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Sergey Kaptilkin
Russian gypsies are considered Christians, but as Ivanov explained, "As a rule, the Romani people identify themselves with the religion they see around them."
Sergey Kaptilkin
Ivanov says he is happy with his role as a deacon and doesn't plan to become a priest. "The priest gives a message to the service; the deacon makes it beautiful," Ivanov said.
Sergey Kaptilkin
Ivanov and Lyudmila were married six months after their first date. It did not go down well with the gypsy family at first. Only two women from Ivanov's large family attended their nuptials: his sister and his cousin. Soon, however, the family had a change of heart.
Sergey Kaptilkin
He eventually led his family to extreme poverty. His stepfather took a job at a construction site, and his mother started breeding pigs. The family shifted from the drug business to buying up scrap metal.
Sergey Kaptilkin
The last straw for the camp was when Ivanov, with Fr. Andrei's blessing, took a stand against the gypsies' main business - drug trafficking.
Sergey Kaptilkin
If anyone was taken ill or died, jailed or got hooked on heroin; if anyone crashed their car or gambled their money away, the response was always: "It's you - you've brought a curse to our family."
Sergey Kaptilkin
After Ivanov began spending a lot of time in church, everything that went wrong for his family was blamed on him.
Sergey Kaptilkin
"They are ready to observe all kinds of rites, but not out of love - out of fear. They turn any religion into paganism. They don't know prayer. For them, praying is akin to witchcraft."
Sergey Kaptilkin
"But we mostly have only one religion, and I don't even know what to call it. Gypsies are the greatest believers in superstitions. They believe in everything - and in nothing."
Sergey Kaptilkin
Down in the gypsy settlement, however, the mysterious shift in Ivanov's soul was flatly dismissed. He himself describes what followed half-seriously, half-jokingly, as "persecution."
Sergey Kaptilkin
He set about reading the New Testament in Old Church Slavonic, an ancient form of Russian that is still the language of Russian Orthodox texts.
Sergey Kaptilkin
It turned out that Ivanov - like most local gypsies - had not had a single day of schooling in his life, so he couldn't read.
Sergey Kaptilkin
"I still cannot understand what happened to me then; it wasn't as if the priest said any memorable words. But two days later, I gave up drinking. Two days after that, I stopped smoking, and a lot of other stuff besides. A month later, I was coming to every single service."
Sergey Kaptilkin
"To tell you the truth, going to church was like going to a jewelry store," Ivanov said. "I wanted to wear a cross around my neck, but you cannot wear one unless you are baptized."
Sergey Kaptilkin
When Rev. Elizbar Ivanov was known simply as Edik, the town of Kimry had a reputation for being the heroin capital of Central Russia.
Sergey Kaptilkin
Elizbar Ivanov, gypsy by birth, went against his family and became a deacon in the Russian Orthodox Church. Eventually they gave up drug trafficking and followed his example.
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