Crime and punishment

Today I had the opportunity to do some tourism before the evening rehearsal. It’s a bit colder than Örebro, so I didn’t want to spend much time walking outside. But I did see the museum inside St Isaacs cathedral. It’s a beautiful building that you have to visit when you come to St Petersburg!

As I learn more about the Russian-Orthodox church I realize I know so little about how complex religion and faith is. Christians, atheists, moslems and others have a need to define the truth and then tell everybody else what the truth looks like. When I learned about the history of some of the paintings in St Isaacs cathedral it was impossible to imagine that the people who used to have services in that place were praying to the God that is described in the bible, and whom I pray to as well. Is their truth the same as mine? Our traditions and cultural inheritance define us more than we want to admit.

Just a ten minute walk from the cathedral is the the place where Total Praise rehearse. I went from the gold and marble covered orthodox dome to a little studio on one of the back streets. But in that studio we were making music that was so shining it would make gold and marble look like dirt! 

We were all a little tired since yesterday, but this is such a good group of singers. They know when to rest their voices and when to give 100%. Less than one hundred meters from where Total Praise have their rehearsals is the apartment where the old woman in ”Crime and punishment” by Fjodor Dostojevskij was murdered. You get to know a looooot of things you didn’t expect when you go to Russia to praise the Lord!