Source: The Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6309815.html
Standing at the back of a crowded church, Nataliya Sergeeva combined prayer and work, watching her videographer tape the elaborate candle-lit service.
It was the last day of filming for Sergeeva, a producer with The Orthodox Encyclopedia, a Russian Orthodox TV program. The crew spent 10 days capturing footage for a documentary on Orthodox life in Texas and Houston, with a focus on St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church.
Sergeeva’s trip was filled with surprises, she said through a translator. The more than two-hour service in the small sanctuary was a “perfect Orthodox service.”
Father Lubomir Kupec, St. Vladimir’s rector, who helped arrange the documentary, smiled at her comments.
“They never thought there was such a large Orthodox and Russian community here,” Kupec said. “They took material back to portray Houston as a place of strong spiritual, cultural, scientific and family values.”
Even Kupec is surprised at how fast Houston’s Orthodox community has grown since he arrived in 1997. St. Vladimir was founded in the late 1940s and has 450 members, though many more attend. Members are Russians or their descendants, Ukrainians, Eastern Europeans and Bulgarians.