Sunday, February 7, 2016

Restored Church in Zorkino Re-dedicated

Zorkino
The village of Zorkino in the Marx region of the Saratov oblast was known until 1942 as “Zurich.” It was a German settlement similar to many others on the Volga. But while it shares a history with many other settlements, it's present is unique thanks to the generous donations of a Russian German businessman who decided to restore the church in the home town of his father.
On October 3rd of this year, then, the Church of Christ the Savior (a copy of the building that was destroyed during Soviet times) was opened and dedicated. At the dedication the main sponsor of the project, Karl Loor for Belgorod, said, “a few years ago I lost my father. A few days after his funeral I sat down to look at his photo albums and understood that there is so much that I do not know about the history of my family. I began to gather all the pieces of the puzzle, and it was then that I had the idea to restore the church.” Olga Litzenberger, a researcher and historian of Russian Germans, found the building plans and passed them on to Mr. Loor.
The Church of Christ the Savior in the Zurich colony was built in 1877 according to the plans of the famous German architect Johann Jakobstal. It was an exact copy of the church of St. Mary that was destroyed in Saratov in the 1970s. In the 1930s the church in Zorkino was closed and then used as a warehouse, a club and a movie theater. In 1992 there was a fire in the building and the building was abandoned. By the time the restoration of the building began, the only thing that was left were walls with trees growing out of them. The reconstruction began in 2013 and the day of re-dedication was chosen deliberately – October 3, 2015 is the 25th anniversary of the re-unification of Germany.
More than 500 people attended the ceremonies. Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Dietrich Brauer was in attendance, as were the Dean of the Saratov Deanery Alexander Schaermann, pastor in Saratov Alexander Dzhamgarov, the Dean of the Volga-Kamsky Deanery Vladimir Provorov and also pastors from America, Germany and Brazil. Olga Martenz represented the International Union of German Culture while Yuri Gaar represented the Volga Russian Germany National Cultural Society of Saratov Oblast.
After the dedication of the building Archbishop Dietrich Brauer performed the first Baptism in the new walls of the church. After the 4-hour service, guest went to place flowers on a World War I.
In the future worship services here will be led by pastors from the Saratov deanery and there will also be a cultural center in the building.











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