“Church, Politics and War” at the Novosaratovka Theological Seminary

St. Petersburg
The difficult topic of “Church, Politics, War”was at the center of the latest course of continuing education at the Novosaratovka Theological Seminary from February 26 to March 9.
These complex issues were tackled by specialists in each of their respective fields. Dr. Rainer Stahl (Erlangen, Germany) spoke about how politics is seen in the Bible; Dr. Hartwig von Schubert (Hamburg, Germany) shared his knowledge and experience in the area of the ethics of military conflict. Professor Andras Koranyi (Budapest, Hungary) told about the complex interaction of Church and politics in the history of Christianity and Professor Laima Geikina (Riga, Latvia) touched on aspects of Christian education in the social – political sphere. At the lessons of Seminary President Dr. Anton Tikhomirov participants could discuss the ambiguous phenomenon of the political sermon.
During one of the evenings, participants in the seminar were able to meet with the church's international partners, including Dirk Stelter from the Evangelical Church in Germany and the LWF director of the department of mission and development, Rev. Dr. Fidon Mwombeki.
One of the challenges of the seminar was the temperature – the exceptional cold wave that hit at that time meant that it was quite cool in the classrooms, but the teachers and the participants never lost enthusiasm, but instead encouraged each other and tried to look at the situation with a sense of humor.
In his closing sermon Andras Koranyi emphasized that our churches, whatever minority they might be in, can give a lot to the whole Christian world and the society in which they exist.
The almost unanimous response to this seminar from participants was that it was was an experience that brought them not only new knowledge, but a new way to approach difficult theological and social issues. Those who went through the course feel that the discussion of these themes are in large part an indicator of the development of mature religious self-understanding, both as a denomination and as part of society as a whole.

The next courses at Novosaratovka are planned for August 16-31 and will be dedicated to looking at the  Reformation from various – sometimes very unexpected – points of view. Teachers will come from Hungary, Estonia, Argentina and the United States.

New Bishop for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Southern Caucasus

Tbilisi, Georgia

November 12 was a memorable day in the history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Georgia and Southern Caucasus (ELCG). A new bishop was installed at Sunday worship at the Church of the Reconciliation. Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wortemburg, Markus Schock became the 5th bishop of the ELCG. His predecessor, Hans-Joachim Kiderlein, was the head of Georgian Lutherans from 2008 to 2017.
The installation service was led by the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kyrgyzstan, Alfred Eicholtz; he was assisted by Bishop Hans - Joachim Kiderlen, the Bishop Emeritus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia Abroad Elmars Rozitis, Bishop Emeritus of the ELG Johannes Launhardt, Klaus Rieth from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Wurttemberg, Dean Olga Timurbulatova, Pastor Irina Solei and Pastor Viktor Miroshnichenko.
The 51 year old Schock was elected bishop at the synod assembly of the ELCG a year ago, in November 2016. Bishop Schock is familiar with ministry in the post-Soviet context; he worked for 5 years as the pastor of the German Evangelical Lutheran congregation in Latvia, and earlier (beginning in 2000) he had worked for 4 years as the pastor of St. Georgia's in Samara (Russia).
The new bishop was greeted by representatives from other confessions, from government structures, from the German embassy and the partner church in Wurttemberg. Klaus Rit from the Wurttemberg church inspired the small Georgian church to be a “lighthouse for society.” Bishop Eicholtz, representing the Union of Evangelical Lutheran Churches – mentioned that it was a special blessing for him to take part in this installation insofar as he himself is a direct descendant of the Swabian emigrates who founded the first Lutheran congregations in Georgia. He quoted 1 Cor 4.15 as he reminded Bishop Schock of the need to love the church that has been entrusted to him and to lead it like a father.
The Area Dean for Samara Olga Temirbulatova read the congratulations written by the Archbishop of the ELCR, Dietrich Brauer, and added on her own that she has been acquainted with Pastor Schock for a long time, and knows that he is very capable of building on past developments and has the gift of consolidation and reconciliation. She sees him as a person “with a big heart,” and sees it as a blessing that he is serving in this new capacity.

From Siberia to Friesland and Back

Verden / Leer, Germany
  Way back in 2005 the first group from the Omsk congregation visited Kirchentag (German Church Day) in Hannover. It was at that time that they idea came up to make contacts between the youth groups in Siberia and Lower Saxony. In 2006 Deacon Michael Fogt visited Omsk with the goal of establishing fellowship between the teens and youth of the Emden-Leer area of Lower Saxony and the Omsk congregation. At a meeting of the church council the decisions was made to support this project and to work for its development. The leader on the Omsk side of the project was Pastor Evgeny Filippov. This year the partnership is celebrating its 10th year anniversary.
  In that time a group of teens and youth from the Emden-Leer area visited Omsk – their first trip to Siberia. For them Siberia and Omsk became not just some far off place on the map, but a real city with an active youth group in the Lutheran congregation where they were given a hospitable welcome. 
  Siberian youth, too, visited Germany multiple times in order to get acquainted with the youth of that country and in particular in the Emden-Leer area in order to learn something new for themselves and bring it back to their congregation.
  The latest visit of the youth of the Omsk congregation to Germany happened this year from May 30 to June 13. The Siberian youth took an active part in the summer camp of the Evangelical Church of Hannover in the city of Werdene that took place at this time.
  Young people from Omsk together with their leaders Dean Vladimir Vinogradov and Pastor Evgeny Filippov took part in the entire event, from putting up the tents to the closing session of the camp. Together they endured the heat as they learned to use their knowledge of German and English to communicate with more than 2000 youth from Germany and other countries. It was a wonderful time together – of new impressions, new ideas and new perspectives on a type of ministry that already seemed to be quite familiar. 
  When the camp ended the Omsk youth spent another week in the city of Leer, where they met the city mayor, learned about its history, and took part in a special tea ceremony that is the pride of Eastern Friesland. At the end of their second week in Germany they took part in the Kirchentag (church day) of the Eastern Friesland region; all the congregations of the area presented their ministry there. 
  The organizers of the project hope that God will continue to bless this work and that the international youth project will have the opportunity to celebrate many more anniversaries to come.
Evgeny Filippov

Council of Bishops of Union of Evangelical Lutheran Churches

Astana, Kazakhstan
  On April 21-23 in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, bishops from the former Soviet Union together with church administrator Marina Khudenko and EKD representative Michael Hubner met to discuss common issues and to sign a new version of their agreement on mutual cooperation. In addition the participants signed an agreement related to the spiritual care of congregations in Crimea. From now on three church bodies will have the right to work there – the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. Congregations can now legally register in the Russian Federation and will be full members of the ELCER; they will also have the right to attend the meetings of the GELCU as guests with a voice, though without a vote. A third important decision was that all of the churches of the Union are given the right to independently join such international organizations as the LWF and the Conference of European Churches. It was also agreed upon that the question of the Union's membership in the World Council of Churches needs to be studied. Finally, the participants of the Union elected Yuri Novgorodov from Kazakhstan as the President of their council for the next two years.
  In addition to meetings the bishops took part in ecumenical meetings with representatives of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches and found time to talk and pray together about their brothers who were unable to attend – Otto Schaude and Corney Vibe.