two hours to get to it, but this was rarely required. In addition, I was going to give birth in my native Nizhny Novgorod, and for the first time after giving birth, I planned to live there, with my mother.

Everything went just perfect: my husband served in a beautiful church, we were surrounded by kind and helpful people, the town was quiet and peaceful, and my work brought me pleasure. Of course, in life there were also roughnesses, but now they seem insignificant.

Over time, our life got better: a “real” washing machine appeared, we ordered furniture from Ikea, the owner of the apartment took the old one. We have slightly updated and refreshed the interior. We bought everything simple and affordable: a couple of bookcases and a small sofa. It was very lucky that Ikea delivered goods to our region. Everything was inexpensive – about 13,000 R.

Relatives gave us money for a washing machine. Of these, we still managed to carve out for a vacuum cleaner. Now this furniture and appliances roam with us. We even got a car – an old Zhiguli. We bought it in the spring of 2017 for 70,000 R. True, we sold the car already in the fall.

By the time the baby was born, we replaced the owner’s old mattress, from which the springs were jumping out, with a new one. It cost about 10,000 R. An incredible embarrassment occurred with the mattress: they did not deliver it through a transport company, but sent it by Russian Post. You should have seen the faces of the postal workers when the husband was trying to put the mattress in the car.

We lived in this apartment for a year. But when their daughter was born, they decided to find something more comfortable: in this housing there was no hot water in the kitchen, and the water-heating boiler looked intimidating and, apparently, could explode at any moment. And it was also frustrating that we could not do a normal repair here.

Fourth housing

Two-room apartment in a five-story building

We were lucky: on the next street there was a microdistrict with relatively new five-story houses and apartments with a good layout. It was there that we moved – we rented a two-room apartment.

We transported things on a cargo Gazelle. It was a plus for me that there was no furniture in the apartment: we could arrange everything as we wanted. Another plus was the balcony – however, the only unglazed one in the whole house. My child and I loved spending time there in the summer: we played with water and escaped the heat.

Cats near our five-story building

The rent of this rented apartment cost a little more than before – it turned out to be something around 6000 R. Our parish paid for the apartment. In winter, central heating cost 4,500 R. There was no hot water, and we used a water heater, so we paid only for cold water – about 300 R. For electricity, it was 600-800 R. In total, the apartment cost 5600-6000 R per month.

In the summer we paid the same amount. But since in the warm season they did not charge for heating and the housing and communal services actually cost less, the owners of the apartment simply kept the difference in the amount. In a big city, one cannot even dream of such a rental price.

The apartment was very nice. It even had a new, very beautiful kitchen set. The bathroom was also in satisfactory condition.

We just refreshed the wallpaper – pasted new ones to our taste. And they bought the simplest, monophonic ones. We spent about 8,000 R on wallpaper and other minor repairs. We also bought a chest of drawers and a wall with a wardrobe. They took everything on “Avito” for 9000 R and paid 500 R for the transportation of things. For us, this is a colossal expense, but on the other hand, we exhaled and began to live in normal conditions – moreover, with good neighbors and not far from the temple.

Children’s corner. I think it’s so cute

Theoretically, all the houses in the city had space for vegetable gardens. But we didn’t get anything, because even the owners themselves didn’t know where their plot was located. I was not upset: with a one-year-old child, it is unlikely that I will be able to become a garden farmer.

We lived in this apartment for two and a half years – until the summer of 2020. By that time, we had a second baby. When he was five months old, my husband decided to move to another diocese, which is closer to Nizhny Novgorod, since we often went there.

I will say right away: it is problematic for a priest to change his place of service. The church system does not approve of transitions and unauthorized moves. I think that in any profession, management will be wary if a person changes jobs often. But we took a risk and they let us go.

The search began. The husband wanted to choose a place of service to his liking so that he would no longer have to move from one diocese to another. As a result, we were accepted into a wonderful diocese and sent to a village with a very rich history: it used to be a merchant town with various crafts, its own monastery in the city center and even a cinema.

