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only ten years old but the scale of the complex is considerable. There
were four churches (temples) on the site as well as three shops and a
cafe. 110 nuns and 4 monks live on site as well as several lay brothers
and sisters. The convent is the only one is the whole of Minsk and was
very popular.

The ?rst thing I would say about this visit is that it has made a
deep impression on me. My experience of the liturgy during Great Lent
was to be drawn up into something where I felt an integral part of all
those around me, the living and the departed, in the continual praise of
God. This perhaps seems a typical and familiar thing to say about Or-
thodox worship, but considering when I ?rst arrived my question was
‘but can I enter this, can this become prayer for me?’, I would certainly
say I’d moved on by the end of my stay. Once I’d let go of the need to
pinpoint at what stage the liturgy was at and to generally consider the
role of rituals, actions, and words in the liturgy the whole experience

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