ELCA Partner Visits

2017 showed that the ELCA continues to remain engaged in partnership with the church in Russia. In February regional representative Arden Haug made a trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow together with Bishop Cindy Halmarson, Global Mission Director for Europe, Middle East and North Africa. As usual they visited the central church administration, Bishop Kugappe of the Ingrian Church, and ELCA Pastor Bradn Buerkle in St. Petersburg, and then in Moscow visited Archbishop Brauer and his staff, the French-speaking congregation, and the Moscow Protestant chaplaincy.This trip came at the conclusion of Arden's many years of faithful service in accompanying the Russian church on the behalf of the ELCA; his knowledge of the situation and his efforts on behalf of our church throughout the years have been very much appreciated.

Northwest Washington delegation with Bishop Brauer

In March a group of 5 people from the Northwest Washington Synod, including Bishop Unti, came to Russa to visit the two capitals and their partner synod (ELCER) and congregations in Yaroslavl and Tolyatti. They were very impressed by what they saw, and they are filled with a desire to strengthen ties further. Eva Mader, who was not able to join the delegation that came in March as she had originally planned, did make a short trip to St. Petersburg in September to attend the service of dedication for the new organ in Petrikirche, the partner congregation of her home Grace Lutheran in Bellevue.

Pastor Gary Teske, Pastor Gleb Pivovarov, and Olga Vinogradova

In September and October, a delegation from the Central States Synod made their first trip to Russia in 5 years; while they might not be frequent, they do cover a lot of ground! They began in St. Petersburg and made stops in Moscow, Omsk, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk before reaching the congregations to which they have been historically tied in the Far East. Their meetings with church leaders along the way helped the delegation get a sense of the challenges the church faces and some of the hope-filled new aspects of church life in ELCUSFE, including the leadership of a new bishop, Alexander Scheiermann, with whom the delegation's leader, Gary Teske, had already become acquainted in Omsk at the bishop's installation in April.

Bishop Halmarson and other church leaders at the Reformation Anniversary

Viking Dietrich, the new ELCA area representative, joined the group in Vladivostok, where they all celebrated together with Dean Manfred Brockmann his 80 birthday and the celebration of 25 years since the congregation has been reborn.
Finally, our church was honored to have Bishop Halmarson with us again for the Reformation anniversary celebrations in Moscow over the last days of October through the beginning of November. Her presence was more than just a reminder that this event is being celebrated world-wide, it was also a chance to gain a deeper understanding of one another and one another's church life.

Meeting of Staff in Eastern Siberia

Krasnoyarsk

 Near the end of October the prayer house of the congregation in Krasnoyarsk hosted a meeting of staff from the Eastern Siberia Deanery of ELCUSFE.

Vitaly Moor from Tomsk, Thomas Graf Grote from Shelekhov (Irkutsk), and Pastor Dmitry Schweitz from Abakan came at the invitation of the Dean, Pastor Vladimir Vinogradov from Omsk. Anastasia Razinkova (responsible for children and youth ministry in the region) and Viktor Zubkov from the Bishop's office also arrived from Omsk, while Andrey Masiorev, having blessed a week earlier as a preacher for the Abakan congregation, also was in attendance. From the Krasnoyarsk congregation, in addition to Pastor Gleb Pivovarov, there was Tatyana Serebrova, who is responsible for women's ministry in ELCUSFE, and Olga Wagner, church council president.

The reason to get together was to meet as a group with two guests from the Hermannsburg Mission, Helmut Grimmsmann (Asia Secretary) and Director Michael Thiel. They spoke about developments in the Mission over the past few years and also spoke about their plans for continuing cooperation. Director Thiel, who was in Russia for the first time, shared his impressions of the life of our church and expressed his thankfulness to those who serve in it. The rest of the time was spent hearing reports from the regions, sharing news and discussing current issues. It was agreed upon that such meeting increase the effectiveness of our congregations' ministries. 

The meeting took place on a Sunday and that allowed guests to take part in worship and in fellowship with the congregation; that allowed everyone to get better acquainted with the life of the Krasnoyarsk congregation.

