A faith is on the edge of vanishing in Georgia after being exiled from Russia centuries ago
Members of a pacifist Christian sect that emerged in 18th century Russia were exiled to Georgia about 200 years ago for refusing to serve in the tsarist army and rejecting orthodox rituals
GORELOVKA, Georgia (AP) — A 10-year-old boy proudly stands beside his father and listens to the monotone chanting of elderly women clad in embroidered headscarves and long colorful skirts. It is Ilya's first time attending a night prayer meeting in Gorelovka, a tiny village in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia, and he is determined to follow the centuries-old hymns that have been passed down through the generations.
There is no priest and no iconography. It's just men and women praying together, as the Doukhobors have done since the pacifist Christian sect emerged in Russia in the 18th century.
Thousands of their ancestors were expelled to the fringes of the Russian Empire almost two centuries ago for rejecting the Orthodox church and refusing to serve in Czar Nicholas I's army — much like the thousands of men who fled Russia two years ago to avoid being drafted to join Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Today, only about 100 Doukhobors remain in the tight-knit Russian-speaking farming community in two remote mountainous villages.
