‘Reconstruction on the interior started only recently. In its completed state, all the walls, the ceilings, the massive columns, all the surfaces will be covered in mosaic. The church is gargantuan, with soaring ceilings and nine domes. Nine, imagine it. There are side chapels and apses, corridors and a huge central nave, and all this will be clad in mosaic. But the finish is a long way off; some say five years, but the more realistic whisper fifteen. However, you, all of you here, don’t need to wait. You can see and experience the church in all its magnificence now, today, without leaving your seats.’

Click.

A full-colour impression of the interior seen from just inside the entrance appears on the screen. Like all the slides he will show, it is based on drawings used by the mosaicists to recreate the interior.

‘Let me take you through the church.’

He pitches his voice a little lower, and brings his mouth closer to the microphone. His words, intimate and mesmerising, fill the hall.

‘The size of the church is what first impresses. It is overwhelming, truly awesome. But a few steps into the church, it’s the beauty that takes over: it literally stops you in your tracks. Here is mosaic so abundant, so decorative, it’s hard to believe that mere mortals, just like you and me, could create anything so beautiful.’ He shifts his gaze to the rear of the auditorium. ‘You know how great natural wonders — mountains, oceans, vast deserts — make you feel small, insignificant, yet at the same time inspire wonder? The same can happen with man-made beauty. You enter this dazzlingly beautiful church, and it fills you with wonder.’

Click.

‘Huge rectangular columns rise from the floor to fuse with gorgeously patterned arches in the distant ceiling. And on every panel of these columns, rising from eye level to the very top, twenty metres away, stand gigantic, halo’d men clad in flowing robes.’

Click.

‘Let’s stand at the base of a column together.’ He pauses briefly. ‘At the lowest level, on a par with your eyes, are a pair of feet, feet larger than life, and somehow — these are feet, after all — they seem imbued with the sacred.’

Click.

‘Lift your gaze higher, and you see velvety cloaks hanging in loose folds. These cloaks are formed from hard mosaic, chips of stone, yet they look so soft, so touchable. And see how the bare skin of feet and arms glitters. This mosaic figure shimmers with life.’

Click.

‘And there are not just human figures here, but animals and exotic birds, flowers and forests. All of God’s creations cover the columns and walls of this vast space.’

Click.

‘And the myriad of colours. They’re sublime. Reds, oranges, greens, yellows, pearly whites, stunning blues. And one blue in particular, not a wishy-washy Western blue, this is an intense Russian blue, with tints of sky and ocean that draw earth and heaven together.’

Click.