20 Years of Religious Freedom

The Cathedral of the Transfiguration Diocese
in Novosibirsk. Spring 2011.

 On the evening of the December 16^th, the Roman Catholic Church sponsored a roundtable discussion - “20 Years of Religious Freedom in Russia.” At the Mass held in the Cathedral before the meeting and at the roundtable itself, Bishop Joseph Wert spoke of his own experience as an underground Jesuit and priest in Central Asia and Siberia. He spoke of the sacrifice that were necessary in order to be involved in the church and of the way Catholics at that time experienced great longing to be fed spiritually. Believers scattered throughout villages on the steppe would dream, he said, that somehow a priest might lose his way and happen upon them. Then, after years or even decades of waiting, they might be able to receive the Sacrament. Every opportunity to gather together and to hear the Word and to celebrate Eucharist was considered an amazing gift of grace.

The diocesan center is in the foreground
 

In the past two decades the situation has changed radically. The Catholic church went from having 3 priests in all of the Asiatic part of the former USSR to having more than 100 in Siberia today; Mass is celebrated at numerous Catholic congregations around Novosibirsk, including in the impressive Cathedral; the roundtable was held in a brand new diocesan center, and this building will be the home for many other public and outreach events in the future. For the Catholic Church, even more significantly for the Orthodox Church, and also (even if in a more limited way) for the other denominations represented at that meeting, the conditions of church life have improved tremendously. Even our small Lutheran congregation, despite its radically reduced numbers, is in many ways better off than it was before the 1990s.

Yet, as the Bishop pointed out and as stories from my congregation's members have confirmed, external repression did not always results in a loss of inner freedom. Bishop Wert knew why he was running through the forest to escape detection – it was to serve those who were waiting for them. The parents and grandparents of my congregation's members knew the value of the Bible and their spiritual traditions when they had to hide the Scriptures under floorboards and could sign hymns only by candlelight in isolated basements.

Church life today, in contrast, shows that external freedom does not always lead to a full flowering of the spiritual life. Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the conditions have now been met so that a believer can be “perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.”^{1 2} Being free from is a reason for great joy and celebration – I hope and pray that in all Christian churches (whether here or in the West) this is something that is not taken for granted. At the same time, a challenge before churches wherever they are – to focus our ministry on freedom for. Quoting Luther again, “a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

Bishop Wert is to my left at the roundtable

The roundtable that night brought together Christians from Novosibirsk, but in reality, the circle is much bigger. Wherever we are, we are called to put our faith into action in works of love, to be our neighbors servants, both in these Advent days of waiting and in all the days that are to come.

1 Martin Luther. “On the Freedom of a Christian.”

2 The degree to which there is true freedom of religion in Russia is a matter of debate. My own personal experience is that there is still quite a bit of prejudice in society against any group that is not the Russian Orthodox Church. On the other hand, the law grants freedom of religion, and I personally have not had any experience with government officials breaking the law in that regard. Going on my own experience, then, it seems that there is not much of a problem, even if there are on occasion cases when government officials become too open in their aggression against other faiths (for example, the news story that has been coming out today about the banning of the Bhagvad Gita  in a neighboring state). However, if one reads the reports of an expert on religious freedom in Russia, Sergei Filitov, it seems that it is not possible to generalized based on my experience: “The last year and half or ttwo has been a time of constant growth in discrimination and pressure on the legal rights of religious minorities, especially Protestants. In all of Russia it has become unbelievably hard for Protestant to receive land for the construction of church bulidngs and renting space has become quite difficult. Persecution of Christians continues on all fronts – government officials create all sorts of difficulties for the work of protestant churches with children, campaigns are put together against drug rehab centers, missionary work is limited. Protestant congregation are en masse refusing to get registered since registration simply provokes problems with 'law' enforcement agencies. Official statistics about the number of members in protestant congregations are so distorted by government officials that it is impossible to come to any conclusions about their quantity.” (translation mine). http://www.keston.org.uk/_russianreview/edition49/01-autumn-2010-review.htm

Russian Elections - One Week Later

When I said last week that I don't usually respond quickly to current events, I thought that it would be quite reasonable to make an exception in this case – Russian opposition parties had made serious gains in elections for the Duma; considering the country's recent political history, this was already news...and it seemed unlikely that there would be any more.
I was wrong, and I was not alone. Even expert political commentators seemed shocked by what followed. Not only did many people complain about electoral fraud (making this election similar to many others here), but, using social networking sites, they also actually acted together in coordinated way to protest the official election results. In the past, those opposed to the governing party were splintered into a various movements that spent as much time squabbling with one another as they did with those in power – their protests were relatively easily put down by overwhelming police power. This time, though, thousands of people in Russia's major cities gathered to criticize the government and demand a new election.

