In Severnoye Chistoye (‘Northern Pure’) village of the Orekhovo-Zuevo district of the Moscow region a church, which has been built for 20 years, is finally consecrated. After terrible fires near Moscow Maria Mikhailovna Guseva decided to build a chapel devoted to the icon of the Mother of God “Burning Bush” as a sign of gratitude to God for the end of the natural disaster.
The church is built near a horticultural partnership. Immediately after the WWII the development of peat bogs started here. The Old Believers’ cemetery which had been situated here was destroyed by the order of the authorities and a club was built there. Eventually the club burned down. At that very place the construction started.
We decided that we would build a chapel on the bones of our ancestors. We installed a cross. I remember father Leontiy Pimenov said that if we made an altar it would be a church. It turned out to be a church! – tells Maria Mikhaylovna.
During two decades Maria Mikhaylovna collected money for the church, looked for benefactors, drew up documents. This fragile elderly woman had to go around the governmental institutions a lot, to go into the details of the legal process. But she was not confused by the difficulties. She approached the overcoming of all the difficulties enthusiastically.
She does not consider today’s glad event to be of her merit. “By the Divine Providence the administration of the Orekhovo-Zuevo district was willing to accommodate our needs, by the Divine Providence the brick plant gave us materials…” – she remembers about the stages in these 20-year labours.
The order of consecration was performed by the Right Reverend metropolitan Korniliy concelebrated by proto-priest Alexey Mikheev, priest Vitaliy Matveev, priest Ioann Gusev and proto-deacon Victor Savelyev.
