Familiar / Unfamiliar

  After a ridiculously long break, today I'm finally renewing work on my blog. Many of those who will read this have already read my newsletter, though, in which I described various events of the past spring and summer. That means that I'll limit myself here to my reflections upon events of the past month, when I've been blessed once again to have the opportunity to travel through Russia to teach through the "Equipping for Service" program.

  In one sense these travels were nothing new. I've been to the Northern Caucuses many times (in fact, the capital of the region, Krasnodar, was my home as a student and then English teacher in 1997 and 1998), so its farm land, hills, mountains and sea are quite familiar... The relative warmth of the region was also quite welcome at a time when St. Petersburg had already seen its first snowfall. On the other hand every visit to the region through the church brings me something unfamiliar. Unfortunately I didn't even know about the existence of a Lutheran church in the region back in the 1990s; today I've been to the congregation's building, met it's church council chair and had many good discussions with the region's new area dean and my former student at the Novosaratovka Seminary, Sergey Maramzin. He has invited me to take part in the regions twice-yearly seminars, organized by the former area

Dean from Germany, Oswald Wutzke (with whom I, regrettably, don't share a common language...otherwise he is clearly a person with whom it would be interesting to speak and learn from his experience both as a politically active pastor in Germany and as a person who for many years has visited the congregations in the Northern Caucuses, including organizing aid for victims of flooding in Krymsk (2012) or for victims of the Beslan tragedy.) Being involved in the seminars is a great way to get acquainted with congregational leaders in this region, which in the past has suffered from a lack of pastoral attention. I saw the familiar situation of ethnic German clubs being the basis upon which congregations originally gather, but rather unfamiliar was the very fact that ethnic Germans remain in the Caucuses. In discussions with participants I also ran into some things that point to a somewhat unfamiliar mindset - on the one hand there is a respect for their Muslim neighbors that I don't see as much elsewhere, while at the same time I ran into more openly patriotic (bordering on nationalistic?) feelings than I usually see in St. Petersburg. Thankfully that generally anti-Western feeling was coupled with a generally positive relationship to me as a western there, so I didn't feel (too?) uncomfortable...(which rather well reflects my general state at the moment...) I hope that I was able to present participants of the seminars there (in the spring - "Images of Jesus," and in the fall "The Apostle Paul") with something unfamiliar enough that they felt like they were learning, but familiar enough that it was all comprehensible.

   My next stop - Khakasia in south-central Siberia. As I've mentioned before, I feel at home there because Khakasia is a Russian version of "Big Sky Country" - rolling hills and mountains, fields and forests, small towns, really good people (even if they are outnumbered by livestock).... Before serving in Siberia, I would have never guessed that such a place was hiding in Russia. I use the word "hiding" not by accident - when I tell people in St. Petersburg that I'm going to Khakasia, they rarely have an idea where that is; it's their own country, but it's unfamiliar....just like almost an Montanan will tell you about conversations he or she's had about our state while visiting big cities in the U.S.
  The theme of the seminar was quite familiar insofar as "conflict" tends to be the most popular topic I teach...on the other hand, congregational leaders in the region wanted me to address humility as well. The challenge was to find a proper understanding of the latter that would help participants see conflicts not only as destructive, but potentially as agents of positive change.

  Later, in Moscow, I ran into familiar people (former students at the Theological Seminary, current students at the seminars that I organize for distance education students) in a familiar place (the dining room behind the altar at St. Paul's Lutheran) while teaching a familiar topic (History of Israel). What was unfamiliar was the first in what it is hoped will be a series of seminars that will lead directly to commissioning of lay leaders for the Central Deanery of the ELCER. There are high expectations for this program, so a particular challenge will be to fit the necessary material into a limited amount of time, but in general this is the kind of unfamiliar that brings me particular joy - signs of development in the church that will be important for its long-term health.

  The tension between familiar and unfamiliar is in its own way productive. After all, if nothing is familiar, then I fee like nothing more than a tourist. If everything is familiar, then I feel like nothing more than a local. If can't help but feeling both at the same time, then I feel like nothing more than a missionary.

Risk

There are times here in my ministry that I feel like I'm one of the armies in a game of Risk, being

shifted from "Russia" to "Urals" to "Siberia" to "Irkutsk" and back. (I'm still waiting for the opportunity to be shifted to the real Yakutsk or Kamchatka...too bad we don't have any congregations there!) Last week I had the rather odd series of experiences: transversing the continental divide between Europe and Asia 4 times in two days, visiting one of Russia's most vibrant provincial cities (Ekaterinburg) and one of its rather depressed (but in its own way beautiful) industrial neighbors (Nizhny Tagil), of spending time with a congregation that has been without a pastor for almost two years and in the congregations in the "capitals" of Russian Lutheranism, Omsk and Moscow.

