by Anton Chakhlou
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia was founded in the 1820s by Schwabian Germans who came here from the Wurttemberg area. In 1895 in what was then a new part of Tbilisi a large church building, St. Peter and Paul's, was raised thanks to the offerings of the local German community. Congregational life ended in the 1930s after the death in Stalin's repressions of Pastor Richard Meyer. The church building was destroyed in 1946 on the order of Soviet powers by German prisoners of war. A memorial plaque was installed on the place of the former church building (now known as Mardjanishvili square) on September 6, 2013.
Only in 1991 did the Lutherans of Tbilisi have the chance to revive their Church. On the plot of a former German cemetery a cultural center with the Church of the Reconciliation was built; it was dedicated in 1997. This congregation is the largest in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia; it has a few hundred members. Although it was built on a German foundation it is not multi-ethnic with a ever-rising number of Georgian-speaking members. Worship services are held on Sundays and holy days in Georgian, German and Russian languages. On Saturday evenings prayer services are ed by active church members. The Bishop of the church lives there and there are three pastors and one lector. A three-language, monthly newsletter is published.
Next to the congregational center is the Johann Bernhard Saltet House, named after the first Lutheran pastor in the city. There is a small retirement home, cafeteria and diaconal station there. This building is the central part of the structure of the Evangelical Lutheran Diaconal Service of Georgia, founded in 2000. In 2014 the diaconal home care service was founded through the congregation and it service not only congregational members but others in the community as well. This has done a lot to create a positive image of the Lutheran church in Georgian society.
The Church of Reconciliation maintains ecumenical contacts especially with religious minorities in Georgia as well as with the government, with consulates and NGOs. There are large and small church concerts which are very popular among the city's inhabitants.
The congregation has many active congregational ministries: e.g., a Sunday school as well as teenager, youth, men's and women's groups. The choir sings during worship and at celebratory events. The children and youth of the congregation are constant participants in summer Christian camps. For many years now the women of the congregation prepare the World Day of Prayer service in March. The annual Luther Days has become a good tradition of the Georgian Lutheran Church.
Without a doubt it would be better for the church if the quantity of congregational members was more or less the same in all places; this would all the congregations to develop in their own way in their own towns. However the current economic realities of the country are such that some congregational members find it necessary to move to the capital to look for a better life. Congregational members of the Church of Reconciliation welcome these and other new members with great hospitality. In this way the congregation proves that it has the right to occupy an important place in the kind of open and multicultural city that Tbilisi has always been.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia was founded in the 1820s by Schwabian Germans who came here from the Wurttemberg area. In 1895 in what was then a new part of Tbilisi a large church building, St. Peter and Paul's, was raised thanks to the offerings of the local German community. Congregational life ended in the 1930s after the death in Stalin's repressions of Pastor Richard Meyer. The church building was destroyed in 1946 on the order of Soviet powers by German prisoners of war. A memorial plaque was installed on the place of the former church building (now known as Mardjanishvili square) on September 6, 2013.
Only in 1991 did the Lutherans of Tbilisi have the chance to revive their Church. On the plot of a former German cemetery a cultural center with the Church of the Reconciliation was built; it was dedicated in 1997. This congregation is the largest in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia; it has a few hundred members. Although it was built on a German foundation it is not multi-ethnic with a ever-rising number of Georgian-speaking members. Worship services are held on Sundays and holy days in Georgian, German and Russian languages. On Saturday evenings prayer services are ed by active church members. The Bishop of the church lives there and there are three pastors and one lector. A three-language, monthly newsletter is published.
Next to the congregational center is the Johann Bernhard Saltet House, named after the first Lutheran pastor in the city. There is a small retirement home, cafeteria and diaconal station there. This building is the central part of the structure of the Evangelical Lutheran Diaconal Service of Georgia, founded in 2000. In 2014 the diaconal home care service was founded through the congregation and it service not only congregational members but others in the community as well. This has done a lot to create a positive image of the Lutheran church in Georgian society.
The Church of Reconciliation maintains ecumenical contacts especially with religious minorities in Georgia as well as with the government, with consulates and NGOs. There are large and small church concerts which are very popular among the city's inhabitants.
The congregation has many active congregational ministries: e.g., a Sunday school as well as teenager, youth, men's and women's groups. The choir sings during worship and at celebratory events. The children and youth of the congregation are constant participants in summer Christian camps. For many years now the women of the congregation prepare the World Day of Prayer service in March. The annual Luther Days has become a good tradition of the Georgian Lutheran Church.
Without a doubt it would be better for the church if the quantity of congregational members was more or less the same in all places; this would all the congregations to develop in their own way in their own towns. However the current economic realities of the country are such that some congregational members find it necessary to move to the capital to look for a better life. Congregational members of the Church of Reconciliation welcome these and other new members with great hospitality. In this way the congregation proves that it has the right to occupy an important place in the kind of open and multicultural city that Tbilisi has always been.
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