In Novosibirsk at least 3000 people turned up for protests.

And in Moscow tens of thousands of protesters went to the streets.

The only thing remotely similar I've seen in the 10 years that I have been here were the protests related to the monetization of pensioner’s benefits in 2005. Yet even here the differences are greater than the similarities. At that time the protesters were almost all elderly, and their anger was directed at a single government policy. Many of those gathered at protests this time around would disagree with one another about nearly every political issue. Yet, they were able to put aside their differences and make their voices heard. This time around the protesters were, to a large extent, also much younger. I've been very surprised to see that many acquaintances my age or younger have suddenly shown an interest in politics, whereas in previous years these same people either gave the government no thought or felt that they were powerless to make change.¹

That is not to say that those who went to the protests are likely to achieve the cancellation of previous election results. Much more likely is that the government will find a few “exceptional cases” where election laws were broken, but make clear that these had little effect on the final results. This seems to be the sense, in any case, of President Medvedev's annoucement on his Facebook page that said:

“People have the right to express their position, which is what they did... [but] I agree neither with the slogans, nor the statements voiced at the protests. Nevertheless, I have ordered checks into all the reports from polling stations regarding the compliance with the election laws.”

This has already generated an interesting response in the internet: 

Most of the signs from the protest read: “we're for fair elections.” “He doesn't agree,” reads the caption.

If nothing more is done by the government, protest organizers plan to go out on the streets again in two weeks time. The situation has suddenly become quite unpredictable, yet in a way that many here are approaching (contrary to the country's traditional instincts) with a degree of optimism. If those dissatisfied with the current domination of United Russia and Prime Minister Putin can find an attractive alternative (it doesn't seem at the moment any of the leaders of the opposition parties fit that bill), there is, surprisingly, a chance that the presidential election this coming March will be interesting for the first time in more than a decade.

1 No less surprising is the fact that officials from the  Russian Orthodox Church have called for “more public control” over the electoral system. In the past years the Orthodox Church has almost without exception supported the government currently in power.

Russian Duma Elections 2011

“Siberia Put on a Red Belt” 

That's the headline from a local paper today. “Red,” of course, being the color of the Communist Party.

While the Communist party actually did not received a plurality (not to mention a majority) of the vote anywhere in the region, the move away from the heretofore dominant “United Russia” party of Prime Ministry Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev was quite noticeable. In Siberia, the votes for representatives for the lower house of parliament were generally split between United Russia and the Communists (with the split in Novosibirsk being about 30%/30%, while other regions had United Russia leading the Communists by 10% or so), with two smaller parties (the Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia) each getting a little less than 15% each. It's clear that the results of this election mean that United Russia will lose its constitutional majority (i.e., they will not be able to change the constitution at will anymore), though they will have the simple majority necessary to elect a prime minister and pass laws.

Preliminary results - 2011 election
Dark blue: United Russia. Bright red: Communist Party,
Dark red: A Just Russia. Light Blue: Liberal Democratic party.
The other parties did not receive enough votes to win a place in parliament.
Source: http://english.ruvr.ru/

About 57% of registered voters took part in elections, a bit less than in the previous election cycle. There is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence of unfair election tactics, though Russian election officials (and observers from the former Soviet Union) claim that there were no serious problems. This differs from the preliminary report from observers from the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe, which states:

"This result shows that voting can make a real difference in Russia, even when the playing field is slanted in favour of one party. However, any election needs an impartial referee – and until now, it has not had one. This needs to change. Yesterday, Russia showed that it is technically able to organize fair elections – now it is up to the parties to use this opening for real politics and make it a reality,” said Tiny Kox, Head of the delegation of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.

