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Dear Peter and other friends in Bromley who may be watching this, welcome to Moscow. I'm just about to go and try and find the Danilov Monastery and the priest to whom you've been writing for some time who lives there and I'm going to try and record this afternoon's adventure on tape for you so you can actually see what's been going on.

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Hope you enjoy it. First thing I'm going to do is to go across the road there, you can see there's a round building which is in fact a metro station and take the famous Moscow metro to the nearest stop to the monastery.

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Here we go, Moscow metro. I've just got to switch the camera off while I go to get some money. Moscow Metro. I've just got to switch the camera off while I go to get some money.

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[BIRDS CHIRPING] I know it's just something there. [unclear] This is the first of our stops on the way down.

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As you can hear, there are also some other English people in the carriage. This is the one we're going for, Zabrininskaya, I hope you can read it. [ambient street noise] [Bus engine]

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(traffic noise) (traffic noise) [Train horn] [Train horn]

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[footsteps] [train sounds] [train horn] [train sounds]

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This is the metro station under the place we're going to. I've just walked the train. I'm going to walk my way up those steps to see if we can find the person I'm looking for.

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If anybody should be trying to find the place if they come to Moscow themselves in the future, there's the name of the metro station you need. Tulskaya. The gentleman you see here has offered to lead me to the monastery.

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And there you can just see over the roof of that building beyond me there, the first onion dome and the tower of the monastery that we're heading for, the Danilov Monastery. It's very slippery underfoot, or at least it was just now, until I reached this piece of clear pavement.

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We're coming now to the part of Danilovskaya Val Ulitsa, which is in English Danilovskaya Val Street, where the monastery is situated. You can see it there, the white building beyond me. By the look of it too, if you were to take tram number 8, you could find your way here

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as well. A little closer. From the little I've been able to learn about this place since I've been in Moscow from official tourist guides, it is the only functioning monastery in the city. It was very recently restored and is now inhabited for the first time in decades by Russian Orthodox monks. The design of these outer walls is typical of Russian

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fortresses, kremlins as they call here, and monasteries, this crenellation on the top being a typical Russian pattern. You find exactly the same pattern on the walls of the Kremlin. I'm rounding the corner here, one of the bell towers,

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and I imagine that the entrance will be under there somewhere. That note is there, although it's not in Russian letters but in Church Slavonic letters, says the icon workshop. Probably, yes, maybe these people are icon workers, who knows, making icons. I doubt it though because the job is usually given to monks. And the plaque

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on the wall, in Russian, Danilov Monastir, the Danilov Monastery, tells us that it was founded originally in the 18th century. That's the Roman numeral at the bottom. I beg your pardon my Roman numerals are terrible - the 13th century. You can see the beautiful icon of the face of Christ above the main archway.

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Moving down a bit now you may be able to see there are other icons inside the arch. The open door indicates that the place is probably open to tourists. We'll have a look at some of these before we try to get in. Christ in the middle, the Virgin Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right.

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And this will probably be the patron saint of the monastery. Just beneath the icons we have a plan, a ground plan of the monastery. the monastery. It's not as you can see just one building but it is in fact a collection of buildings within the fortified wall that we saw just now.

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It would have been a very rare sight a few years ago. A Russian Orthodox monk in a Russian Orthodox monastery. I don't quite know how to describe how this feels. To I've come back for what is for me the fifth time now to the capital city of a country which has been known for the last few decades

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to be a country whose government is opposed to any form of religion not least the Russian Orthodox religion and to be able to walk freely without having to pay as one usually does in museums into a functioning Christian monastery

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and to see monks walking around is really a very moving experience. I've just talked to the man you can see there standing to the left of the open door, the left of the open gate, behind the group of people walking in front, and he says I can go and approach any monk and talk to him.

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So it sounds as if the whole regime here is much freer than I would have expected, than anybody would have expected really. The modern white building behind looks as if it might be a residential block, and there again you have an icon of Christ on the wall.

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I'm just about to go into this church here and see if I can find a monk and ask him for the person to whom the letter is addressed and with whom we're trying to establish links. Those of you who know anything about icons will recognise that as a copy of the very famous icon of the Trinity by the famous, the most famous Russian icon painter, Rubeyov.

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I've just been inside the church where there is a service going on. It's beautifully restored. There's a group of people in there singing a service, led by one monk. The atmosphere is heavenly, not to put it too strongly. and I talked to a little man who was, an old man with a beard, who was sitting, selling icons, postcards and candles at the back of the church, as is the tradition here,

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and asked him if he could find Seraphim Trofimoff for me. He said that he didn't know whether he was here or not, but that I should go and look for one of the monks and ask him. I just have done that. and he tells me that Seraphim isn't here at the moment but that a letter can be left for him in this big building back here, the big white one with the three

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wings. So that's where I'm going at the moment to try and leave the letter in safe hands. [ambient street noise] In fact, it turns out that this place has been beautifully restored.

