Photos from Christmas Celebrations in the Union of Evangelical Lutheran Churches

Dneprepetrovsk (Ukraine): 

Evpatoria (Crimea):

Kaliningrad:

Lozovaya (Ukraine):

Lutzk (Ukraine)

Moscow:

Novorossisk:

Omsk:

Odessa (Ukraine):

 Perm:

Samara:

Saratov:

Simferopol (Crimea):

Smolensk:

St. Petersburg: 

Tashkent (Uzbekistan):

Ulyanovsk:

Volgograd:

Vinnitse (Ukraine):

Zhitomir (Ukraine):

110th Anniversary of the Dedication of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Moscow

Moscow

On December 20th the cathedral church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in European Russia celebrated its 110th anniversary. To mark this event there was an evening of spiritual reflection and music to which were invited representatives of the city government, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and other Protestant churches of Russia.

Archbishop Dietrich Brauer greeted those present: "We are witnesses of a wonderful time when God's grace and glory is raised in various languages to all people, including through music. Today is really a miracle. A miracle that the cathedral is restored, a miracle that it is serving its purpose. Today we going to listen to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. And I hope that all of you will let into your hearts that Word which has been placed in the music! The Word which became flesh and dwelled among us. Let Jesus Christ shine in His Glory above us with us and through us." 

The German Ambassador to Russia, Ruediger von Fritsch, and the Moscow Patriarchate's Secretary of External Relations for Inter-Christian Affairs, Stefan Igumnov, also spoke. The latter said: "For us it is a great joy, a great honor and a significant event to mark together with our brother Lutherans the 110th anniversary of the dedication of this wonderful cathedral. From the moment of its founding the congregation of the cathedral lived a full spiritual life and was one of the great Christian congregations of Moscow. But then for reasons unrelated to the believers themselves, life in the church was interrupted for many years. And what a blessings that the cathedral is experiencing rebirth! It has become a center of spiritual life, like it was at the beginning. It is a center of gravity for those Muscovites and guests of the capital that seek culture, that seek to enjoy the treasurers of classical music."

The evening continued with a performance of Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" and readings from the Christmas stories in the Gospels. 

Upgrade 2015

"We spent 5 days in the church and, I'll tell you what, it's nothing like what you'd imagine." Of course if your 15 years old and you say that you spent almost a week in the church, you'll get a mixed reaction. Is it really possible that a teenager can have a good time there? For that long? Experience shows that the answer is "yes!"

In Omsk there is a lot of work done with teenagers and youth from the ELCUSFE. Yet the staff were a bit shaken (in a good way!) at the seemingly limitless energy of the more than 20 participants that came to the Christ Church Center from various cities and villages to take part in the annual “Upgrade” youth conference. Guest teachers came from the Libenzell Mission - Jenni Jochim and Pierre Dispensieri - led Bible lessons while old friends of the Omsk congregation from the Hanover Church - Michael Vogt and Cornelia Dassler - led games and for the first time in the history of our church led a Youth Synod Assembly. Vladimir Vinogradov (Dean of Western Siberia), Anastasia Razinkova (coordinator of children and youth ministry in Eastern Siberia), Stas Mikula (Pastor, Omsk oblast) and Evgeny Maul (preacher, Omsk oblast) helped create a good atmosphere and made sure that everyone was busy and well fed. 

There was great feedback from this conference. Everyone wants MORE! And praise God for that. Because it is thanks to Him that such events happen, that we receive experience, knowledge and motivation; praise God that we all felt like part of one big family. 

Slide show of pictures from the conference.

St. Martin's Day Celebrations

In the past years many of our congregations have began to celebrate St. Martin's Day. Here are a few pictures from celebrations around our church.

Berdyansk (Ukraine):

Evpatoria (Crimea):

Moscow:

St. Petersburg:

Tomsk:

Meeting of Staff in Eastern Siberia

Krasnoyarsk

 Near the end of October the prayer house of the congregation in Krasnoyarsk hosted a meeting of staff from the Eastern Siberia Deanery of ELCUSFE.

Vitaly Moor from Tomsk, Thomas Graf Grote from Shelekhov (Irkutsk), and Pastor Dmitry Schweitz from Abakan came at the invitation of the Dean, Pastor Vladimir Vinogradov from Omsk. Anastasia Razinkova (responsible for children and youth ministry in the region) and Viktor Zubkov from the Bishop's office also arrived from Omsk, while Andrey Masiorev, having blessed a week earlier as a preacher for the Abakan congregation, also was in attendance. From the Krasnoyarsk congregation, in addition to Pastor Gleb Pivovarov, there was Tatyana Serebrova, who is responsible for women's ministry in ELCUSFE, and Olga Wagner, church council president.

