One of the things he remembers most is the services: small, intimate gatherings of no more than 15 people, standing together united in prayer. There was no church in Aidara, a tiny, remote village in Western Siberia, so families and their neighbors worshipped together in a dedicated prayer room in someone’s home. Services took place in the evening, and while some lasted only a couple of hours, others lasted up to seven, unfolding into the early morning. Religious icons decorated the corners of the room. Burning incense and candles cast a warm glow on the focused faces of Russian Orthodox Old Believers as they embraced the divine moments of their deeply embedded faith.

“I think that had the heaviest impact on