Fifth housing

Two-room apartment in a two-story building

We were immediately given parish housing, which belongs to the diocese, a two-room apartment of 45 m² with a spacious corridor and utility rooms on the first floor of a two-story house. On the street there is a barn and a plot of land for a vegetable garden.

Other priests who served in the local church lived in the apartment before us. For inexplicable reasons, they often replaced each other, and, according to the stories of old residents, the apartment constantly changed its appearance. Each new family re-pasted the wallpaper, installed new doors, plumbing, and re-laid the flooring. The apartment arranged for us in the form in which we got it.

Moving to a new apartment

There was no extra furniture in the apartment. We took out the double bed and soon replaced it with a sofa, and along the wall there was a so-called wall – you can see it in the film “The Irony of Fate”. It is very roomy and does not interfere with us. There was no furniture at all in the small room, except for an almost antique chiffonier.

A month after the move, a piano even appeared in the apartment, which was given to us for free. My husband and I do not play, but it will be useful to us, since I consider music education very important, and children will have the opportunity to learn music.

This apartment also has a large kitchen – 8 m². Large by our standards, of course: a highchair for feeding in such a kitchen does not seem bulky. There was even room for a large cage with a guinea pig.

I am always for large spaces. I also like that the lower part of the walls here is lined with clapboard, it looks very cozy. The only thing is that I keep dreaming of changing the kitchen set, but so far we can’t afford it.

Our Easter breakfast in the kitchen

I am very satisfied with plastic windows. In our other habitats, there were old frames that froze to ice, and opened with a terrible creak.

In addition, I am delighted with the balcony. It can be accessed both from the kitchen and from one room. An additional huge area appeared where you can store something or play with children in the heat. We have strollers, sleds, skis and a lot of boxes with things, so the balcony came in handy for us. At the same time, he does not seem cluttered at all.

Plastic windows in the apartment

Over time, in the kitchen, we replaced the sink, put in a table, a rack. In the rooms, the wallpaper was immediately re-pasted to your liking. I especially enjoyed decorating the nursery. We chose wallpaper for a very long time, thought about what and where it would stand, bought a new sofa and a bed for our daughter. Our second child is still sleeping in a crib, but I understand that we cannot do without a bunk bed. While I was writing my story in Tinkoff Magazine, our third baby was born and there was even less free space.

How is life in this apartment

One of the problems of the apartment is that it is very cold in winter. There is no gas in our village, and private houses are heated mainly with firewood. The school, hospital and kindergarten have their own boiler rooms. Two-story houses in the microdistrict are also heated by a boiler house. It is heated with coal and firewood – in winter the smell is fabulous.

The houses themselves are poorly built, there are large distances between the bricks, the walls are thin, so it is difficult to keep warm in such housing. Residents have two ways: to heat additionally or to insulate their houses from the outside. We have an electric heating system. There are additional radiators in the rooms, which are connected to a pump that supplies hot water.

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How to insulate a private house

Electricity in the cold season we spend on 5000-6000 R. But still, the temperature does not rise above +21 ° C in the apartment. This winter, it blew so that our thermometer dropped to +17 °C. I don’t worry about that, it’s better than the air dried up by too generous city heating. Children don’t get sick either. They are active, and I dress them warmly, so low temperatures do not affect our health.

Another pain is mold. We took it out in the apartment itself, but this is only the visible part of the problem. Spores penetrate very deeply, and it may reappear. It seems to me that it appears from dampness.

Such additional radiators are installed in the apartment. This is an electrical auxiliary heating system

Another interesting moment with heating: some residents have real stoves in their apartments! Mostly grandmothers. They carry firewood home and use it to burn. And smoke comes out of the chimney on the roof of the two-story building, like in a village house.

I asked my friends, and it turned out that a considerable amount is spent on firewood – about 15,000 R per season. At the same time, they still need to be brought, chopped and put into the oven on time. Warming the house will also cost a round sum. Often, neighbors agree among themselves and sheathe most of the house at once, insulating several apartments.

