Pioneers from the village Church

In a modest rural church of the Dolgoderevenskoye village, Chelyabinsk region, a unique project for this region was launched - video description of Church warship services. The festive Divine Liturgy in the Holy Trinity Church on June 19 on All Saints' Day shone with new bright colors for the blind and visually impaired parishioners. For the first time, an audio describer accompanied a church service for the blind people here.

This miracle happened in such a way that all the other parishioners did not notice it. Not all of them noticed the booth at the wall, behind the glass of which the Ekaterina Rener described in vivid details and colors, how the service is going, how the temple looks from the outside and inside, how the altar shines, what vestments the priest is wearing today and what kind of feast is celebrated, which icon and why is specially venerated today. She introduced them to the singers and their voices. She suggested at what moments it was necessary to make the sign of cross, to listen to prayer standing... On the faces of the special parishioners with a black earphone, emotions were changing: concentrated attention, recognition, tenderness, smile. They experienced the beauty of the sacred event with everyone together…

Soon this news was reported by Chelyabinsk TV. It even got into the RIA News. It is understandable, this was a kind of powerful breakthrough event in the life of parishioners and in the activities of the Church. It became possible thanks to the meeting and participation of two people: the rector of the church, Archpriest George Artarian and volunteer Ekaterina Rener, who came to the Church on the advice of her friend Svetlana Abalmazova to help in the kitchen and refectory. Having learned that Ekaterina is a professional audio describer, sometimes accompanies blind people to theater performances and exhibitions, and that she dreams of commenting on Church services, Fr George was eager to implement this idea.

- My dream, which is 22 years old, has come true, - says Ekaterina Rener. - Many years ago, I worked at the well-known radio "Intervolna" in Chelyabinsk, led a authorial night program. And blind people are the most loyal audience of radio operators, I communicated with them live, I even knew someone by their names and voices, I commented on the events for them in more detail. And more than once I thought how great it would be to comment on feasts, excursions, performances and ... services in the Church for them. In 2019, I saw actress Irina Bezrukova in Boris Korchevnikov's TV show, who said that she comments on theater performances for the blind. She is one of the first audio describers in Russia. And I understood very clearly that I had to learn this profession no matter what. I went and completed a study course at the "Reacomp" Institute of the All-Russia Society of the Blind in Moscow guided by the General Director Sergey Nikolaevich Vanshin. He is blind himself, and he devoted all his passion to the professional and social rehabilitation of people who lost their sight. A talented teacher, a wonderful person, a great enthusiast, he himself went a hard way to recognition and vocation. How grateful I am to him!

She also thankful for meeting with the rector of the Dolgoderevensky Church:

- If it weren't for Fr George with his talent and perseverance as an organizer, the ability to create a team, nothing would have come of this idea, - says Ekaterina Rener. - This is a very troublesome business, which implies a lot of financial resources for the purchase of equipment.

This grand conception has also another component - volunteers, helpers, interested people who have undertaken the organization of work with the community of the blind that has developed at the parish. The blind people have their own difficult road to the Church: many of them are not local villagers, but residents of the regional center. They need to be brought together, transported to the Church and taken back by car. Volunteer drivers and accompanying people do it with pleasure! They say that such a trip is "a feast, always a good bright day" for them.

How did it all start with audio description? At first, with the help of benefactors, we managed to purchase a "magic white suitcase" with a microphone, ten headphones and everything necessary for transmission. We tried this process. We needed a special soundproof booth, in which the audio describer could quietly deliver commentaries for special parishioners. But it turned out that no one produces these cabins. So we had a bit of a delay.

- A local businessman Evgeny Loza volunteered, our church is grateful to him for a lot, for example, all the furniture in the altar was made by his company, - says Father George. - They designed a booth for audio description themselves and produced it in the shortest possible time. And after the first service was successfully held, we decided that we would hold worships with audio description regularly, twice a month. We try to create an accessible environment for everyone, in which every person's spiritual potential can be revealed.

I asked the audio describer Ekaterina if it was difficult during the first service? Is it comparable to describing a theater performance?

- Very difficult. The liturgy is not a performance with its ready-made plot content. Here you create the illusion of performance yourself and tell a story about it, constantly adjusting to what is happening in the Church. Of course, I prepared my story plan, for example, about icons, about some biblical stories, I kept my notes in front of me. But most importantly, it was necessary to weave the liturgy itself, its sounds and beauty into the fabric of his narrative.

After that, a local journalist called Katerina a lady who creates an illusion. I think it's very witty. After all, what the blind and visually impaired people lack is illusions, bright pictures. And by and large, the liturgy is a divine service at which everybody's sight recovers.

... The first service day ended with a festive lunch and tea with cake and pies in the parish canteen, a sincere conversation with the priest. Grateful parishioner Veronika Kipriyanova recited poetry with feeling. Her visually impaired husband Alexey admitted that during the worship today he had "been to heaven". Another man said that he feels now really "like in the good Lord's pocket," thanks to such care of the parish and the audio describer.

Such meetings (and there have already been quite a few of them - author) in the company of good friends for disadvantaged people are no less important and significant than the worship itself. This is the opinion of all employees in the Dolgoderevensky parish.

"Because the most important thing is that around this group of people, work with them, the parish itself unites and the contribution of each is invaluable," rejoices Fr George.

He and his assistants are already considering buying a few more devices for audio description and will expand the service. There is such a need.

Lyudmila Vishnya,
Member of the Union of Journalists of Russia,
Meritorious Cultural Worker of Russia