The topics of two of the short seminars that I led fit well with the image of "Risk" - Conflict and Introduction to Christian Ethics. I led the latter in geographically-European ELCUSFE congregation in Polevskoe. I've know the congregation's pastor, Denis, for quite a long time, both as a student at the Theological Seminary in Novosaratovka and as a colleague. Since he and his wife live in nearby Ekaterinburg (officially in Asia) our hour-long bus rides took us to a new continent. Denis is quite open-minded, and it seems to me that a small city like Polevskoe particularly needs people like him; there our congregation can be a place both for those with German-Russian roots and for "lost souls" seeking a community.

After two days there I went to visit a fellow missionary living and working two hours north of Ekaterinburg. Mattias and his wife Lena have committed themselves to the "long haul" in circumstances that are far from easy. It was wonderful to share with them a moment of joy along the way; after a few years of meeting in an apartment, the congregation has been given the opportunity to use a former store as their center. They've done renovations there that make it very comfortable, even if the surroundings outside of the walls are not. I will hope and pray that this opportunity for their congregation will open up new doors form them in ministry.

South and east (already outside of "Urals" and in to "Siberia"), Tjumen is a quickly developing city thanks to income from gas and oil in the north part of the state ("oblast") of which it is a capital. The congregation there, too, is a mix of elderly Russian Germans and younger folks who felt attracted by our congregation for one reason or another. People from both of these groups were engaged participants in short lessons that I led about images of Christ and about conflicts.

Fun facts about Tjumen: 1. During WWII Lenin's body was evacuated from the mausoleum on Red Square and brought secretly held in a building of the regional Institute of Agriculture. 2. Rasputin's hometown is not far from Tjumen. Although I didn't make it there this time, I've heard that it is run by a man whom claims to be the grandson of that wild-man monk. 3. Apparently the abundance of newly planted pine trees in the city is a result of influence of a local bureaucrat whose family name ("Yelkin") shares a root (pun intended) with the Russian word for the tree ("Yelki").

And overnight's trip further east still (but still part of western Siberia, 3 hours ahead of Moscow

time), Omsk is a familiar and friendly place (OK, at least the congregation there is. Not everyone gets that excited about the city itself), and I was happy when the newly-appointed Dean of the region, Vladimir Vinogradov, talked with me about the possibility of running a number of seminars there. My experience, though positive overall, convinced once again that it is difficult to give even a short introduction to Christian Ethics in one, 5-hour day.

Catching the plane back west early the next morning, I arrived in Moscow to see that Spring had sprung while I had been away. That said, despite the green grass appearing everywhere, the day was scattered with snow storms. At worship I was privileged to witness a joint service of the "local" congregation and the francophone Protestant congregation that has been celebrating its 15th anniversary.

The theme for the discussion planned with extension education students in Moscow - “Jews and Christians – Paschal Reflections” came about as a result of my experience with inter-religious dialog in Tomsk. There a representative from the local Jewish congregation mentioned that from his point of view, there was no need for the Incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ. While on the one hand this was obvious, I decided that it would be worthwhile to explore the question of what believing Jews of the 1st century might have said about this, especially regarding the sacrificial aspect of Jesus' death and the way various movements did or did not expect bodily resurrection and why. However, we had to keep my program short because of an extra-long worship and because the opportunity arose to make a group excursion together with the congregation's confirmands to Moscow's main synagogue. (Perhaps more about that later). It seemed to me that it would be better to use this opportunity to meet representatives of the Jewish community instead of just hearing me talk about Judaism, and I don't regret that decision. The topic still interests me, though, and I hope that I'll have the opportunity to further develop the material and use it one day.

Now I'm firmly back near the border with "Scandinavia," and have a couple of weeks to recoup before my next turn - headed south for my first visit to the deanery of the North Caucuses. More about that in May.

Lutherans and the World's Largest Lake

One of the natural wonders I have had the privilege to visit here is Lake Baikal in southeast Siberia. The deepest and perhaps the most ancient large lake in the world, it contains approximately 20% of the planet's unfrozen fresh water. When we recently planned a retreat of our church's Central and Eastern Siberia region to be hosted by the nearby congregations in Irkutsk and Shelekhov, we thought that we should start by taking out-of-town guests (many of whom had never been to Baikal before) for a visit.