On that evening everyone returned to their places of service; we hope that such fruitful meetings will serve the further development of the congregations of our deanery. May the Lord bless our congregations and all its ministers!

Dmitry Schweitz, Abakan

Fall 2014 Seminars through a New Educational Initiative

  2014 was filled with opportunities for the development of the new educational program of the ELCR (supported by the ELCA and the Hermannsburg Mission) - “Equipping for Service.”  The core idea of the “Equipping...” project is “to maximize accessibility to quality educational opportunities in the Evangelical Lutheran Church through a program that is collaboratively planned, flexible, and decentralized.” While in the first part of the year this mostly involved Bradn Buerkle (responsible for the program) teaching at various seminars, in the second part of the year the program was also responsible for organizing independent events.

   The first of these came together in a place very familiar to Pastor Buerkle - in Krasnoyarsk, a congregation where Bradn formerly served as Acting Dean – the theme was “Two Issues in Christian Ethics.” This active congregation values educational opportunities, and  it was possible to try an experiment there by talking about concrete (and sometimes sensitive) issues in Christian ethics. In a society that leans towards either a legalistic or a nihilistic approach to ethical questions, Lutherans sometimes would prefer to avoid the question altogether. But given the conflict between Russia and its neighbors and the influx of refugees from easter Ukraine that have come even to Siberia, it is important to help congregational members apply their faith to engage these questions. The two evenings brought together a total of 24 participants, which is pretty successful for weeknight seminars in a context where people are dependent on public transport.

   The second event was south of Krasnoyarsk in the region of Khakasia. The region has 10 congregations spread over a 150 mile radius; most of them get only monthly visits from their pastor, Dmitry Schweitz, who was instrumental in helping organize this retreat, called "I am a Servant." The main idea of this seminar was to support the team of people leading congregations on a week to week basis. The idea was to reach this goal both through fellowship and through thinking about the following questions together - “What does it mean  to serve? When do I feel like a  servant? How can one serve effectively?” In the process related questions also arose - the way service is understood in society and in the Bible, Jesus as a model of  service, love at the center of Christian service, the Lutheran understanding of internal and external call, and the communal call as the church in this place. A number of concrete ideas were raised that the leaders intend to bring to  realization – e.g., fund-raisers to help those in acute need, printing fliers about Lutheranism for distribution, and a cooperative attempt to form a new youth group in one of the congregations.  

  In October the church was  pleased to welcome Pastor Chris Repp back to  Russia. Pastor Repp taught Church History, Systematics and Ethics at the Novosaratovka Theological Seminary for four years, though for most a decade now he has been serving congregations in the United States. Chris was invited to participate in an academic conference co-organized by ELCUSFE, and in addition to being there, he also helped Bradn lead two 3-day seminars, one in Omsk  (Siberia) and one in Ulyanovsk (in European Russia on the Volga). The title, “Law, Gospel and the Lutheran Confessions Today,” was aimed mostly at pastors and students, but while there were participants from these groups, it turns out that the topic had wider appeal than was originally expected. In Omsk there were 9 full participants (along with 7 others who were in and out) and in Ulyanovsk a week later we had a very large number – always more than 20, and most of the time around 30. Although the theme of the seminar was the same, in each case the material was adapted to the different audiences.  In Omsk the main thrust of Bradn's teaching was to help participants see that we do have official confessional documents, though we are far from familiar with their contents and that we need to familiarize ourselves with them in order to decide for ourselves what role(s) they are to play in the life of our church. Chris focused on the issue of Law and Gospel as address in the Augsburg Confession and the Apology, demonstrating why this was important and how it applies to the interpretation of Biblical texts. (In this he has been influenced by the theological approach of the  Crossings Community). In Omsk Seminary President Anton Tikhomirov was also available to teach and he first spoke about the confessions as a textual expression of Luther's Reformation break-through and then traced the development of Western (especially Protestant) theology from that time forward.  In Ulyanovsk the approach was kept simpler, giving the most attention to the uses of the law and to Biblical interpretation. In both places local leaders (a special thanks to Tatyana Muramtseva in Omsk and Vladimir Provorov in Ulyanovsk) did an excellent job of solving logistical issues.

Omsk

Ulyanovsk