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Becoming Awake  May 14, 2022

 I knew from personal experience the painful and humiliating consequences of stepping out of line, even though it ended up being only a kind of flick on the nose. One November, when my daughter was a baby, my husband, Sergei, and I decided to participate in the annual celebration of the Great October Revolution. We joined the parade that marched through the streets of Sverdlovsk, to end up in the main city square, taking Julia in her stroller with us. But we soon fell out of step. It was unbearably cold, and not only was our little daughter getting cold, but we had overestimated our own endurance. We decided to find a shorter route to the central square, where loud music was playing and a voice kept shouting out cheerful words of greeting and salutation to all the marching columns with flags and banners. When we reached the central square, we tried to join another column that was marching toward the Lenin’s monument. But our attempt to re-join the

Feodor Dostoevsky  is the author of one of the most profound dialogues about sin and evil in his book  The Brothers Karamazov   that reflected on his unrest over injustice. Reading the book, one begins to understand that it was not God, who Dostoevsky had a problem with, but evil and disingenuous Christians.  Elissa Kiskaddon  claims that Dostoevsky’s disappointment with God was not only “confined to religious persons, but extended to the entity of the church itself and its excesses.”  Walter Wink ’ s concern is that the condition of the Church is far from ideal. “These churches are riven by strife, factionalism, backbiting, and heresy. As human communities, they have little to commend them." [1] The recent resignation of  Bishop Robert William Finn  in Kansas City after he was convicted of failing to report child abuse in his Diocese left many Kansas City-area Catholics to feel betrayed. Susie Evans, a lifelong Catholic, shares, “ I find it unacceptable to embrace someth

Russians celebrate everything twice, I like to joke. I don’t make it up, though; we do celebrate everything twice! If you have Russian or Ukrainian friends or friends from the former Soviet Union, you will know what I'm talking about. Christmas is celebrated on December 25th  and is repeated on January 7th,  according to the ancient Russian Gregorian calendar.  We grew up happily celebrating the New Year twice: the first time as all Westerners, on New Year’s Eve, and the second time, on January 13th.  The first time is with family; the second time with friends.   When it comes to Easter, then it is more complicated. I am not sure how it works, but my body knows when Easter comes. Holy Week in America is the hardest time for me. It is too early to color eggs and celebrate! The Holy Week is the time to fast, not to eat eggs.  When it is Easter in America, it is usually Verbnoe  Vosckresenie   in Russia, like Palm Sunday, but with pussy willow branches instead of palms.  I ca

Published on February 24, 2016 Dr. Lydia Istomina By Lydia Istomina Posted on by  GCSRW Re: Book of Discipline Paragraph 4, Article IV Amend ¶4. Adding “gender” and “age” to the list of what the UMC cannot discriminate against What prevented The United Methodist Church from amending the original phrasing of Paragraph 4  earlier ? The amendment is about female leadership in The United Methodist Church and the age of our leaders. Let’s leave social justice, democracy, and inclusivity aside for a moment and approach the problem from economical and performance standpoint. A recent study by Duke University shows that only 11% of women serve as “senior or solo pastoral leaders.” Ironically, the beginning of my ministry was with a “new start” congregation that became a fast-growing church. I became a poster-child for The United Methodist in Eurasia. But now, after 20 years of serving small American congregations, I do not see a way for me, as well as for many other cler

When I hear that some American girls and women lack self-esteem , I can’t help but wonder. How can a young American girl have low self-esteem or lack confidence in this country of abundance ? I never liked when my parents used phrases like “When I was your age, I walked to school five miles, under the snow.” I rarely tell my story because it starts very similarly, “When I was your age, I had no Tampax during my periods!” This is when I get the sympathy that my father was looking for but never received from me. It is easier to imagine walking on snow than a period without pads or Tampax.   “That can’t be true! Everybody has Tampax!” “We did have pads, but we had to make them out of cotton ourselves.” “Were you poor?” One girl finally began using her brains. It didn’t matter how wealthy or poor we were - our drug stores were empty. It was a lucky day when you could get one or two rolls of pressed cotton or bandages to make those pads at home. Very seldom could we buy