Instead of a stove, we have just additional radiators. They do not help much, and a lot of electricity is wasted. But we will not insulate the walls: it is expensive, and the apartment is not ours.

A priest is never sure that in a year he will live where he lives now. Transfers from parish to parish are commonplace.

Due to the fact that there is no central gas supply in the village, we change the gas cylinder every two or three months. We store it outside, in a special box under the balcony. Gas from it goes to the kitchen to the stove. A new cylinder costs 1200 R.

Another unforeseen expense item is a septic tank. There is no central sewerage in the village, and everyone has their own, the pumping of which is paid for by the residents of a particular house. The main thing is that the sewage truck arrives on time, otherwise there will be very unpleasant consequences. Families who lived in this apartment before us faced similar problems.

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How to choose and install a septic tank for a country house

We pay for a septic tank at the rate of 300 R per person. There are four of us, in total it turns out 1200 R per month. We tried to appeal the amount, since the second child was only nine months old at the time of our check-in, but it didn’t work out. When the third child was born, 1,500 rubles were already paid for sewage. This is a serious blow to the family budget.

In total, during the cold season, we spend more than 7,500 R per month on utility services. The parish compensates only for electricity and water supply. In summer, spending is much less – about 2000 R.

I’m near our house Entrance entrance

We live in a wonderful place. Eco-friendly area, proximity to forests, rivers, beautiful park areas and very athletic residents. Almost all pensioners here are engaged in Nordic walking. There are places where you can go skiing, a sports and recreation complex, and in summer everyone rides bicycles.

In our village there is a museum, an art gallery, a house of culture and a most beautiful temple in which my husband serves. We enrolled our daughter in a kindergarten without any problems and queues, we plan to send her to a music school later, as we are well acquainted with the teachers.

The embankment along the river is very beautiful, and there are many places where you can take a walk. I am from Nizhny Novgorod, so I like that there is a river near our house

The clinic is ten minutes walk from the house. Once it was a hospital complex with unique architecture. You can get an appointment with a doctor almost without a queue. And in terms of medical care, everything is very good here. But if something serious happens, you have to go to the city.

We go to medical institutions, for large purchases and entertainment to my mother in Nizhny Novgorod. The road takes about four hours, it is difficult with children: we cannot sit still. However, while I am not working, this is not a problem for us. But we will continue to resolve issues as they arise.

I like living here: at night I don’t hear a single sound, no lights shine through the window, and no one screams under the windows. There is no fuss here, children breathe clean air, we are not afraid of cars, and the Internet allows us not to break away from civilization and keep abreast of cultural and social events.

Family budget

All the moves had a strong impact on our family budget. To transport things to the last place, we paid a total of 15,000 R. Wallpaper cost us 12,000 R, additional furniture – 35,000 R. Relatives helped us with something, we had to take out a loan for furniture. To replace pipes and sinks, as well as install a washing machine, I had to spend about 10,000 R.

The priest doesn’t have that kind of money. My husband’s salary for five years of service has increased quite a bit: now he earns 20,000 R. Plus, I receive a child allowance – 11,000 R. The cost of living in our region is 10,833 R per person, and there are four of us. We are saved at the expense of parishioners who bring us vegetables from gardens, pickles, cereals, flour. Some share eggs and milk. Everything is natural and delicious.

At the same time, we need both things for the house and clothes for babies. My good work experience turned out to be a big plus, so maternity payments were quite large when compared with the minimum. True, the middle child has recently turned one and a half years old, so I receive money only for the youngest daughter – about 11,000 R.

Despite all the difficulties, we do not lose heart, because we like to serve the church and live in small towns. In addition, we travel a lot on vacation.

Thanks to the proximity to nature, family holidays are excellent

Future plans

There is a stereotype in society: a rural father lives in a Russian house, runs a household, and has an uncountable number of children in the shops and a round wife in a headscarf.

