Passage

Romans 12

• Doctrine

  Christian Identity in Christ

  Identity located in union with Christ, not in ethnic-Russian Orthodox cultural identity or nominal baptismal-record church membership, a common conflation in post-Soviet 'cultural Orthodoxy'.

  ROM.12.5

• Glossary Term

  Church

  церковь is the only viable term but in Russian usage overwhelmingly denotes either the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution or a physical building (храм).

  ROM.12.4-5

• Doctrine

  Church as God's People

  церковь overwhelmingly denotes the Russian Orthodox Church as an institution or a physical building in ordinary usage; readers must be given an explicit frame for church as the gathered people of God so they do not assume the text can only be describing Orthodoxy itself, especially relevant for the many Evangelical and Protestant minority congregations this curriculum also serves.

  ROM.12.4-5

• Doctrine

  Separation unto God's Service

  Must not be read as a call to formal monasticism (монашество) or ascetic withdrawal, a real and historically prestigious path in Russian Orthodox spirituality (monks, elders/старцы).

  ROM.12.1-2

• Doctrine

  Spiritual Gifts

  Spirit-given enablements must be clearly distinguished from экстрасенсорные способности (psychic/paranormal abilities), a live and culturally prominent category in post-Soviet Russia (television psychics, folk healers).

  ROM.12.6-8

• Glossary Term

  Spiritual Gifts

  духовные дары is standard evangelical Russian usage.

  ROM.12.6-8