ELCA Partner Visits

2017 showed that the ELCA continues to remain engaged in partnership with the church in Russia. In February regional representative Arden Haug made a trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow together with Bishop Cindy Halmarson, Global Mission Director for Europe, Middle East and North Africa. As usual they visited the central church administration, Bishop Kugappe of the Ingrian Church, and ELCA Pastor Bradn Buerkle in St. Petersburg, and then in Moscow visited Archbishop Brauer and his staff, the French-speaking congregation, and the Moscow Protestant chaplaincy.This trip came at the conclusion of Arden's many years of faithful service in accompanying the Russian church on the behalf of the ELCA; his knowledge of the situation and his efforts on behalf of our church throughout the years have been very much appreciated.

Northwest Washington delegation with Bishop Brauer

In March a group of 5 people from the Northwest Washington Synod, including Bishop Unti, came to Russa to visit the two capitals and their partner synod (ELCER) and congregations in Yaroslavl and Tolyatti. They were very impressed by what they saw, and they are filled with a desire to strengthen ties further. Eva Mader, who was not able to join the delegation that came in March as she had originally planned, did make a short trip to St. Petersburg in September to attend the service of dedication for the new organ in Petrikirche, the partner congregation of her home Grace Lutheran in Bellevue.

Pastor Gary Teske, Pastor Gleb Pivovarov, and Olga Vinogradova

In September and October, a delegation from the Central States Synod made their first trip to Russia in 5 years; while they might not be frequent, they do cover a lot of ground! They began in St. Petersburg and made stops in Moscow, Omsk, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk before reaching the congregations to which they have been historically tied in the Far East. Their meetings with church leaders along the way helped the delegation get a sense of the challenges the church faces and some of the hope-filled new aspects of church life in ELCUSFE, including the leadership of a new bishop, Alexander Scheiermann, with whom the delegation's leader, Gary Teske, had already become acquainted in Omsk at the bishop's installation in April.

Bishop Halmarson and other church leaders at the Reformation Anniversary

Viking Dietrich, the new ELCA area representative, joined the group in Vladivostok, where they all celebrated together with Dean Manfred Brockmann his 80 birthday and the celebration of 25 years since the congregation has been reborn.
Finally, our church was honored to have Bishop Halmarson with us again for the Reformation anniversary celebrations in Moscow over the last days of October through the beginning of November. Her presence was more than just a reminder that this event is being celebrated world-wide, it was also a chance to gain a deeper understanding of one another and one another's church life.

Three Anniversaries - German Culture Days in Vladivostok

Our 21st German Cultural Days have a special meaning this year when we celebrate three anniversaries: the 25th anniversary of the rebirth of the Lutheran Church in the Russian Far East; the 20th anniversary of the return of St. Paul's church in Vladivostok, and the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
We invited many friends from Russia and abroad to attend. We will be especially happy to see the delegates from the Central States Synod of the ELCA, which has been our partner for 25 years. We also are anticipating our newly-elected bishop, Alexander Scheiermann to come from Omsk and our Archbishop Dietrich Brauer from Moscow; the latter had part of his internship with us when he was still a student.
In the 25 years since the rebirth of the Lutheran church in the Far East and the 20 years of restoration of our beautiful St. Paul's Church in Vladivostok we can only be thanks to God. Despite many people leaving us and emigrating west – this was the theme of our Culture Days last year – we can only with wonder and thankfulness affirm how many blessings we have been given over these years! And here we remember the promises given by God to Abraham: “And you will be a blessing" (Genesis 12.2). This is our blessing as well.
The main event – the “Day of Three Anniversaries” will be October 1 in St. Paul Church! And of course we again visit the universities of Vladivostok; there are again meetings with students in the Goethe hall at the regional library. We again will offer folk dancing. And again we will have the “German Vladivostok” tour. The Honorary Consul of Germany Y.I. Kotyk will host a reception on the “Day of German Unity.” We will celebrate worship on October 1 as Harvest Day.
And as always we will have much music, since music is our pride. We will also have the traditional “Evening of Polish Music,” and there will be a concert of Manfred Brockmann's compositions.
Once again organist Jamin Raschfrom Hamburg will be with us with three organ concerts in our church. And we will conclude our Culture Days with the works of our great J.S.Bach.
I thank all of our sponsors.
Manfred Brockmann, Pastor of St. Paul Church in Vladivostok, Dean of the Russian Far East, retired Honorary Consul of Germany
September 2017

Third International Academic Conference “Lutherans in Russia”

On April 22 and 23, 2017, the Department of Civic Relations and Social Politics of the city of Omsk, the Omsk State Technical University, the Omsk State Regional History Museum, the Omsk German Ethnic-Cultural Society, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Urals, Siberia and Far East hosted an academic conference. More than 150 people from many cities in Russia (including: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Omsk, Ekaterinburg, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk and others) and foreign countries (Germany, USA, Switzerland) took part.

The seminar's participants were greeted by the vice governor of the Omsk oblast, V.B. Kompaneishchikov, ELCR Archbishop Brauer, the Vice-consul of the Federal Republic of Germany from Novosibirsk Ms. Gruenich, the Vice-President for theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hannover, Arend de Fries, Rainer Bekker - the director of the Marburg Mission - and Bishop Yuri Novgorod, the chair of the Council of Bishops of the Union of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kazakhstan.