"These elections were like a game in which only some players are allowed on the pitch, and then the field is tilted in favour of one of the players. Although the choice was limited and the competition lacked fairness, voters were able to come out and have their voices heard,” said Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, the Head of the Election Observation Mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.¹

I usually don't like to come to quick interpretations of news stories, since I'm not sure that it is possible to come to a good understanding of current events so quickly. On the other hand, though, some of you might be hearing about the Russian elections now on the news, and I thought that I'd share my first reaction.

One thing is clear – United Russia won the elections. Another thing is also clear - there is really quite a bit of dissatisfaction with United Russia just now. The reasons for this are many and (perhaps surprisingly for Westerners) are not readily associated with the financial crises the world has been going through in the past few years. Instead, it seems that people may be somewhat tired of a political scene dominated by one party, especially when it is very difficult to say what this party stands for. This, I suppose, does a lot to explain the relative success of the Communist party in this election – they have clear (if usually quite unrealistic) positions on social and economic questions. In Novosibirsk, I'd imagine that there is a certain degree of sincere support for the Communists, insofar as there are so many people here tied with science and research, and they have reason to believe that if the Communists were in control, their institutes would be better funded. But for the most part it seems like the Communists draw attention, not for their policies, but because it is thought that they are they only party that can realistically challenge United Russia. The majority party, on the other hand, enjoys the support of two groups of people (as far as I can tell): first, those whose main approach to life is to hope that it won't get worse (the 2000s saw greater economic stability and growth than the 1990s, and so we should stick with the people who were in charge in the 00s) and, second, those who received concrete help with their problems thanks to Presidents Putin or Medvedev. A quick example – after church yesterday, people were talking about the elections. One of the people in our congregation said that they she would be voting for United Russia since President Putin helped solved a problem she ran into a number of years ago. The land just next to their apartment building had been illegally seized and construction of a parking garage had begun. This women gathered signatures protesting construction from her neighbors, and they wrote to the President. The president then wrote to the local DA, who took steps to stop the construction and return the land. While I was happy that this woman had been helped with her problem, it must be noted that United Russia controlled every level of government in the past years. So while the President solved a problem and this is good, the President was also responsible for helping to build and strengthen a system in which one needs to write to Moscow in order for a local problem to be solved.

Presidential elections are scheduled for March. Polls show that Vladimir Putin has lost a lot of support in the past months, but at present it seems highly unlikely that a candidate will be found that will even give Mr. Putin a run for his money. But the political scene in Russia, despite its stability stagnation in recent years, can also be pretty volatile. Perhaps the relative success of this parliamentary election will inspire the minority parties to come together to support one strong candidate for president. If that happens, you can expect more blog posts on Russian politics in the future.

1 http://www.osce.org/odihr/85753

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Despite the fact that at least 90% of those Russians who celebrate Christmas do so on January 7^{th 1}, that doesn't mean that the country is far behind the West when it comes to preparing for the holiday season. Christmas decorations have been up in some stores since early November, and Christmas trees are starting to go up in squares and parks around the city. I plan on writing more later about the winter holidays here, but for now, I'll just share a few reasons why it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

• First of all, the snow. It is really, truly winter. After many years of freezing rain and slush in St. Petersburg at this time of year, it is a bit of relief that we know that the snow is here to stay. Until April. Or May. And shoveling snow from the church courtyard has been a good way to work off frustration, I've found...though I'll admit that by spring I might be feeling differently.
• Christmas Bazaar. This past weekend, the local German cultural center (together with the German consulate) hosted their annual 1^st Sunday of Advent Christmas Bazaar. Our congregation always has a table there were we talk with the guests (there were over 1000!) and sell crafts and baked goods. We had fun and raised a bit of money for the church, which the council intends to use towards repairs for our building's foundation next spring. 
  
