23rd Synod Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in European Russia

Novosaratovka

On February 16-17 the Synod of the ELC-ER was held in the chapel of the Theological Seminary in Novosaratovka. The theme of the synod assembly was taken from Isaiah 66.13: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”

The theme was chosen deliberately to coincide with the 2016 as the Year of the Family in the ELC in Russia. The assembly opened with a worship service during which Archbishop Dietrich Brauer preached on the theme of family.

Synod President Olga Temirbulatova in her report spoke about the work done in the two years since the last gathering. She emphasized how well the administrative work is done and the importance of the ministries of St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral in Moscow for the whole church. It has become a popular place in the capital thanks to the events that are organized there and there is now a whole new level of interaction with ecumenical partners and with the state.

There have been changes over the past two years in the structure and the staff of the Church. 5 congregations from Crimea – Evpatoria, Koktebel, Simferopol, Yalta and Sudak – have been re-registered and have joined the ELCER. Two representatives from the region – Rimma Milovanova (Evpatoriya) and Irina Graf (Koktebel) took part in the work of the synod as delegates. The congregations in Crimea are visited by the Dean of the Northern Caucuses deanery, Sergei Maramzin. In the future the plan is to organize another deanery there. In other changes, after the retirement of Dean Inessa Tirbach in 2014 the responsibilities of the dean of the area have been taken on by the dean of the neighboring Bashkirostan region, Sergey Golzwert. In addition new deans have been installed in the Northern Caucuses and in Kaliningrad.

Public relations work has been increased; in 2015 an internet TV station “Lutherans in Russia” (www.tvevt.com/en/channel/7988/) was founded by lay minister Artis Peterson. The “Lutheran Wave” radio program on the “Theos” station continues to be broadcast at 5 pm on Wednesdays and is led by the PR coordinator for ELCER, Yulia Vinogradova.

Archbishop Dietrich Brauer spoke in his report about the restoration of church buildings in Zorkino, Marx, Yaroslavl and Grodno, about the building projects in Saratov and Ufa, about growing cooperation with city governments in St. Petersburg and Ulanovsk, and about anniversaries celebrated in 2015 – in Gusev, Moscow, Volgograd/Sarapta, and Samara. The installation of organs in Yaroslavl and Grodno was also a great gift.

Ecumenical and international relationships continue to develop; a significant event was the “From Confrontation to Dialog” event held in the Moscow Cathedral in October 2015 with the participation of theologians from various confessions. Since 2014 the ELCER is an official partner of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saxony. In the past year Archbishop Brauer took part in the installation of a new bishop for the Church of Saxony, Carsten Rentzing. The ELCS sent Pastor Eckehard Graubner as their representative to the synod assembly.

One of the main tasks of the assembly was to elect a new synod council. There were only slight changes and most of the council was re-elected - Dean Sergey Goltzvert took the place of Dean David Rerich. Otherwise the council remains: Valery Fogel (Maiskiy), Maria Frolova (Moscow), Pastor Andrey Dzhamgarov (Saratov), and Dean Olga Temirbulatova (Samara).

Various reports on special ministries were given by those in charge of these ministries. Dean Elena Bondarenko, responsible for women's work in the church, noted that, in addition to the kind of work that has been done in the past, now woman's ministry has also become a connecting point with diaconal ministries, for example, cooperation with the “Old World” Christian charity fund. Dean Bondarenko also is in charge of a new, experimental educational project (supported by Martin Luther Bund) of training catechists in the the Central Deanery. It is possible that this experiment might be useful for other regions of the church as well.

 The coordinator of youth work in ELCER, Very Tkach, also gave a report. She suggested that there be a conference of youth leaders of the ELCER in 2017 and that a youth music book be published.

Before and after the synod assembly the ELCER leadership visited two Petersburg congregations – St. Anna and Paul (Petrikirche) and St. Catherine's.

The next synod assembly of the ELCER will be in 2 years, in accordance with the bylaws of the church.

Youth Seminar - Love and Responsibility

Ufa

What does the family look like in the contemporary world? How much does it differ from that understanding that we had 50 or 100 years ago? How much do societal factors affect families? These and other questions were addressed at a youth conference held February 6-7 at the Lutheran church in Ufa and with the participation of Lutheran, Catholic and Orthodox congregations of the city. 

