General Synod - Day 2

September 12, 2012.

Bishop Otto Schaude set a very positive tone for working together at the General Synod through his sermon at opening worship. At the center of his message was the message of 1 Peter 4.10:  "Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received." (NRSV). Reminding delegates of the great gift they had received and the responsibility to use it well, Bishop Schaude helped us to put aside any secondary concerns and to focus on the needs of the church in Russia at this moment in time. 

Consistory President Rev. Vladimir Provorov
leading the proceedings of the first day.

After worship and a lunch provided (as usual, with significant skill) by the seminary staff, we moved on to introductions and other formalities that usually occupy the first hours of all official proceedings here. There were greetings given from partners in attendance, including Rev. Arden Haug, the ELCA Global Mission representative in Europe, Dr. Eva-Sibylle Vogel-Mfato, the Lutheran World Federation representative responsible for the region, and Oberkirchenrat Michael Huebner from the Evangelical Church in Germany. Others could not attend but sent letters of greeting. There were two people whose absence were felt even as their letters were read - Bishop Arri Kugappi., from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia (ELCI); the last General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church seemed to point toward greater cooperation between Lutherans in Russia, but there are some (including myself) who are rather disappointed at the progress made in that direction. Even more difficult for those at the GS was the absence of ELC Archbishop August Kruze. His call in this ministry was very difficult ever since his election in 2008. At the time he was Bishop of ELCUSFE, though he fulfilled his duties not from the church's center, but with the help of a very good administrator in Omsk, from his home congregation in the Urals. The election process during the last General Synod was an indication of future developments; there was not good order then, nor did Archbishop Kruze have an orderly time in his position. A number of factors contributed to this, but in the end the very frustrating situation he found himself in led him to refuse to fulfill his functions as the Archbishop for most of the last year of his service. Rev. Kruze wrote a lengthy and difficult letter to the synod; it was read and the reaction of the delegates (this one, at least) was sympathy and sadness. At the same time, we all felt a degree of relief that there was official resignation after an extended period of time when there was no clarity.

The day's business went by rather quickly, but that just meant that we were able to move on of the difficult item on the agenda - education - up one day. The topic was difficult because of the challenges facing our Theological Seminary. We heard the report of Seminary President Dr. Anton Tikhomirov, during which he explained the decision he made to suspended the program of full-time education at the seminary for this academic year. Dr. Tikhomirov pointed to two major factors - a lack of students available for full-time studies and the expenses related to running a seminar in the traditional way. He presented a plan for re-focusing educational ministries in our church; Bishop Schaude and I added on our own suggestions. With that, the day's business was over, giving us the opportunity to return to more concrete decisions about education the next day.