  
• Midweek Advent services. Our church building is quite isolated – you can't really just happen upon it. In addition, most people in the congregation live in other parts of the city (or even outside of it). For that reason, there usually isn't a lot of reason for the pastor to be located in the church building much. But I decided that for Advent, I would start every Wednesday with morning prayer and end with evening prayer, inviting congregational members to come at any time to pray together or just to talk. It is still too early to say whether or not this will meet the spiritual needs of those in the congregation, but yesterday morning a few of us did pray together, followed by and almost hour-long hymn sing. Fellowship time is important, so I hope that people continue to come.
• “It's the most wonderful time of the year”. “Wonder” in the sense of “miracle.” The news here lately has frequently reported on the astounding number of people who have made their way to the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow to visit the “the Belt of the Theotokos.” This Orthodox relic, supposedly woven from camel hair by the Virgin Mary herself so that she might wear it during her pregnancy, is usually found on the monastic mountain of Athos in Greece²; in the past month, however, it has traveled through Russia so that the faithful could venerate it.³ When the Belt was in the capital, lines stretched to incredible lengths, with reports that some people waited 15-20 hours and with more than 80 people needing hospitalization after standing out that long in the cold. The Belt went back to Athos this week, but miracles (especially healings and restored fertility) are already being reported. I think I'll leave it to respected journalist Nikolai Svanidze to comment on this phenomenon, even if his commentary is perhaps a bit too harsh: “It testifies to the fact that people long for a miracle. It does not testify to depth of faith... In Russia our religiosity is very peculiar, because since the time of the Baptism of Rus I cannot say that the country became Christian. We have a peculiar understanding of the Orthodox faith; there is a lot of paganism in it. And this longing for miracle in and of itself has, I'd say, an indirect relationship to [Christian] faith.”⁴

  

  Waiting in line to see the "Belt of the Theotokos."
  Originally from the site bogoslava.ru

  
  

1The Russian Orthodox Church follows the Julian calendar which is (at present) 13 days behind the standard Gregorian calendar we use. A significant number of Protestant churches have also decided to celebrate Christmas and Easter together with the majority here, though Lutherans and Roman Catholics tend to follow the western practice.

2Where women are not permitted to visit under any circumstances. 80% of those who came to see the Belt in Russia were women.

3Strangely enough, certain parts of the Belt (and, among other things, part of the hem of Christ's robe) are in Moscow churches permanently, but none of these relics draw so much attention.

4On the radio program “Special Opinion” on the Echo of Moscow radio station. Nov 25.   

Sophiology

What better way to approach systematic theology than to use the writing method they taught us in junior high – the 5 w's?¹

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article on Sophiology can act as our starting point. Sophiology – “from Greek Σοφία Sophia (wisdom)(in Bulgarian and Russian: София) is a philosophical concept regarding wisdom as well as a theological concept regarding the wisdom of God.

Why?

I didn't set off to be living proof that dissertation topics are obscure – I really didn't! In choosing my theme for further study in the field of theology, I hoped to bring to light a relatively unknown idea that could be a resource for contemporary theologians. I felt that these voices from the East (both tied to church tradition and yet free to engage their mind and interact with contemporary thinkers) might just hold a key for bringing Wisdom out of her marginalization and into the lexicon of the wider church. I hoped that this the concept of Sophia might lead not only to a re-thinking of certain preconceived notions about God and God's relationship to the world, but that it could also lead to changes in contemporary practices in the realms of ethics, inter-faith and ecumenical relationships. In short, I had hoped that my work might find some resonance with readers today.

Vladimir Solovyov (on a good hair day)

Now, two years in to my research, I understand better both the problematic areas of Sophiology and the resources that it offers for those who both desire to remain within the framework of orthodox (though probably not Orthodox) Christian thinking and yet come to new interpretations of the church's teachings for the modern world.

Regarding my desire to find something useful for ethical questions, because of the limits of writing a dissertation at a state-sponsored university, I'm having to put these sorts of “practical” questions aside for the moment. While early versions of my dissertation outline were full of attempts to apply my research in concrete ways to wider questions, I eventually came to understand that this will need to remain outside of the bounds of my dissertation as such. For now, these ideas sit in folder on my computer, waiting for proper attention until after I get the major work (in the area of theology as such) done.

When? / Where? / Who?

