In the foothills of British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains, about two miles north of the border with the United States, there is a small commune known as Hardy Mountain Doukhobor Village. The village—now abandoned—was built around 1912.
This small community is one of the many small communities of Christians around the world who practice Christian anarchism. The Doukhobors are a small group of Christians whose name comes from the Russian word for “Spirit-wrestlers.” They believe God is present in all things, including in each human person. For the Doukhobors, neither scripture, iconography, nor the Russian Orthodox Church could claim more authority for revealing God than a butterfly or a baby.
This resistance to iconography and the Russian state church prompted Tzar Nicholas I to exile the Doukhobors and other Anabaptist Christians in Russia to Ukraine. In exile, the Doukhobors looked for a friendly country in which to land.
