The Cross of Lutherans in Smolensk

  The altar in Smolensk is now decorated with a new crucifix. Is it really worth it to write an article about this? In a large congregation with its own church building such a change in the altar decoration would go unnoticed. That's understandable - it's a simple, everyday event. But if the congregation is small, almost a family congregation, which has neither its own building or its own pastor, which actually has nothing at all except its faith and its desire to maintain its Lutheran identity, then such an event becomes significant.
  And this cross has a story. In December of 2014 one of our church members, Vera Tkach, was approached by an Eastern Orthodox family she was friends with. They had a problem. They had a cross hanging in their home for quite some time, but when they brought it to the church to get it blessed, the priest told that the cross wasn't from the eastern Christian tradition, but was a western cross. Since Orthodox believers couldn't imagine either using the cross or throwing it away, they decided to ask their Protestant friends if they might need it. This was the beginning of the path for the cross to become  the altar cross for the congregation in Smolensk.
 We will hope that this event is a good sign...and that eventually it will be possible to put this cross on the altar of the historical Lutheran church building in Smolensk, which is at present occupied by the local chess club.