Four Evangelists of the End Times

Novosaratovka

From January 19-29 at the Theological Seminary in Novosaratovka a seminar was held on the theme “Death, Burial and Eschatology.” Participants came from Novgorod, Moscow, Ufa and Narva (Estonia). 
Questions of the end of life and the end of time are of concern for any person, regardless of his or her religion or nationality. In addition the question of death is one of the primary issues in pastoral care. The teachers of the seminar – Anton Tikhmirov, Bradn Buerkle, Michael Schwartzkopf and Datze Balode – helped us deal with these difficult questions. And as the four Evangelists each spoke about Christ in their own way, our four teachers each pointed to eschatological issues in a different way. We looked both at traditional Christian teachings on eschatology as well as contemporary approaches to the “end times.” Many of these ideas provoked discussion which continued after lectures into the student kitchen in the evenings. 
The students thank the teachers, the staff of the seminary for arranging everything so well, the local pastors of Lutheran congregations for their hospitality during worship and also the staff of the Christian book store “Slovo” for helping us find the literature we need. 

Rustem Nafikov

Photos: Ruth Stubenitzky

ELC Archbishop in the Duma

Moscow
On January 28th the Duma Committee on Non-governmental and Religious Organizations, as a part of the 4th Annual Christmas Parliament Meetings, held a round table dedicated to the question of improving laws regulating religious organizations. ELC Archbishop Dietrich Brauer in his report called attention to the process of registration of pseudo-ecclesiastic organizations and spoke against their activities, stating that they not only "harm the reputation of religious groups, but they also destroy peoples' souls."
Yaroslav Nilov, the head of the Committee, led the discussions. Before them he summarized the work of the Committee over the past year, reminding everyone that the "State Duma made a number of important statements, to the press in particular, about avoiding inciting religious hatred. Mr. Nilov regretted that the full Duma considered, but did not pass, the document the Committee recommended regarding the repression of Christians in the world, though, he underlined, "this question remains relevant today in many regions of the world."
Among legislative initiatives, the Committee chair noted that it is a step forward that the Russian Civil Code has been altered to show that the activity of religious organizations is regulated by a special law "On the Freedom of Conscience;" "this allows religious organizations to fully function today," he said. In his words the corrections made to the portions of the law regarding ministry in the penal system "significantly simplified the work of ministers." "A new order was found for regulating financial activity of religious organizations," the definition of the term "religious group" was clarified, the "so-called 15 year formula" was taken out of the law, and a 10 year limit was placed on newly founded religious organizations on their missionary and educational activities; norms were formulated to defend holy texts from accusations of extremism, and the first reading of a law went through which would allow the possibility of foundations to administer the properties of religious organizations if the foundations themselves are religious organizations or an organization's representative.
At the end of his presentation the Committee  Chair summarized by saying that the state knows that the "dialog which we have needs to be developed and strengthened and the State Duma, which can act as a meeting place for dialog and a "spark for speeding up certain processes" will continue to improve the legal code of the country.  

Lay Preacher Blessed in Moscow

Moscow
On February 7th ELC Archbishop Dietrich Brauer commisioned Artis Peterson as a lay minister.

32-year-old Artis  is a member of the Moscow congregation and a catechist of the Central Deanery. At present he is studying both at the Theological Seminary in Novosaratovka and at the St. Thomas Institute in Moscow. Artis has a degree in information engineering. He does public relations and tech support for the cathedral congregation in Moscow; one of his projects is recording videos of sermons which are then posted on the lutherancathedral.ru site.

Artis will mainly be serving in the congregation in Kostroma, but will also serve in other congregations of the Central Deanery - Moscow, Kolomna and Smolensk.

New Representative of the Archbishop in Belarus

Grodno

On January 26 ELC Archbishop Dietrich Brauer named Pastor Vladimir Tatarnikov as his official representative in the Republic of Belarus "in order to unify and develop the Lutheran congregations of Belarus," as it written in the official document confirming this decision.
Pastor Tatarnikov has the right to right to speak in the name of the Archbishop and to represent the church's interest at ecumenical and government meetings in Belarus.
The congregations in Belarus became a part of ELCROS in 1998. In 2009 an agreement was signedby the ELC Archbishop   and the autonomous congregations of Belarus regarding the spiritual unity of the church and about care for the congregations from the side of the ELC of Russia.
Pastor Vladimir Tatarnikov was born on April 3, 1986 in Vileyka in the Minsk region of Belarus. He finished school in 2004 in Vitebsk and entered the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Novosaratovka.
He finished his education there in 2009, and was ordained on April 12th by then Archbishop Edmund Ratz and has since that time been serving as pastor for the congregations in Grodno and Vitebsk.

Lutherans in Kazakhstan Build Their First Church Building

Since 2003 the prayer house of the congregation in Astana has been located in a demolition zone. Constant changes in the economic situation means that the timing of this demolition is uncertain, but what is clear is that sooner or later the moment will come when the building will be torn down. In order not to end up without a home for the congregation they and the leadership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan have decided not to wait the demolition notice, but to begin construction of a church.

