Moscow, September 25, 2012
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The church of the St. John the Russian on Yartsevskaya Street in Moscow is to become one of the 200 quickly constructed churches of the capital—a project implemented last year to bring Orthodox churches to Moscow’s burgeoning high-rise communities. There is currently only a small temporary church, an Interfax-Religion reporter was told by representatives of the Support Foundation for Church Construction.
However, in spite of the fact that the church is as yet rather small, on feast days and Sundays no fewer than 200 children take Communion here, not to mention adult parishioners.
According to the Foundation's representative, the church has a little helper—a small squirrel, living in a high cage by the entrance to the complex territory.
In the middle of the cage there is a tree on which the furry creature munches freely.
The nature corner attracts the attention of many young parishioners. The kids are delighted with the squirrel and can watch it darting around whimsically for hours.
Thanks to this, their parents have an opportunity to spend
more time in prayer.
"The kids who pass by see a furry animal; they stop
to watch, and may go into the church to burn a
candle," said the church’s senior priest
Archpriest Andrei Smirnov with a smile.