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

St. Nikolai Lutheran Celebrates 195 Years

Veliky Novgorod
  On May 8 in St. Nikolai Lutheran there was a celebratory worship service to mark the 195th anniversary of the founding of the congregation in Novgorod and the 20 year anniversary of its re-establishment. The main guest of the day was the Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia, Dietrich Brauer, together with his wife Tatyana.
 A whole bus full of brothers and sisters from Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg came as well, and they brought with them the brass choir of the congregation, which was a wonderful addition to the celebrations. 

  After worship Archbishop Brauer spoke about the state of our church and about plans for the near future. Then everyone had a chance to watch a movie dedicated to the anniversary of the congregation, followed by a small concert put on by the congregation's choir and youth group. 
  Then it was time for fellowship in the church courtyard. We had wonderful sunny and warm weather and that, together with the music from the brass choir, created a good mood an unforgettable atmosphere. 

   St. Nikola in Novgorod was established in Novgorod in 1821. More than 20 churches and prayer houses throughout the Novgorod region were part of the parish, and they had German, Estonian and Latvian roots. Many of the congregations were mixed; for example, in the city of Novgorod itself the congregation was made up of Germans, Estonians and Latvians had had more than 2000 members. 
   For more than a century Lutherans thrived in the Novgorod territory. The central congregation had a library that in 1913 had 2500 volumes. During the governorship of the ethnic German Lutheran E.V. Lerche (1864-1882), the congregation established a school for “building up the religious-moral level of Lutherans.”
  At the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s the Soviet state began a campaign to close Lutheran churches, and on February 6, 1930 the St. Nikolai Lutheran was closed; within the next two to three years the rest of the congregations in the region were closed as well.
  New life came to St. Nikolai Lutheran in May 1996 when the re-established congregation was registered with the state. At present this small, friendly congregation (as well as their even smaller daughter congregation in the village of Kresttsy in the Novgorod region) continue to preach God's word and pray for God's continued blessings. 
Pastor Igor Zhuravlev