Fr. Joseph Gleason is an Orthodox priest from rural Illinois who moved with his wife and eight children to Rostov the Great, Russia. How has his family adapted, what is it like for them in Russia, and what he would advise others who are contemplating a similar relocation—these are the topics of our conversation.
—Fr. Joseph, you’ve given many interviews to Russian outlets, as well as talks at conferences. In fact, you have your own English-language Telegram channel, and you are probably well known to most of our readers. But tell us again: How many years ago did you make the decision to pull up stakes from your farm in Illinois and move your whole family to Russia?
—It’s been nine years this month that I and my wife decided to make the move to Russia.
—Did you have a plan when you came here, or was your future unclear at the time?
—I had already made a connection with a priest here, Fr. Dmitry, who gave us a lot of help. Many thanks to the priests that helped us move here: Fr. Dmitry Smirnov,1 Fr. Maxim Obukhov, and Fr. Roman Krupnov. And in general, we found the people here to be very friendly and helpful. I knew where we were going to live initially. I had worked in IT in the US, and had saved up a good nest egg, so when we arrived we had time to work things out. We now have Russian citizenship.
—How did people in Rostov react? Where they happy to have your large family move to their locale?
The citizenship application was complicated by the fact that we had come here on tourist visas. That eventually turned out to be a problem. And no one in the Rostov area had ever encountered such a thing—a whole family of Americans who wished to live in their region. The upper-level authorities were actually very supportive and happy about it, saw great prospects in it. But you might say that that the people with desk jobs, who actually do the processing were less than enthusiastic. Large families are not the norm here, most families have one or two children, so when all ten of us walked into the local migration office, the clerk’s eyes widened with the shock. She barked at us to go away! Well, we probably came too close to lunchtime…
—You are serving as a priest there now, correct? What is it like to serve in a new language—Church Slavonic—in a provincial Russian town?
—At first I was what they call a “pilgrim priest”, serving in the altar, giving exclamations during the litanies. It was quite an ordeal for my wife to listen to me at home continually practicing my paki paki2 and other parts of the litany. Later I was assigned to a very small parish, and now I am serving in Varnitsa Monastery in the town of Rostov itself. I am very happy there. My former bishop in the Antiochian Church in America gave me a canonical release, and I have been given the blessing from our local bishop to serve in English, for the sake of English speakers living in the area.
—Are there many English speakers in Rostov?
—There are about thirty people in my church.
—Tell us about the life of your family here.
—We homeschool our children, and always have. Of course, you could say that makes it a challenge for them to learn Russian. But a local novice nun took it upon herself to help us learn Russian. She is very patient and kind, and we are very grateful to her. As a result, my older children learned Russian well, and the oldest, Kimberly, even translates. Last year she married a Russian man, an engineer, and they are living in Moscow. She is now expecting her first child, which will make me the grandfather of a native Russian! We are all really looking forward to it. They want the child to grow up speaking both English and Russian.
As for me, learning Russian is not so easy, and I really wish we had studied Russian before we moved here!
—They say that growing up bilingual is very good for the brain.
Things have gotten complicated between Russia and some other countries, which has probably affected how you make a living. It’s understandable that the income from such a small parish is not large. What do you do to support not only your own large family but even help some of the locals? You mentioned before that you are especially helping a local family with six children, who are experiencing rough times.
—Because of the economic sanctions against Russia, the SWIFT system is blocked here and getting money from the U.S. is very inconvenient. Some heads of families that came here with distance jobs have been fired from them—in fact, some large corporations even have clauses in employment contracts precluding Russian relocation. But there is a significant market here for English lessons, and that is what I am now doing, on an independent basis.
I, however, have a unique approach to teaching English. Because I am a priest, I use the context of the Orthodox Church to teach. We learn church terminology, and study prayers. One of the first things we learn is the Lord’s prayer.
Photo: https://t.me/orthodox_english —So your sessions are like English lessons and Sunday School, all rolled into one?
—Yes, exactly! But honestly, Russians have told me that they feel the need to study English, and many of them get very good at it. There is some demand here, and there is nothing anti-Russian about having a love for the English language.
—Unfortunately, from the ‘nineties, many English textbooks were funding by foreign entities like the Soros foundation—which of course makes the language worldly at best. At worst, it’s subversive. They learn conversations out of superficial American life—Hollywood, MacDonalds. They’re not being exposed to more edifying literature. In fact, the language in the textbooks borders on the vulgar. Actually, the Soviet era English language education was very different—they studied English classical literature, and learned to love what is best about it.
—Yes, people are now learning mostly business English. But I teach a lot of children whose parents do not want them to grow up to lead superficial lives. Those who are more attracted to the American lifestyle are the ones who are less religious here. This tendency is not good for the country, and I hope to contribute at least a little to the cultivation of the Russian people’s love for their own country.
But beyond the English lessons, we have a farm here that provides us with food—milk, meat, fresh vegetables in the summer, and root vegetables in the winter.
Photo: https://t.me/orthodox_english —What would you say to anyone who is thinking about moving to Russia from the West?
—First I would say: learn the language and the history. You should love Russia to live here, and know its history and culture. In many ways you are breaking with the past, and learning a different way of life. You have to embrace Russia, because although life can be very wonderful and fulfilling here, it can also be difficult in ways you haven’t previously encountered. So there has to be love.
As for making a living, you should look for ways to earn income here in Russia, and not assume that your foreign money can be accessed here. The current situation shows that things can change. Be sure to bring what you have with you.
—Have you come to love Russia, and learned its history?
—Indeed, I have. I have studied its history from the Baptism of Russia, learned about the enormous contribution to its civilization by St. Olga and Holy Grand Prince Vladimir, how the nation was formed and how important Orthodox Christianity was for its formation. I realized that even in Soviet times, when religion was persecuted and it seemed to us in the West that atheism had completely taken over, the Russian Orthodox Church was still very much alive.
We’ve received a review of Fr. Joseph’s English classes from the father of a young student, Mikhail Klykov—son of the famous Russian sculptor, Vyacheslav Klykov.
We were looking for an opportunity for our eight-year-old daughter to study English with a native speaker, so that she would learn correct pronunciation from an early age. In Russian schools, no matter how good the teacher may be, it is not always possible to master proper pronunciation.
Fr. Joseph’s teaching method consists of reading instructional children’s books that contain a significant number of unfamiliar words, as well as studying prayers in English and repeating aloud words and short sentences after the teacher. The child hears the pronunciation of unfamiliar words, sees how they are written, and over time memorizes their correct pronunciation, while also practicing sounds that do not exist in the Russian language.
Fr. Joseph offers children’s books dedicated to various Christian feasts, for example, about St. Nicholas or Christmas. In this way, the lessons are like a Sunday school, conducted in English.
We have lessons once a week, and with such an interval, learning English becomes more effective if the parents know the language and can spend 10–15 minutes every day, or at least every other day, reviewing with the child the material provided by Fr. Joseph.
After five months of such lessons, our little girl has no difficulty mastering her English lessons, is able to form simple questions and statements in English, and has begun to pronounce most words and sounds more correctly. She also knows the Lord’s prayer in English!
For more information, please see:
https://t.me/movingtorussia_goldenring
Chat group in Russian: https://t.me/o_IOSIF
To contact Fr. Joseph directly on Telegram: @FrJosephGleason