  It was my 3rd trip to the great lake, and I was struck again by how at the most accessible location (the source of the Angara River near Listvyanka) you don't really realize how unique the lake is. A stop at the natural history museum changed that impression, thanks especially to a great tour guide – a researcher in the area of climate change. I was most struck by what he had to say about the lake's 1000+ endemic species, i.e. those organisms that live in Baikal and nowhere else on the planet. They all have adapted to their environment so well that they are unable to survive elsewhere. When I heard about the fat and lovable Baikal seals,

the golomyanka fish (mostly transparent, gives birth to live young, able to survive at most any depth), and the supreme-water-cleaning crustaceans , all of which have no home other than Baikal, I felt overcome with sadness. It was a completely illogical reaction to scientific fact, I know. Maybe it has something to do with the volatile emotional environment of life in Russia at the moment. Or maybe it is because I couldn't help but comparing endemic organisms to our Lutheran church in Russia. Our approach to Christian faith originated in Europe and has adapted very well to north European and North American environments... it seems to be on the way to adapting to the warmer waters of Africa...but what about here, in the world's largest “lake,” Russia? Can it survive here?

I didn't have much time to contemplate that question, however, because we soon had to leave Baikal in order to make it on time to the “Blue Spruce” center, where we would meet for our retreat.

My time with congregational members did much to disperse my doubt regarding the viability of our church here. There I saw people (almost 40 of them!) who strove to grow and develop, to apply their faith to everyday life, even if the environment is not particularly welcoming. The theme that our staff in Omsk, Natasya Razinkova and Natalia Sivko, chose for the seminar - “Ironman” - fit very well for this group. Participants were also well supported (both in logistical and in spiritual questions) by Pastor Thomas Graf Grote and by me as the person responsible for the “Equipping for Service” project. Even if we had a limited amount of time together, we were able to hear something new, to reinforce some of what we already knew, to share with one another, pray with one another, and to sing together... Actually, regarding music, I must say that there wasn't too much “together”-ness. It turns out that the development of various singing styles is part of the local adaption that takes place in each of our congregations in its own way.

After the seminar was over, I would have been happy to visit Baikal again. Next time, you see, I'm sure that I won't feel sad. Instead I know understand that God created nature (and us together with it) with the capacity to find new paths to abundant life, wherever we may be. Maybe our church is just one tiny “microorganism” in this enormous country, but it also has an important place here. Without it, the environment would be poorer and would suffer. I think we can embrace this identity and go forward in the confidence of the Spirit's accompaniment of us along the way.

Tomsk in Winter

   Earlier this month my call to as the organizer of the "Equipping for Service" program took me to one of my favorite Russian cities, Tomsk. (It's a very photogenic city, so I'm going to scatter pictures around this post randomly. There the weather (freezing, windy, sunny) and food (meat-based everything) remind me of Montana. It made me miss home a bit...and I tried to cope with that by buying some ice cream Baskin Robbins for the first time in many years. I treated Lilia, the elderly women I was staying with, to some Old Fashion Butter Pecan. Although deep in my heart I would have preferred at that moment to be sharing ice cream with one of my one grandmothers, Lilia did as well as she could to make me feel home throughout the week.

St. Mary's Lutheran Church

In Tomsk there is the constant contrast of old and new

Yes, that is a wooden shovel he is using to clean off the roof in order that everyone can see the Apple ad.

   But the reason I'm writing this blog entry is not only to share my mood, but at least a little about the work I was doing there. My hope was to spend the week in Tomsk both with the congregation and with the wider community. One of the ways I hoped to do this was by offering a seminar - “Conflict: One Christian's View.”  The topic is one that is on the minds of many these days - why does conflict occur (on all levels, from personal to political) and what can people of faith do about it? I obviously wasn't going to solve the world's problems, but the hope was that it might be possible to have fruitful conversation and think of some initial steps that might be taken.

  This idea was very well received at a meeting that I thought would likely be peripheral in my time in Tomsk – a meeting of the Inter-religious Dialog group that meets at Tomsk State University. The group was kind enough to change their typical format a bit in order to accompany my visit, and the group's leader in particular asked for more contact with our church in the future.

Inter-religious dialog. Former church council President Ludmilla.  

  Unfortunately an attempt to cover similar themes with the wider community and with the congregation did not attract a significant number of participants. There might be various reasons for this, but I'm pretty certain that the topic itself is interesting for people here, and I'll be making more attempts in the year ahead to look at this theme (including a seminar in Novosaratovka in March, where I'll be teaching for a few hours together with the main teachers from Germany and Russia..more on that later.)

The Russian-German Cultural Center in Tomsk at night.

So while the seminar itself did not have the impact that I had hoped, there was a good turnout for morning Bible studies on Philippians, and there was a good crowd for Sunday worship.

...Or Saturday worship, as is the case when I visit the village of Kozhevnikovo, two hours away. In the early 1990s this town had a flourishing congregation, but now there are just a few elderly women left. They are few, but very faithful; they meet regularly for prayer and hymns, with or without a pastor. They try to pass on their faith to their children and grandchildren, so this year, like last, I was asked to baptize a young child. I hope that Tomsk's next pastor has the opportunity to work more with the children of the village; perhaps God will work a miracle there and bring alive the dormant faith of younger generations.

