Galina Chumak

Galina Chumak sits in the tiny Annunciation Cathedral library, bantering softly to a friend about the role of the Jews as the chosen people and their rejection of Christ.

Rosy, bescarved and unshakably enthusiastic, Galina is one of the gentle, devout new faces of Orthodoxy in Russia, eagerly absorbing the Gospel at her Sunday School classes at Murom’s Spiritual Educational Center.

She comes from a mildly religious background. Her parents believed in God, but her mother, a teacher, refused to christen her publicly, fearing dire consequences at work.