Pavel Florensky and Sergei Bulgakov in the painting
 "Philosophers" by Mikhail Nesterov

The theological movement that I'm studying is rooted in the intellectual environment of late 19^th and early 20^th century Russia. The concept of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, permeated the philosophy, theology and even poetry of the period; part of my task is to describe why it was an attractive idea at the time. I'll then be then tracing the concept through the lives and thought of three fascinating individuals - one of Russia's most famous philosophers, Vladimir Solovyov, one of Russia's most gifted and unusual talents, Father Pavel Florensky, and Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov, the former Marxist economics professor whose entire worldview in his mature years was formulated around Divine Wisdom and who, therefore, developed Sophia as a full-fledged philosophical-theological concept.

What = Wisdom?

Theologian, Bulgakov scholar, and Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has said that “Father Bulgakov's thought has often seemed impenetrable to the casual Western reader, or even the not so casual Western reader.”² Sometimes Dr. Williams' works can feel the same way, so as you can imagine, I have my work cut out for me. That's even more true if another Bulgakov scholar, Catherine Evtukhov, is right that Bulgakov was careful never to give a complete and final definition of who/what Sophia was.



I think that Evtukhov is wrong, though, and my dissertation sets out to show Bulgakov really does have a well-defined theology of Divine Wisdom that flows through every major area of systematic theology he touches (and he touches them all.) Yet, saying that Sophia is important for these thinkers is not the same as saying who or what she is. And here I'll do my best to give a short summary. The best starting point from which to understand Wisdom in Sophiology is through a rather unusual Biblical text, from Proverbs 8 and 9. (NIV. Particularly important verses for the Sophiologists are in italic):

8.1 Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? 
2 At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; 
3 beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud: 
4 “To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind. 
5 You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it.
6 Listen, for I have trustworthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right. 
7 My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness. 
8 All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse. 
9 To the discerning all of them are right; they are upright to those who have found knowledge. 
10 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, 
11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
12 “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence;  I possess knowledge and discretion. 
13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance evil behavior and perverse speech. 
14 Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight, I have power. 
15 By me kings reign and rulers issue decrees that are just; 
16 by me princes govern, and nobles—all who rule on earth.
17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. 
18 With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. 
19 My fruit is better than fine gold; what I yield surpasses choice silver. 
20 I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, 
21 bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full. 
22 “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old;  
23 I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. 
24 When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; 
25 before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, 
26 before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth. 
27 I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, 
28 when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, 
29 when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. 
30 Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence,  
31 rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind....
9.1 Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. 
2 She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. 
3 She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, 
4 “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says,“Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. 
6 Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”

After reading this passage, you might ask - "What is this Wisdom?" Is it some sort of being? If so, is the being created or Divine? Perhaps it's not a being at all, but simply a poetic personification of one of God's attributes? While Biblical scholars tend to lean toward that last answer today, that does not mean that there is universal agreement. The situation is even more complicated for the Russian thinkers mentioned above because they also have a multifaceted tradition of Wisdom in the Orthodox church to deal with, along with (at least in some cases) their own (mystical) experience of Sophia (Yes, for them Wisdom is “She”).

For the Orthodox, theology
can be captured in icons. So
when two icons of Sophia  
(such as these two here) 

have such different symbolic
meanings, this indicates a
 lack of theological clarity.

Where do the Sophiologists end up in their theological development? Well, we cannot really say except in the case of Bulgakov.⁴ Still, I'll be writing perhaps 200 pages on that question. But, to put it very succinctly, Bulgakov interprets Sophia as the essence of God (the divine substance or “ousia” for those of you interested in Trinitarian theology,) at the same time both part of the Godhead and (in its created, as opposed to Divine, aspect) the substance of the world (this is panentheism, for those of you interested in developments in later 20^th century theology).⁵


This approach to theology was quite controversial at the time, though political concerns (related to the divisions of the Russian church's representatives abroad that occurred because of the Revolution) were of at least as important here as theological ones. I know that I am certainly not fully convinced by the approach of the Sophiologists. Yet, on the other hand, I'm impressed by Father Bulgakov's devotion to challenging an ossification of the church that equates orthodoxy with teaching that is wholly static. At the same time, Bulgakov had no interest in joining those hypercritical of the church, rejecting its teachings outright. Bulgakov shows himself to be a true modern moderate who can make, with a creative approach that rejects long-out-dated stereotypes, orthodox Christianity intellectually interesting and engage in mutually-enriching dialog with the modern world.


