When Brothers Dwell in Unity… (Kogda Brat’ya Obitayut v Vseedinstve…). music from the Rakmaninov “Vespers”

I have taken photos of the participants and services at the recent Clergy Conference in Los Angeles CA and matched them with a setting of Blazhen Muzh (Blessed is the Man) from the vespers service by Sergei Rakhmaninov.

I find the choice of music for this video to be an imperative call for all of us. Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly not only applies to us in the laity, it applies to our clergy as well.

There are clergy and bishops following this command, and there are others… who are not. The former are good trees bearing sweet and wholesome fruit. The latter are bad trees bearing poisonous fruit that we must cut down and cast into the fire!

May ALL our clergy, not just some of them, imitate the example shown by the clergy in Los Angeles!

Maria Vishnyak. The Ceramicist. no date (2000s?)

The Ceramicist (Maria Vishnyak, no date (2000s?)

I chose this painting as a contrast to the Kulikov as it has a rural feel to its backdrop and the subject is wearing anachronistic clothing (deliberately, I believe). Since a ceramicist is simply a potter who works in fine art, I doubt very highly that she works in such a costume! However… posing in one’s “grubbies” would be a far different picture… not inferior… DIFFERENT.

Ivan Kulikov. Vesting the Bride. 1907

Vesting the Bride (Ivan Kulikov, 1907)

A Merchant’s Ball depicted a scene from a wedding from the Westernised middle classes. This painting shows us a vignette from a wedding in a prosperous peasant family (yes, there were such!). Note well that the peasantry still retained the old Russian national customs (yes, there were nobility, officials, and merchantry who did so as well, but, not to the extent found amongst the peasantry); they did not go for Western customs in such a basic “rite of passage” event.

Ivan Kulikov. A Merchant’s Ball. 1899

A Merchant’s Ball (Ivan Kulikov, 1899)

If you look carefully at the rear of the image, you shall see what appears to be a newlywed couple. Apparently, this is a ball in honour of a marriage.