The city set aside a lot for the construction in 2014. A building plan was made and submitted for inspection. In May 2015 the construction process began.
This is the first time Lutherans in Kazakhstan have had the opportunity to build an actually church building, rather than a prayer-house like construction. There will be two buildings on the church grounds - one will be the church itself, with a large and bright first half floor; there, according to plans, youth and diaconal ministries will be centered.
The other building will have 3 stories and will include: on the first floor - space for congregational work, Sunday school, the pastor's office and the library. On the 2nd floor - the Church administration, the archive and seminar rooms. On the 3rd floor there will be 8 2-person guest rooms will a small kitchen/dining room.
At present the ground floor of the church building is up, as are all three floors of the other building. The buildings are hooked up to electricity and work is being done on the plumbing. 
The structures are being built with the help of offerings from citizens and organizations in Kazakhstan, and we are very thankful to those companies that have helped: the "Astana" engineering center for the plans, the general contractor KazGerStroy," and the following building companies: the BIGroup, Alyansstroyinvest, Bazis, HeidelbergCementCentralAsia, Gornoe Buro, Zhambylskaya Cement Production Compnay, Strokonstruktsiya, Knauf, Funke-Kazakhstan, Astana Su Arnasy, Baly Mining, Akmola-Feniks, Geotek, Akpan, Iskander, KSPSteel, Ulmusbesshoky, Brick Factory #1 "15 years of Kazakhstan," Kaztsink. We thank as well the city of Astana, the Committee of Religious Affairs of Kazakhstan, and the Administrator of Religious Affairs of Astana.
We thank as well all the congregations of our Church, our ciricle of friends in Mecklenburg. We thank personally Albert Rau, Sergey Emirova and many, many others.
Kazakhstan is a surprising country, where around your Christmas table the majority might be Kazakhs. And at Muslim holidays in Kazakh homes around the traditional Central Asian tablecloth you will see representatives from the whole former Soviet Union - Russians, Ukrainians, Germans.. That's how we live. It is our heritage - we learned from our ancestors how to get along with and value our neighbors. 
And so they are helping us building our church, despite our differences in ethnicity and religion. And we are thankful to God and to our fellow countrymen.
Yuri Novgorodov, Bishop 

Anyone Can Be Santa!

Ulyanovsk
I recently told two people, independently, of a recent trip I made -  to an orphanage to wish the kids there a Happy New Year and to give them presents. They asked me questions - "Who sent you there? Who gave the order?" and "Who gave you the presents for the kids?" I looked at them and thought - "since when do we need orders to do good deeds?" And "anyone can be a sponsor as long as he or she has the desire to do so!"
On the morning of January 7th St. Mary's congregational van, filled with gifts, set off for the Ivanov orphanage. It's not the first year that the kids write letters with their wish lists and the congregation prepares presents for them. By doing this you feel a bit like Grandfather Frost (the Russian version of Santa Claus), who has received a letter from a child. 
This year Masha Mantay and Yulia Ogay recruited their athlete friends as well as students and parents of Ulanyanovsk Lyceum 38 to help prepare the presents. When a young person learns to care for someone else, it changes the giver as he or she learns to do good and to act in love. 
And with what great joyous impatience the children await their presents! As soon as we took the colorful packages from the car we heard someone yelling "Alyona has arrived!" The pastor's wife always comes together with presents, and not only with material ones - she usually gives the kids interesting stories, games and simply joy from their meeting.
This time Pastor Vladimir Provorov told the kids about Christmas. He told them the story of a family which lived in poverty but which was rich in spirit. The kids listened very attentively. And then everyone received a package with their name on it with gifts and with good wishes for the upcoming year. The kids happily shared their sweet treats with the guests...
There is, more likey than not, an orphanage in your city, too. Visit it! The children need your support and communicating with them will also enrich your spirits.
Natalia Kabardina

"Family Weekend - Everyone on the Ice!"

Omsk
On January 9th congregational members from the church in Omsk gathered in a local recreational complex for the  "Family Weekend - Everyone on the Ice!" event with which the "Year of the Family" in our church began.
Holiday music accompanied children and adults as they skated, made "trains" and had competitions (for which they received candy prizes). Everyone who came in a costume received an extra prize.
While in our congregations there are all sorts of events for different groups - for children, youth, teenagers, adults and the elderly, traditionally there have never been many family events. This year, however, that will change, thanks to the accouncement by ELC Archbishop Brauer that 2016 will be our "Year of the Family."