Worship at the Estonian Cemetery

Kresttsy, Russia

   On the morning of June 19th 18 congregation members from St. Nikolai Lutheran in Novgorod got into a rented bus and headed out to the village of Kresttsy. After two weeks of rain the sunny day was a nice surprise, and it made it much easier to lead worship a rather unusual worship service - outside. 
  The place was also unusual – the old, Estonian cemetery in the village. Many years ago in Kresttsy there was a large Estonian community and a wooden Lutheran Church; it belonged back then to the St. Nikolai parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Russian Empire. At that time there were 14 churches and prayer houses in the Novgorod province that were part of the parish. 
  Even today in Kresttsy and the surrounding regions there are many ethnic Estonians who were baptized as children by their grandmothers, who used the order of service they found in old, Lutheran service books. For more than 5 years already a Lutheran congregation exists their to unite those who were baptized into the faith. Sadly, though, not many people attend worship. At the same time they all hold to the tradition of meeting at the cemetery on the day when the Orthodox church celebrates Trinity Sunday. That's why the group from Novgorod came on that day at the request of the leaders of the village congregation in order to hold an evangelization worship service for these people at the cemetery. 
Many of those who were baptized as Lutherans attended worship in a Lutheran church for the first time that day. After worship all the participants went for a picnic prepared by the congregational members in Kresttsy. The organizers of the event hope that this event will be repeated and that new people will attend the regular worship of the congregation in the future. 
  Igor Zhuravlyev