The plenary session was opened by Arend de Fries with his paper: “Celebrating the Anniversary of the Reformation in the Era of Ecumenism: voicing hurts, healing memories.” He focused on the main ideas of Martin Luther as they were reflected in the theology of the Reformation, the influence of the ideas of the Reformation on the mindset of Christians, on social relationships and on the understanding of God (doctrine of justification). Interconfessional dialogue, the rethinking and reshaping of Christian faith, and the eventual drawing closer together of the the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Churches is a result of Lutheran theology.

L.M. Dmitrieva, Ph.D., head of the Philosophy department at Omsk State Technical University, drew participants' attention to the influence of Protestantism on European civilization in the 17th-18th centuries.

The director of the regional history museum, P. Vibe, Ph.D., in his paper explored the mindset and activity of German colonists on their adaptation to the conditions of Siberia; he used the Omsk region as an example. (19th-first third of 20th centuries).

Professor A.N. Gumenyuk of Omsk State Technical University gave a deep analysis of the traditions of Protestant church architecture based on the example of St. Catherine's Lutheran Church in Omsk (1790-1792), noting the signs of late “Petrine Barocco” of the end of the 18th century.

Dr. Anton Tikhomirov, President of the Novosaratovka Theological Seminary, in his paper looked at the basic principles of “dramatic homiletics” - an important movement in Western approaches to preaching.

After a small concert by the Omsk Ethnic-Cultural Society, the conference continued its work in the following round-table groups: Protestant philosophy and theology, the cultural/ historical role of Protestantism, and Germans of Siberia: church, family, traditions. The conference participants were very active and asked many questions of those who gave their papers during the plenary session and roundtables.

The first day of the conference ended with a concert of German composers performed by the Chamber Orchestra of the Omsk Philharmonic.

On April 23 the conference continued its work in the Omsk State Museum of Regional History, where participants had the chance to get acquainted with exhibits and the museum's recently issued, 300+ page album entitled: “The History of Russian Germans in the Collections of the Omsk State Regional History Museum.” At the same time the exhibit “Here I Stand and I Can Do No Other – the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation” opened to great interest.

The papers of the conference were published.

It is worth noting the warm atmosphere that could be felt at the conference.

Professor Dr. L.M. Dmitrieva, chair of the organizing committee.

Archbishop Visits USA

From September 9-19 Archbishop Dietrich Brauer together with his wife Tatyana visited partner churches in the USA. During this visit he met with ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, the Bishop of the Central States Synod Richard Gustafson, and also visited the churchwide offices of the ELCA (Chicago) and PC(USA) in Louisville. 
Archbishop Brauer became acquainted with the leaders of various aspects of ministry, held negotiations with the heads of various institutes of higher education, gave presentations about the Lutheran Church in Russia and also preached at numerous services. A special accent was made on the existing partner relationships between churches, including the productive cooperation of the ELCA Central States Synod with the Far East Deanery and the support from the American side of the “Equipping for Service” project in the Russian church.
The culmination of the travels was a conference of the “Russian Network” in Asheboro (North Carolina), during which participants discussed the long-term ecumenical partnerships that have been forged between believers in Russia and the US; prayers were raised for the strengthening and development of these ties.
Archbishop Brauer says: "I would like to express thanks for the warmth and heartfelt kindness that was visible in the events organized in the USA and also to express thanks to Ellen and Al Smith of the PC(USA) for their wonderful work in organizing the trip."

With the President of LSTC

At PC(USA) Headquarters in Louisville 

With Bishop Gustafson of the ELCA Central States Synod

Russian Mission Network Meeting

A Joy-filled Visit

  Dean Manfred Brockmann writes:
  It had been a relatively long time since Dean Brockmann had visited the St. Luke’s Congregation. What a pleasant surprise awaited him when he made a visit at the beginning of January 2015. In the previous year and a half year the congregation has developed and consolidated nicely; a cross and sign made it very clear that their building is a church, and the rooms in the interior of the house have been made quite beautiful - the sanctuary with its altar, organ and icon; the fireplace and the office for the pastor; the kitchen, the meeting room with a library, the guest rooms and also all the faithful members and staff.
  St. Luke’s is very active ecumenically, especially in relationship to the Roman Catholic Church. We visited the Catholic congregation in Arsenyev and had a very lively and fraternal discussion with their Pastor John. Pastor John even joined Pastor Lapochenko for a joint ecumenical service at St. Luke’s.
  All of this is the result of Pastor Lapochenko’s continual work as well as the work of organist Svetlana Filotovitch and the ever-faithful Tamara Jershova, the heart and soul of the congregation's building. There has also been additional hard work by all of the members of the congregation, especially  the very proficient Valentin Yavorskiy and Zhenya Slinchenko.  We cannot forget that all of this is possible thanks to the financial help from their partner congregation Trinity Lutheran Church, Great Bend Kansas, led by their dedicated pastor, Jim Strasen, who invited Pastor Lapochenko and Zhenya Slinchenko to visit the Central States Synod from June 6th to June 25th, 2013.
  Despite the progress made in remodeling of the church building and cost-saving measures such as installing insulated doors and windows, there are still some major structural problems with the building. St. Luke’s is built on swampy ground, so they are going to have to solve the problem with ground water or else the foundation will be damaged. The chimney for the fireplace needs to be repaired and the ceiling in the entryway needs to be completed. Some money has been raised for this, but they need more. We are confident that it will be done thanks to help from our friends and partners and to the work of dedicated members of the congregation.
  With thanks to all and wishes for God’s blessings!”