In fact, things are a little different now. Priests become bloggers and receive additional education. Their children go to all kinds of clubs, and their wife not only knows how to bake pies, but also makes cakes to order and actively promotes them on Instagram.

We also receive additional education. I took several professional training courses on maternity leave: I studied for a year as an English teacher, and also completed copywriting courses through the Demography national project. Now my husband and I are studying together in the master’s program in the Theology program.

Despite the fact that priests have the opportunity to live in parish-paid housing, many still acquire their own houses and apartments over time. Or they try to build their own house, especially in the village.

Maintaining your own home is often cheaper than paying for rent. Also, parish housing is often in a very deplorable state and requires considerable investment, and some disadvantages are difficult to fix.

So far, we cannot afford to take out a mortgage, and without it, there will not be enough money from maternity capital to buy a home. In the future, I plan to go to work, and then we will think about expansion and our own house.

Where I live. Readers talk about the features of their housing

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The icon “with pennies” will return to its temple

Sergey Glezerov

People

October 21, 2022

PHOTO by Dmitry SOKOLOV

Editorial guest – Priest Bogdan POLEVOI

Once upon a time, even the very idea of ​​restoring this temple on Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue, the former Shlisselburg tract, seemed absolutely incredible. And now there is a recreated church of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow (with pennies)”, and the embankment near it …

According to our interlocutor, who is the rector of this temple, one should not be afraid to dream and try to fulfill their dreams, even if they seem unrealizable. Let first only talking about them. But it is not for nothing that the Holy Scripture says that in the beginning there was a word. The word is the energy that can create.

— Father Bogdan, and yet, without serious material investments, the reconstruction of the temple would have remained a dream…

— Yes, it’s a fact! Thanks to patrons, we now have funds, but life has shown that the availability of money, even sufficient, is not always a guarantee of a good result.

From the height of certain experience – and this is the third temple, to the revival of which I am involved – I can say: the main thing is obsession with an idea and a good team of like-minded people. Yes, you can find a certain amount of money, but this is not the cornerstone, but a thirst, a dream, like-minded people who are ready to move the common cause together with you. And infect others with this obsession …

During one of my last years at the Seminary, my friends invited me to help in the chapel-church on Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue, where divine services were resumed in the early 1990s. Very soon this place became my home.

It was then that I got acquainted with the history of the parish. I learned about the Sorrowful Church, which was blown up in 1932 and built by the architects Alexander von Gauguin and Alexander Ivanov, and about the miraculously preserved Sorrowing Chapel located next to it.

I learned about the main shrine – the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow (with pennies)”. Her story is very interesting. Since the 18th century, a wooden chapel has stood on the banks of the Neva. In August 1888, a fire broke out in it, but the icon, miraculously, was not damaged by fire. Coins from a mug for collecting donations were only glued to it, hence its name … A few years after the huge number of miracles and healings that happened before this image, it was decided to build a whole architectural ensemble on the site of that chapel: a temple, a chapel and a parish house.

I also learned about the nearby burial place of the blessed Matrona Sandals, who at the beginning of the last century was very revered among the locals. Of course, the famous lines of Anna Akhmatova dedicated to these places surfaced in my memory …

— “The steam engine goes to the Sorrowful, and its aching whistle echoes over the Neva”?

— Yes, these are! Even then, my predecessor, Father Pachomius, dreamed of rebuilding the ruined church. At the time, this seemed unrealistic. But this thought popped into my head. And his confidence was transmitted that the temple should be restored.

There was another story, though rather curious. Once, in our first year, we, several seminarians, arranged a picnic not far from the Sorrowing Chapel on the banks of the Neva. White nights, a romantic and full of discoveries walk around the city … I casually asked: “What kind of temple is this?”. They answered me with humor: “What, do you want to be a rector?” Then we all just laughed. If someone had told me that in a decade and a half I would become a rector here and would be engaged in the revival of the temple, I would never have believed it… Dreams can indeed come true.

