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Easter Matins
In redness, the votive lamp
glows red. The altar is the still
centre of the world. We stand
in midnight darkness, semi-
circling the altar, and become
an icon, standing as the halo
spelling out “I AM
WHO I AM”, bearing
salvation history in icons
of the prophets, Annunciation,
Nativity, Theophany,
and Lazarus, about to light
the candles, chant
the resurrection, and proceed
around the church. This circling
becomes at once the first, and yet
the farthest, the once and yet most recent
ring of ever expanding con-
centric circles, both the splash
and ripple, the candles tracers
captured in a time exposure
of the timeless moment. We circle
stillness at the empty
centre of creation: a cosmic
gyroscope of time and space
balancing the world, as the church itself
becomes the empty tomb.
Voices from Russia 
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