That's why I'm continuing my work. And since I find Bulgakov interesting not just when he deals directly with Divine Wisdom, in the coming months I hope to finish a side project that I've been working on for a long time. Bulgakov wrote a small book called On the Gospel Miracles that has yet to be translated into English. If I can figure out the technical side of things, I'll be publishing this annotated translation on Amazon in early 2012.

* * *
1With a 6^th added on for good measure...and without the “h” since writing about the “how” of Sophiology, the methodology, is giving me headaches. I wanted to spare you that pain.

2 “Creation, Creativity and Creatureliness.” Speech for the Wisdom of Finite Existence Study Day organized by the St Theosevia Centre for Christian Spirituality, Oxford. 2005. http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/99

3 Sergei Bulgakov. Philosophy of Economy. trans. and ed. Catherine Evtukhov. Yale 2000.  10-11.

4Solovyov died without having systematized his thought. Florensky's life was cut tragically short when he was executed under Stalin.

5In highlighting some of Bulgakov's major themes, I see one more reason why I was attracted to Sophiology – these same topics are quite important to one of my favorite contemporary theologians, Jürgen Moltmann.   

Ministry Inside and Out

 Writing for this blog has taken a back seat for the last couple of weeks - I've spent quite a bit of time on the road or in preparation for being away. Now that I've returned to Novosibirsk, I hope to make up for my absence by posting a couple of different entries this week. The second will be related to one of the reasons I was away – to go to Helsinki to meet with my dissertation adviser and other doctoral students about my research. Since from time to time some of you have asked about my studies, by Friday I'll haven written a summary of the work I am doing there in the area of “Sophiology.” (Don't be scared! It's not as bad as you think!). :)

But for now, though, I'll return to church and its situation here in Siberia.

Our congregation building on October 30.
It's whiter still there now.

Rather, I'd like to return to the church. Instead, though, I feel like the church on the congregational level is still a bit too puzzling to be able to be write about it in a way that is understandable. Instead what I feel like I can do is write about my confusion. For example: just before worship began on the 30^th of October, I was told by a member of the church council that there would be funeral after the service. It would be held in the home of a very elderly woman who had not been able to attend church for the past 6-8 years. I was invited to come and to preside. This took me by surprise, to say the least. The last and only time I had presided at a funeral was 9 years ago in Novgorod; though I have my own materials prepared for such a situation, they were at home (and I certainly would have brought them had I been informed earlier!) I was tempted for a minute to say that I wasn't prepared and therefore wouldn't lead the service, but this seemed to me to be the worse of the two options before me. When we arrived we found the typical situation after an elderly person dies here – family and friends were gathered in the living room around the coffin, taking turns paying last respects. Four women from the congregation lead the singing (with some of the hymns proclaiming a word of hope for the deceased and others (the greater number) reminding those gathered that they, too, will die some day and that they'd better get their spiritual houses in order), and I did my best to lead prayers and give a short homily. After the service ended, a few people present (none of whom had ever been to a Lutheran service) address some rather unexpected questions to us, so as “Does your guardian angel stay with you in heaven or come back to help someone else?” and“How should we bury Maria, with her head or her feet at cross?” I took my time in answering, and one of the women jumped in – her answers surprised me as much as the questions themselves. Part of me wanted to react immediately – to make clear that I should be told immediately if someone dies (and that I should have a list of the home bound to visit so that I can provide spiritual care to the elderly before they die), that the answers given to the questions do not really have a good basis in the teachings of our church. And, as pastor, I actually have a certain responsibility to make such these things clear. Yet, our relationship has not yet developed to such a point that my “corrections” are likely to bring about the desired effect. So, I'm trying to follow a course of “responsible inaction” by patiently and consciously developing relationships with congregational members such that I can eventually influence the congregation's life in positive ways.

The situation is quite different for me outside of the congregation, where I have no direct responsibility and, therefore, fewer limitations on the way I work. In exploring ministry outside of the congregation, it has become clear to me just how important it is that we keep a wide definition of what and were the church is. While the congregation is important, it perhaps is not where I will focus most of my energy right now.