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And this is the building I should be going into, not the white one I showed you just now. administrative centre of the monastery. Let's see what we can find inside. And look, look at this. I've stumbled across, and I really have stumbled across it, this isn't rigged, the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod.

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This must be the department that deals with relationships with foreign churches. So I've obviously come to the right place. That's a relief. I'm going to turn the camera off as I go in here just in case I meet anybody who...

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Oh dear. The door is locked. We're going to have to find another way in. We're going to have to find another way in.

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Well, I got in. And I talked to two people. One was the doorman, who rang another monk to find out whether or not Sergei Trofimov was in.

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And it turned out he's actually in Minsk at the moment, at the place where his home is. it appears he only works here. But I've left the letter in his in-tray. I can't think of a better way of delivering it.

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Sorry about the little bit of interference there. That was because I had to change a battery. Now there is one last job to do before I leave this place. I'm carrying two Russian Bibles with me and I want somehow to try and get rid of them before I leave the country tomorrow morning. So let's see what we can find. In the meantime,

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I'll try and give you a little bit more of an impression of what this place is like. This says the restoration process, 1987. What we have here is a set of photographs of the restoration as it took place two years ago. And similarly, on the other side of the room as well.

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This is in fact just inside the entrance to the church. You can probably hear the singing in the background. [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE]

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[INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE]

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[ Foreign Language ] [Praying in Russian] A lady who's just coming into shot has just told me she's been praying for a while for a Russian Bible. Well, she's now got one.

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and I'm just about to leave and go back on the Metro, back to my hotel. Mission accomplished. There she goes. Right, we've got to go this way, to the Metro.

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I just had a little bit of a talk with that young lady. She comes from a family where nobody believes in God, and yet, by nationality, she's a Jew. Because according to the Soviet way of doing things,

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Judaism is not a religion but a nationality. And yet somehow, as she explained, through difficulties and problems, having to explore the meaning of her life, she's come to a faith in a God whom she worships in an Orthodox Church. I find it fascinating

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that someone in an atheist country going through a communist education system and and from a Jewish background, can come to faith in Jesus Christ. But then I suppose, with God, nothing is impossible. Incredible. Now, the metro station's somewhere over there.

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One of the interesting things she said was that in the past it had been difficult and sometimes a little dangerous to pray openly to God, but that now, under the reign of Mr Gorbachev's Glasnost, things are getting easier. And that although she's still not understood by all her communist friends and even her family, she does feel she can pray, worship God more openly.

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So there is the possibility then that we may have a link between Bromley and the monastery of Demilov, St Daniel's Monastery in Moscow. And the certainty that two people, because there was someone else as well, will be able to read the Bible for themselves.

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This is what the Russians call a "yarmulka" - a fair comprising several outdoor stalls. It's closed at the moment, even though today is Saturday and the main shopping day. And here's the entrance to the metro. And one or two spectators.

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- Hello. - Hello. - How are you? - Good. - What's your name? - Mikhail. - How old are you? - 14 years old.

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- Are you from Moscow? - Yes. - Do you speak English? - Yes. - What else do you know in English? - Yes, I speak English.

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What are you filming? What? What are you filming? What am I filming? Moscow!

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Soviet Union! I'm filming a film about Moscow! I'm a Moskvitch... I'm a Moskvitch... Moskvitch...

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And everything else. Don't you have a cigarette? No, unfortunately I don't smoke. Goodbye.

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Back in the metro, waiting for the train. As you can see. I am in fact being watched by a bunch of policemen. So I think I'll put this away just for a minute.

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[BLANK_AUDIO] [Street noise] [Street noise] Two years ago, filming on the Metro was strictly against the law.

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Things have changed a lot. Looks like I've missed it all. And there we are. Back at the hotel.

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As you noticed I wasn't able to film very much of the church service going on inside the monastery, but nevertheless I hope it will give you a taste of what a Russian Orthodox service is like. I did stand around for a little bit longer when I was in there and in fact the monk who

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was saying the service or singing the service, stopped at one point and gave a little sermon, which was really a very simple exposition of the Gospel, the fact that man is cut off from God by sin and that the sacrifice of Jesus enables him to re-establish his relationship with God, exactly what one would expect from an evangelical or even Catholic prophet coming

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an orphanage as well. Well, it's back to the real world of tourism, hotels and Russian bustle leaving behind what was a very peaceful atmosphere

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in the monastery. I hope you've enjoyed this brief trip into Moscow. I'd like just to add one thing. I don't want to take any credit for what's been made possible

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this afternoon. The way things fell into place so well can only be attributable to someone guiding something somewhere. And also I'd be very grateful if this video could only be shown privately and to trusted friends so that the identity of those involved, both in front and behind the camera, is protected. So, from Moscow on a cold February afternoon,

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do svidaniya. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]