The reason to get together was to meet as a group with two guests from the Hermannsburg Mission, Helmut Grimmsmann (Asia Secretary) and Director Michael Thiel. They spoke about developments in the Mission over the past few years and also spoke about their plans for continuing cooperation. Director Thiel, who was in Russia for the first time, shared his impressions of the life of our church and expressed his thankfulness to those who serve in it. The rest of the time was spent hearing reports from the regions, sharing news and discussing current issues. It was agreed upon that such meeting increase the effectiveness of our congregations' ministries. 

The meeting took place on a Sunday and that allowed guests to take part in worship and in fellowship with the congregation; that allowed everyone to get better acquainted with the life of the Krasnoyarsk congregation.

On that evening everyone returned to their places of service; we hope that such fruitful meetings will serve the further development of the congregations of our deanery. May the Lord bless our congregations and all its ministers!

Dmitry Schweitz, Abakan

Regional Meeting in Khakasia

October 31 and November 1 were days filled with events in the congregations of Khakasia and the south of the Krasnoyarsk Krai.  There were many reasons for this - Reformation Day, the installation (after commissioning in Omsk) of Andrey Masiorov as a preacher, and meeting guests from the Hermannsburg Mission - Director Michael Thiel and Asia Secretary Helmut Grimmsmann - to discuss current issues and plans for the future. 

On Saturday morning the 31st there was a celebratory Reformation Day service in the congregation in Chernogorsk. At the beginning of the services guests from the city's music school had a small concert; afterwards there was a lengthy discussion of the possibility of buying property for the Chernogorsk congregation. After lunch the guests attended worship in the village of Bograd, where congregational members have finished a serious reconstruction of their prayer house. Not it has a wonderful exterior to match its interior. It is a happy thing that the congregation is filled with children; regular Sunday school is led by Viktoria Reva. 

Sunday worship in Abakan was attended by guests from all over the region - from Chernogorsk, Bograd, Shira and Kuragino. It has become a good tradition that once a year all the congregations of the region come together for common worship and fellowship, which is followed by a annual meeting to share problems and joys. This year a special event was the installation of Andrey Masiorov as preacher for the Abakan congregation. After worship there was a discussion of news from the synod assembly and plans for the future. The latter is particularly important in light of Pastor Dmitry Schwartz's upcoming return to Germany - plans need to be made for the time of pastoral vacancy.
Our guests from the Mission highly valued their time in our region. They took with them many impressions and much information. They spoke at our meetings and had a lot of personal interaction with our members. We were happy to hear from them that they desire to continue our cooperation. Small congregations need support. And such meeting show that we are not alone in our congregations - we have the support of our region, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Urals, Siberia and Far East, there is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, and our partner churches abroad. But most important - God is with us. 
The Lord has wonderfully made everything. And we give over our human concerns into God's hands. For that which is impossible for humans is possible for God. (Lk 18.27) 
Zoya Geintse. Preacher, Chernogorsk.

Edith Mutel's "I Remember" Presented in Petrikirche

St. Petersburg

"The goal of my book is to help preserve Russia's small German settlements in people's memory." With these words Edith Mutel, the 96 year-old author of the recently published Russian version of her memoirs, greeted congregational members and guests at the presentation of her book in Petrikirche on December 13th. The full title of the book is: "I Remember: From Petrograd to Petersburg through the Volga and Siberia. The Fate of a Pastor's Daughter." 

Archbishop Dietrich Brauer, while congratulating Edith Mutel on the publication of her book, emphasized that it has significance for our whole Evangelical Lutheran Church. 

Congregational members gathered into a long line in order to get an autographed copy of the book, which came out in small run of 500 copies. Some of those will be sold through the book ministry "The Word," while a copy will also be sent to all the congregations of our church for their libraries. 

Seminar for Congregational Leaders in Omsk

Participants of the seminar in Omsk for ELCUSFE congregational leaders share their impressions:

It was the first time I attended this annual seminar for leaders and staff of ELCUSFE congregations. The seminar was very intense and enlightening. We studied God's Word, prayed and had fellowship with one another. 

Many thanks to Bradn Buerkle for his clear explanations about how to prepare a sermon; I got a lot from that. I hope that it won't be in vain. 