Rusalina, baptized 2/14/2015 in Kozhevnikovo

The pillars of the village congregation.

  The Tomsk congregation, too, had been waiting for Holy Communion since October, when my colleague Chris Repp visited the congregation. There we had another baptism, and both the newborn's family and the congregation came out in full force. It was a good sign of hope that the congregation has stayed together as they patiently awaited the arrival of their new pastor, an ELM-educated Russian-German, who should arrive in Siberia shortly. 

Polina, baptized 2/15/2015

Installation of Dietrich Brauer as Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia (ELCR)

Just over a week ago, I had the privilege of being present at the installation of Dietrich Brauer as Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. There was a really impressive number of guests - so many, that if I began to list them here, it would probably mean that you'd stop reading this post! I believe that such a show of support is a result both of the fellowship other churches in Europe feel with the Lutheran church in Russia and the good work that Bishop Brauer and his staff have been doing over the past years (when he was holding the job as “acting Archbishop.”) In his sermon for the installation, he showed the critical (and self-critical) spirit that is in such short supply in church life here. At the same time, he underlined the power of the Good News to change the lives of individuals and wider society.

St.Peter and Paul Lutheran in Moscow.

Participants in the installation receive instructions before the service.

Dean Elena Bondarenko (former staff at the Theological Seminary) and Viktor Weber (2010 seminary graduate, currently pastor in Moscow and head administrator of the office of the church in European Russia) led the liturgy.

I was asked by my boss, Asia Secretary for Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (the Hermannsburg Mission) to represent ELM at the installation. As a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I also was in some way representing American partners as well. It was a priviledge and a joy to see the continued growth of one my former students at the Theological Seminary in Novosaratovka, and my thanks goes out to all of you who have contributed to this important development in church life.  

Fall Seminars

  The past months have been filled with new opportunities for the “Equipping for Service” educational program for which I am responsible. The core idea of the “Equipping...” project remains the same – “to maximize accessibility to quality educational opportunities in the Evangelical Lutheran Church through a program that is collaboratively planned, flexible, and decentralized,” but in marked contrast to the events of the first part of the year, recently I've been engaged not only in teaching, but also in organizing events.

  The first of these came together at the last minute – “Two Issues in Christian Ethics,” held

in the congregation in Krasnoyarsk. This is an active congregation that values educational opportunities, so I knew that it was possible to try an experiment there - we would talk about 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 Donbas that have come even to Siberia, it seemed important to me to help our congregational members use their faith to engage these questions. While I hoped to look at the question of "Peace and War," in our two evenings together we only had time to look at the more general question of whom we help and why, which lead us in to the underlying question of how we go about moral decision making in as Christians. The two evenings brought together a total of 24 participants, which I consider to be quite successful given that people needed to take public transport to the church after work in order to attend. I was also very pleased to see congregational members interested in applying their faith to concrete ethical and social questions that surround them. I plan on doing more work in this sphere.

  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, which we called "I am a Servant." The

main idea was to support the team of people leading congregations on a week to week basis. We hoped 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 we talked about 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 our 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.  

  And this last month I was very pleased to welcome Pastor Chris Repp back to Russia.Chris had been my mentor when I came to Russia at as a seminary intern in 2001. About 2 years later, he passed on to me the position of teacher of Church History, Systematics and Ethics at the Novosaratovka Theological Seminary. When the opportunity arose to invite him for participation in an academic conference co-organized by the church, we decided that it would be great if he could also have contact with others through the “Equipping...” program. Chris and I chose to lead two 3-day seminars, one in Omsk (Siberia) and one in Ulyanovsk (in European Russia on the Volga). We thought that the title, “Law, Gospel and the Lutheran Confessions Today,” would attract mostly pastors and students. We did have participants from these groups, but it turns out that the topic had wider appeal than we might have 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, Chris and I had to seriously adapt our material to the different audiences we saw, but in both cases I believe that the time we spent together was meaningful. 

  In Omsk the main thrust of my 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 Repp 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 with us 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 we kept things simpler, giving the most attention to the uses of the law and 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.

Seminary participants in Omsk. Seminary President Anton Tikhomirov is 2nd from left; Chris Repp far right.

Seminary participants in Ulyanovsk. Pastor Vladimir Provorov (red, center) was our host. 

  Many thanks to you for your prayers and support (through the Hermannsburg Mission and the ELCA.) If any of you or your congregations are interested in making a special gift to help cover the expenses related to the “Equipping...” project, you can learn more about that through the ELCA's “Always Being Made New” initiative.