The Presbyterian Church
(USA) has worked in Russia since shortly after the fall of the Soviet
Union; their unique role throughout the years has been to cooperate
with the ministry of the country's historic Christian denominations
(which, speaking generally, does not include Presbyterians, but does
include Orthodox, Baptists and Lutherans). Their efforts to show
support across denominational lines has been an impressive witness of
commitment to true Christian unity.
While
PCUSA has been engaged mostly with Baptist and Orthodox churches, but
they've supported the Lutheran church in significant ways, too. In
particular, for many years they supported the teaching ministry of
Dr. Joseph Kang at the Theological Seminary in Novosaratovka, and
through their area representative, Ellen Smith, they've also
occasionally worked out partner congregations between the U.S. and
Russia.
It
was with working toward this goal that Ellen Smith joined fellow
American, Pastor Bradn Buerkle (who leads the off-site, “Equipping
for Service” educational program for our church), on a trip to the
Northern Caucasus deanery near the end of March. Area Dean Sergey
Maramzin received the guests, whom he invited to visit congregations
in the region and to take part in a deanery seminar about the
anniversary of the Reformation. Pastor Buerkle prepared lesssons,
while Dean Maramzin prepared the place; he has been working very hard
to construct (much with his own hands) a small retreat center that
could be used for deanery-wide events or simply for individuals
looking for a place of spiritual restoration.
The
building was filled with capacity, then, when twelve people from four
different locations came for the day-long seminar; there they got a
short refresher course in the basics of Lutheranism, met Ellen and
heard about her church, and also checked out the new retreat center.
A good impression was formed on all sides – clearly the retreat
center is useful and comfortable, the lessons were helpful review and
also provided new perspectives on a few questions, while the hope of
developing a relationship between the region and a U.S. congregation
seems realistic. After a long period of stagnation, it is clear that
the Lord's Spirit is moving among the believers in the Northern
Caucasus, and God has blessed the region with a commitment by the
church to support its further development.
Ellen continued to contribute to our church life later in the month by helping to arrange a seminar in Moscow for those engage in diaconal ministry. Artis Petersons made the arrangments on the ELCER side, and the “Equipping for Service” program covered expenses.
Two teachers from PCUSA - women engaged in diaconal ministry in very different ways (one
through the organization of lay ministers groups, the other as a
sociologist) – shared their knowledge with the ecumenical,
international, and intergenerational group that gathered for 3 full
days of classes.
Both
the teachers and the participants of the course came away feeling
enriched, and in this way the seminar reflects all the ways we have
interacted with PCUSA throughout the years.
