Nicola Vidamour, Mission Partner, Russian Federation



Nicola Vidamour, Mission Partner, Pskov, Russian, October/November 2006

GRACELAND

I was not here when the BBC reporter came to town. I was visiting our partner church in Memphis, Tennessee. However, I managed to watch over the internet the report which some of you saw on the national news about the large number of people across Russia who had been hospitalised and even died as a result of alcohol poisoning – and Pskov was named as one of the worst places! Thankfully, no one in our church has been directly affected, but it has increased our resolve to continue to try and address the drinking problem here and plans are underway for an ecumenical citywide AA/Al-Anon (Alcoholics Anonymous) seminar in the spring.

The guided tour around Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland, carefully avoided any reference to drink and drugs, but I couldn’t help thinking that the slogan in one of the rooms – “Before anyone did anything Elvis did everything” – could be interpreted in a number of ways! I was however inspired both at Graceland and in the Rock and Soul Museum by the way in which the music of “the King” and his contemporaries had clearly played an important role in uniting black and white people and challenging racism.

The main purpose of my visit to Memphis was to attend a “Walk to Emmaus” – and it was a real joy that four other women from our church in Pskov (Yulia, Galya, Rimma and Lara) were able to join me for this three-day retreat. The words “Don’t anticipate” were repeated to us many times both before and during the Walk. Therefore, I can’t tell you much about it so as not to spoil the experience for those of you who are not yet members of the Emmaus Community. All five of us came back inspired and enthused to help start an Emmaus Community in Russia, and I would be interested to hear from any British people who have already been on an Emmaus Walk. For those of you who haven’t, I will simply say that the Walk to an Emmaus gave me a far more powerful understanding of what it means to live in “Graceland” than going round Elvis Presley’s house! We were brought to a deeper awareness of the fact that “Before anyone did anything the grace of God did everything”.

I spent a week in the UK both on the way to Memphis and on the way back! The first week I was in London renewing my Russian visa (which I am now in the process of registering!). The second week was spent mainly at Sarum College, Salisbury where I attended a meeting for the British members of next summer’s Oxford Institute for Methodist Theological Studies. I then stayed on for a fascinating weekend course about Orthodox perspectives on life after death with contributions from Bishop Kallistos Ware and John Tavener. In between these two events the funeral of Michael Mayne (former Dean of Westminster) took place in the cathedral and I had the exciting privilege of serving a cup of tea to Vikram Seth – one of my favourite authors!

I am now back in Pskov and am finding the sudden descent into winter quite hard. I was fully expecting to see snow when we landed but the reality of the bleak landscape here sometimes gets me down! However, I have not yet hit the vodka bottle(!) and I’m confident that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit are with us in every season of our life.

Deep peace,

NICOLA VIDAMOUR

nicolav@fish.co.uk

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