Tashkent is our fourth post in the Foreign Service. It is also our fourth post in a Muslim country, and so it's our fourth post in a country where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is not recognized. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle going to church in a country where it is recognized after spending more than a decade hiding out in the corners of the world that Mormons haven't infiltrated.
Since the Church isn't recognized, we are not allowed to proselytize, baptize, have a ward, have missionaries, or meet with locals. Our records are part of the Central Eurasian first branch, with the mission president acting as our branch president. The religious laws here are reasonably strict, so there's not likely to be a change in the status of the Mormon church any time soon.
So, we are home-churching again (for the third consecutive post). Unlike Dushanbe, where we showed up without anyone else in the country, Tashkent had a group who were already meeting when we showed up. We haven't found any other LDS expats, so for now it's all diplomatic families who meet together each week.
There are five families, so it's a bigger group than we had in Dushanbe, and when everyone is in attendance we have twenty-six (and three-quarters) people for church. It's a big enough turnout that we have to squeeze in three rows of chairs behind one of the couches in our living room, and if another family shows up we'll have to get creative with the seating.
The group here does things a little differently than we did in Dushanbe. We operate on a monthly schedule for just about everything. We switch houses every month and the primary and Sunday School teachers switch monthly also, with couples taking the assignments for each month. Our three young women also take turns each month to direct the music and eventually Kathleen and I will swap piano playing monthly.
This gives everyone an opportunity to shoulder the burden and take a break from shouldering the burden. It works out well, especially with primary, as no two people want to be stuck with the kids while everyone else is in Sunday School together. As we only have three young women, they meet with the adults and also take a turn teaching during their parents' month. It's nice to take turns hosting church so everyone can get a break from setting up and taking down church each week.
Before we arrived, the group would have a pot luck lunch together each week, but the group leader left before we arrived (we inherited their house, which is now the Mormon house). The new group leader took a poll and everyone heartily agreed to limit the pot luck to one Sunday a month which is something I'm much happier with. Because sometimes I just like to eat leftovers on a Sunday followed by a nice long nap.
We've also established a monthly Relief Society ministering meeting, which so far has consisted of us going out to dinner to celebrate birthdays. I'm glad that the new guidelines are more flexible and we can be happy knowing that we are in compliance while staying out much too late eating sushi together. The Young Women are also invited to these meetings, as Young Women are now part of the ministering program. Kathleen is quite happy about this arrangement.
As there are three Young Women in the group, we also hold Young Women twice a month. Sophia is the lone girl over the age of four, so she gets to be a part of Young Women, something that she is quite happy about. So far we have plans for a musical number, an outing to the opera, and a macaron cooking class.
It's great to be part of a well-functioning group (and not have a husband in charge of making sure it functions). I was talking with another group member about being part of a small embassy community. "The embassy feels like a ward," I told them, "and the church group feels like family." I'm glad to have such wonderful family here in Tashkent!