In my last year of seminary, I served in the Chapel of Sorrows as a psalmist and altar boy, and I was asked to stay in the parish. For some time I served here as a deacon, then I became rector.

— And little by little he began to raise the question of the possibility of recreating the temple.

Looking ahead: not a penny was spent from the city budget on this project. Now I can say: maybe it was for the best. Things go much faster when funding is not on the budget.

— And who did you manage to infect with this idea?

– I will not hide the direct participation and the most important role played by the head of “Gazprom” Alexei Borisovich Miller. What was his motivation? I could say that this person is a real Petersburger who knows the history of the city perfectly and is zealous about its architectural appearance … That’s right. And at the same time much easier: his childhood years were spent in the house opposite. There was a production workshop in the building of the chapel at that time, there were machine tools inside, and the boys from neighboring houses tried to climb there for the sake of curiosity, play, play pranks, watch what was happening …

Once he looked into our chapel, and then we managed to tell him about our dream to restore the temple. Alexey Borisovich responded, a charitable foundation was created.

It all started with excavations of the foundation, archaeological research. It turned out that the basement floor was almost completely preserved, which was a pleasant surprise, as it allowed us to obtain the exact dimensions of the object. After all, no pre-revolutionary project documentation has been preserved – only photographs of facades.

However, right under the foundation, back in the 1960s, a sewer collector was laid by tunneling, stretching for many kilometers along the Neva and Obukhovskaya Oborona Avenue. A legal conflict arose: the foundation of the temple found during excavations was recognized as an object of cultural heritage, it was impossible to touch it. If not for this circumstance, we would have simply dismantled the foundation (it did not represent a special historical value: just a basement where there were heating stoves and a coal-wood warehouse) and would have erected a temple on a new foundation. But that would be against the law.

Therefore, a very serious and innovative engineering solution had to be implemented – to place a reinforced concrete slab with a pile field of 130 piles under the foundation in order to shift the load from the new structure beyond the collector zone. This work took at least a year and a half.

— So the collector remained in its place, and the temple was erected on a historical foundation?

– Exactly. By the way, often people who find themselves here for the first time do not immediately believe that the temple was literally just built. Thanks to the “aged” brick, rough, as if worn, with many shades of red, the church does not give the impression of a remake and looks like it is at least more than a century old…

You know, before the construction of this temple, I never suspected that I would take every little thing so close to my heart. I was so demanding of everything and everyone that sometimes it even took the form of boredom. Only the choice of brick took several months. It is known that during restoration, old materials from dismantled, demolished buildings are often used, but it was simply impossible to find such a quantity of homogeneous broken bricks required for the construction of our temple.

Having studied the markets of Russia and foreign countries, we chose a manufacturer who produced hand-molded bricks, which were close in technology to historical samples. The manufacturer even had to specially reconfigure the production line in order to produce the historical brick size we needed.

Exactly the same requirements were for the granite base. We insisted that the stone processing method be the same as at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Such thoroughness was supported by the level of skill of the builders. It seems to me that all of them were imbued with our dream to revive the shrine.

As for the interior decoration, we had at our disposal only one single photograph of it, and it was completely indistinct. It shows the blurred outlines of the iconostasis and two columns-supports with a barely perceptible outline of the mural ornament. And detailed pre-revolutionary insurance statements have also been preserved, which indicated which particular subjects of the painting were on the walls of the temple. But neither the geometric forms nor their stylistic features are known…

— That is, in this respect, it was not necessary to talk about re-creation?

Yes, and actually I was very happy about it. In the previous church, which I had the opportunity to restore, Holy Trinity near the Kinoveevsky cemetery on the opposite side of the Neva, an exact reconstruction of the interior decoration was carried out according to the surviving archival materials and photographs. Here it is different.

And our temple has not yet been opened just because the painting of the inner space is still ongoing. For various reasons, it turned out to be perhaps the most difficult task. Everything else is ready, including the Russian-style iconostasis – a real masterpiece, I’m not afraid of this word. Made of Italian marble by first-class craftsmen, it miraculously stylistically matches the appearance of the entire temple.