I was happy to meet many people whom I'd know before as well as those acquaintances whom I was meeting agin. Some of the participants were from Vladivostok or Magadan - I'm thankful to them that they came to the seminar from so far away. There were also brothers and sisters from Novosibirsk, Omsk, Chelyanbinsk, Brezovskiy, Kuragino, Nizhny Tagil, Chernogorsk, Krasnoturinsk, Ekaterinburg and Tjumen. 

May God continue to bless such seminars. 

Natalya Kadakh. Chelyabinsk.

The teachers of the seminar have great gifts and with God's help they use them to help us do that to which we are called - to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. Many thanks to them for that! We received a lot to think about in these days, and it will take time to understand how we can use what we learned in our congregations. The material we covered was of very high quality and was, without a doubt, very useful.

Evgeny Strikker, Ekaterinburg.

There is no such thing as an ideal congregation and there is no such thing as an ideal sermon. But we can say "Here am I!" to the call to serve and trust God for support.

Nina Dmitrieva. Vladivostok. 

I liked very much that in Bradn's lessons we balanced theory and practice so that we eventually made a sermon outline and them a sermon itself. It was possible to answer questions right away and look for an answer together. I could have used more time to move around, since it is hard to sit so long for a few days in a row! Many thanks to Otto Schaude for interesting lessons. I wish God's blessings to all the teachers and staff.

Irina Schneider. Khakasia. 

There was a funny thing that happened at the seminar. In our large church, made up of 4 deaneries, one song can be sang in four different ways. We tried to sing together "Abide With Me," but participants of the seminar started to sing 3 different melodies. In the end we sang "in the Azovo" way (Azovo - a town in the Omsk region) but it was very interesting to hear new versions of well-known hymns. 

Maxim Shekker. Tjumen.

It was very interesting to me to receive new experience and knowledge about how to prepare sermons. I learned about the principles of preaching, what should be avoided and what is recommended. In groups we worked on sermon planning, and I'll use that in worship services in the near future. Besides that the seminar was a very valuable time of fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ from other regions - "they were together in the temple, praising and blessings God." (Lk 24.53)  

Sergei Zaibert, Omsk.

"Creating Empowering Learning Opportunities for New Diaconal Initiatives." Odessa

Odessa

In St. Paul's Church on November 23-26 a seminar was held through the International Academy of Diaconal and Social Work "Interdiac" (www.interdiac.eu) together with the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine. Participants, each of which in one way or another is responsible for diaconal work in his or her church, came from Evangelical Lutheran churches in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. 

The leaders of the seminar were Yanka Adameova and Barbora Zielinova (Cheski-Tesin, Czech Republic). The goal of this meeting was to develop cooperation between the organization and the Union of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. At present the "Interdiac" academy, which offers unique experiences for studying social work and exchange of experience, interacts intensively only with the Ukrainian church. 

On the opening day participants became acquainted with one another and also shared their expectations of the meeting. The day finished with Taize prayer, led by GELCU Bishop Sergei Mashevsky. 

On the second day the participants spoke about the organizations that they represented. Each person drew their organization as a ship with leaders and passengers and then explained the pictures in detail. With the help of other pictures - "lines of life" - participants tried to understand their own biography, especially crucial moments that brought them to work in the church or in the sphere of diaconal work. In the evening each person had the chance to speak about his or her country and its culture.

The guests of the seminar became acquainted with a a concrete example of diaconal work in Odessa. Vitaly Mikaikhlik showed them St. Paul's diaconal station and especially spoke about the help given to refugees fleeing the military conflict in eastern Ukraine. 

Nicole Brisjuk talked about the work of the "Living Hope" organization that does social work with underprivileged children and youth.

Oksana Prosvirnina spoke about the on-site/off-site educational program of Interdiac, which is open to all who wish to develop their skills in the area social work. Participants discussed these possibilities with her.

The group made a tour of Odessa and had supper together, which helped everyone get an impression of the local culture and also to hear interesting personal stories. 

Before leaving participants of the seminar spoke about their vision of how cooperation for continuing education in the sphere of diaconal work might take place and how to strengthen local diaconal initiatives. The interest of and willingness of participants to take on responsibility give hope that there will be good cooperation in the future. Thanks to the seminar new contacts were made and with them new possibilities arise. Participants received motivation for further work which should in the near future bear good fruit.

Yanka Adameova, Barbora Zielinova