On an ordinary Wednesday morning, the new home of a burgeoning Russian Orthodox Church - about the size of a large living room - was ablaze with candles, smelling of incense and awash in the traditions of the country many left behind. The wooden icon screen compels reverence with its images of Jesus, Mary and the saints. A dozen or so believers stand for the two-hour service, accompanied by a single male and female voice blending and alternating.

Father David Moser has come from Idaho to celebrate Epiphany, the day on which many Christians commemorate the baptism of Jesus with a blessing of the water. He intones the prayers and liturgy alternately in English and Slavonic, which is a kind of literary Russian much like Shakespearean English.

After Communion, Moser dips his large gold cross in a tub of water, then sprinkles it all around - on people, their clothing, the room, the ceiling. He then fills their cups with water to sanctify their homes. It is a sacred rite for the new year.

But Epiphany comes 13 days later for these Orthodox Christians than for everyone else. That's because they follow the old Julian calendar all the time, not just at Easter like the Greeks who have mostly switched to the Gregorian calendar.

And that's one of the reasons they formed their own church rather than continue to worship at St. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in downtown Salt Lake City.

When the Roman Catholic Church moved to the Gregorian calendar, Orthodox churches didn't. But as Orthodoxy moved westward, some countries identified more with Western Christianity. Eventually, about half the churches retained the old calendar and the rest used the new - except for Easter. It was a divisive issue.

"For some people the calendar is a very serious thing," says Michael van Opstall, the pony-tailed math professor who leads the little Russian church.

Language is another.

Peter and Paul is a mixed church, with believers from many different countries. Services are mostly in English.

Chanting and worshipping in a foreign tongue is one thing. Confession is another.

It's best to confess in your native tongue, van Opstall says, speaking of the Russian immigrants who yearned for a church of their own.

Van Opstall, however, is not Russian or a priest. About six years ago, he was in graduate school in Seattle when he converted to Orthodoxy from the Protestantism of his childhood. He was drawn, he says, to the "purity of doctrine and connectedness to the beginning of Christianity."

The church he attended happened to be Russian, so he became fluent in it. Two years ago, he and his wife, Catherine, and their children moved to Utah when he took a job in the math department at the University of Utah. In the church, he is a reader, which means he can lead services but cannot officiate at Communion. At least once a month, they bring in a priest from out of state. The rest of the time the members of the tiny church must go elsewhere for Communion.

"The Orthodox Church is my spiritual home," van Opstall says. "At this time I feel a kind of calling to this group. The fact that I have connections and speak the Russian language suggests that this is the best use I can make of myself with the resources."

There are between 7,000 and 11,000 Russians along the Wasatch Front, but the church attracts only about 40 for Saturday night services. More go regularly to St. Peter and Paul, which is dominated by Russians and Ukrainians but the services are all in English.

The Russian congregation has been meeting together since last fall, when they bought the building from "Old Calendar Greek Orthodox," who left the building after most of their members died. Since then, the Russian church has grown steadily. More than 100 squeezed into the tiny sanctuary for Christmas services.

"They're putting advertisements in all places where Russians shop and at the university," says Father William Hartung at St. Peter and Paul. "I get calls on it every week."

Hartung encouraged van Opstall to lead this church and supports it completely.

The next group to form its own church will be Serbs. There are probably 200 of the 400 Serbs in Utah who participated in his church.

"Most of them had no understanding of Orthodoxy at all, but have an incredible alliance to each other," Hartung says. "They should have their own building by next year."

For now the Russians are delighted to have their own church and traditions.

"It's a blessing," says Andrey Razuvayev, a massage therapist at Snowbird who came to Utah 16 years ago. "It helps us to connect to the Lord in our own way."

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Contact Peggy Fletcher Stack at pstack@sltrib.com or 801-257-8725. Send comments on this article to religioneditor@sltrib.com.

Time and service

Russian Orthodox Christians in Salt Lake City follow the old Julian calendar, rather than the Gregorian calendar like most other Orthodox. They also conduct services in Russian. For information about services, call 801-581-0215.