Night of Museums in the German Style

Kostroma, Russia
  On May 21st for the first time the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kostroma together with the German Cultural Center of the city took part in the International “Night of Museums.” Dean Elena Bondarenko, Lay Minister Artis Petersons and the leader of the Kostroma German Cultural Center Ludmilla Vershinina were the  organizers of the exhibition dedicated to the daily life of German Russians and to their spiritual life. Included in the exhibit were items used in the liturgy, old Germany books, household decorations with “words of wisdom” printed on them, traditional Saxon figurines and crafts made by current congregation members. The exhibition was housed in an old building on the Volga, the mansion of the owner of soap factories Tsarevsky. Until recently the congregation and the cultural center shared that space.

  Despite the fact that the space was not conveniently located and that there was a large variety of options to visit museums that night, the German Russian visit was quite popular. Many families with children from Kostroma visited, as did university students and representatives of the Kostroma Orthodox Seminary. 
  Visitors could ask questions about the culture and faith of Russian Lutherans, take pictures dressed up in the cloths of the first German settlers in Russia, drink tea and eat snacks, as well as win souvenirs (postcards, magnets, marzipan) as part of a fun contest on German language knowledge. All visitors received a historical journal on Kostroma published by the German cultural center as well as a booklet about the Evangelical Lutheran Church and a Bible in Russian. 

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