I would like to believe that by Easter next year, the church will finally open for parishioners. We hope that His Holiness Patriarch Kirill will honor us with his presence and consecrate the church. And then our miraculous icon “Joy of All Who Sorrow (with pennies)” will return to its historical place – now it is in the church “Kulich and Easter”.

By the way, in the near future we are preparing to open a museum in the crypt of the temple, it will present, among other things, the finds made during the archaeological research of the foundation.

— Was the construction of the embankment going on simultaneously with the reconstruction of the temple?

– In a sense, it was a spontaneous decision: when we started work, we did not think about the embankment. But, when the temple began to take shape, it became clear that it requires a very special space around. Indeed, in fact, this is the only cult object in our city, located directly on the banks of the Neva. Yes, there are churches on the embankments, but they are separated from the coast by a roadway. And our temple stands right by the water surface of the river.

Therefore, the need for arranging the territory was obvious to me and to patrons. In my opinion, an excellent solution was found: to arrange a promenade – with benches, lanterns, a wonderful descent to the water, a mooring for boats … There was even a place for a children’s playground.

By the way, the water area near the temple is connected with an amazing story: in August 1963, the Tu-124 passenger liner, which was operating a regular flight on the route Tallinn – Moscow, landed (more precisely, splashed down) on the Neva water area due to engine failure and a malfunction with the landing gear. None of the passengers on board were injured. It was the first successful splashdown of a passenger aircraft in the history of civil aviation.

We are going to open a memorial sign near the temple on the new embankment in memory of this story. Now we are working with permits, it also turned out to be not very easy.

It seems to me that there is something symbolic in the fact that the plane found salvation near the holy place for our city. By the way, we can say with great certainty that one of the passengers of that plane was the future Patriarch Alexy II, at that time the Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia. The fact is known only from the words of people to whom he himself told about this, other evidence has not been preserved. Perhaps that is why he was very warm and reverent about our chapel on Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue, for him this place is a second birth! – it was special…

Thanks to patrons, this year we will be able to improve the green area adjacent to the temple along the Neva – the space that received the name “Leningrad Mukomolov Boulevard” after the nearby bread factory. Alleys, benches, lanterns will appear in the park, and the river bank will be strengthened and put in order.

In general, I’m not afraid of this word, the temple has become a catalyst for many changes in the microdistrict. The nearby park of the 30th anniversary of October was landscaped. The pedestrian sidewalk on Obukhovskaya Oborona Avenue was paved with granite – no worse than on Nevsky Prospekt, if not better. The fence, public transport stops, pedestrian crossings have been changed – a comprehensive improvement program has been implemented.

In the building of the house of the clergy opposite the temple, which historically belonged to the parish, a turret on the roof was restored. After all, once it was a real architectural ensemble, in which the high-rise dominants of the chapel, church and parish house echoed each other. Recently, the parish was given premises on the ground floor of a house with a turret; we are preparing to open an Orthodox kindergarten there.

I would not like to talk only about the role of the rector or patrons in the development of the temple and its life. In no case! I always emphasize that we have a very active parish, a multifaceted team, like one big family. It is curious that it brought together people from all over the city.

You know, before, when I drove past these places, I always wanted to turn around and pass them as soon as possible. They seemed somehow abandoned, uncomfortable, dull… Now I rejoice when I see what a beautiful corner is being obtained here with God’s help.

In general, all my life I seem to feel some kind of invisible strong hand nearby, which helps in many endeavors … I remember how in the third grade our school teacher gave us homework – to write what you want to become. She promised to keep our wishes and read them to us at the prom in the eleventh grade. I already wrote then: “I want to become a priest.” Looking ahead: later it turned out that I was the only one out of the whole class who correctly guessed my future path.

— Where did such a desire come from?

– My parents are wonderful people, but they had nothing to do with the church. There were no events in our family connected with the church.