Together with Deacon Vyacheslav (Slava)
 at the Reformation Day Service

I've been able to become acquainted with one very interesting sphere of ministries outside of the congregation thanks to the help of a deacon in the local Finnish-tradition church, Vyacheslav (Slava, for short). Slava has spent many years engaged in prison ministry. While this aspect of his work is practically inaccessible to me – every time a foreigner wants to visit a prison, permission must be received from Moscow - there are many prison-related fields in which I might be able to take part.

Slava's work is not limited to what happens behind prison walls. His work there led rather quickly to the realization that there was a whole complex of social issues related to those who had been incarcerated. First, it brought him into contact with the families of the men he had been visiting; he found that most were suffering, and that many had been infected with tuberculosis, which is a wide-spread problem in Russian prisons. Their children (if diagnosed properly) would be sent to a special hospital complex for a minimum of six months of therapy. In fact, the situation was very close to one in an orphanage – relatives visit rarely and staff are occupied with caring for the physical needs of the children but have no resources for providing more. Slava gathers donated toys, cloths, diapers and other materials for these children and brings them to the hospital at least once a month. He also gets together special gifts for those who had birthdays that month, and he presents them and other special treats to the kids at the afternoon tea break. He usually does a short program with the older kids to help them see God's love for them.

In addition, when following-up with the men who had been released from prison, Slava found that a large number were suffering from substance abuse and in need of rehabilitation. Eventually a rehab center in Novosibirsk that was looking for some spiritual support approached Slava for help, and since that time he makes weekly visits there for Bible study as well as providing counseling at other times. He and another man from his congregation have worked closely with this rehab center and hope to open a Lutheran church-based center in the near future.

Men at the rehab center.
Picture taken with their permission (or, rather, at their request)

And this reminds me of another rehab center I had the opportunity to visit in the last days of October. This center was about an hour outside of Novosibirsk in an isolated village. I traveled there with a group of friends working on HIV prevention. Since about 70% of new cases of HIV here come about through the sharing of infected needles, these friends are trying to increase awareness among former or current drug users about HIV. On the one hand they hope that this will allow HIV positive people to have the opportunity to receive treatment at these centers (instead of being forced out because of a fear about the “dangers” of being around HIV positive people), and on the other they want to encourage those in the centers to get an HIV test so that they might know their status and take appropriate steps if needed. Of the people I traveled with to this center, two of them came to faith in Christian rehab centers....unfortunately, by the time they started to heal from their drug addiction, they had already become HIV positive. That these two friends (we'll call them Ivan and Anna) were able to kick the habit is really a bit of a miracle – the recovery rate at rehab centers (including at Christian ones) is disappointingly low, and some Christian organizations use the rehab centers as a for-profit business, whereas others make membership in their church a condition for continued help with recovery. On the other hand, there are few alternatives accessible to addicts, and so these church centers are the best option at the moment. And for folks like Ivan and Anna, they were crucial in their recovery...and now this effect is being multiplied by their engagement in trying to bring help to others.

I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to see the church beyond the borders of the congregation in these past few weeks. But I don't want to leave the impression that nothing new is possible in the congregation. Just recently, in fact, we did something that would be typical in the U.S., but which is rather innovative here – we gathered 3 congregations (our church, the Finnish-tradition Lutheran congregation, and a local Baptist congregation) together to celebrate Reformation Day. While I realize that in the context of the West there is the danger of simply glorifying the past on this day, for us here it was not only an opportunity for education (since not that many people are familiar with the Reformation), but was also one of the few chances we have here to see a concrete example of churches working together. There were not many of us at the service (it was a Monday night, after all), but I believe that all three congregations felt strengthened spiritually by our evening together, and I hope that in time we'll find more ways that we can continue to strengthen one another....perhaps in social service projects and youth work? I'll let you know how our efforts in those directions work out.

Reformation Day Service at the Lutheran Church of Christ the Savior (Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Ingria in Russia). Gennady Moskalin (center) is in charge of that parish; Presbyter Russell Phillips
 from the Baptist congregation is just left of center.  

A Wider Vision of the Church in Siberia - Synod Assembly

This past weekend I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend the 20^th annual synod assembly of the ELCUSFE in Omsk. Just over 20 delegates from the “largest Lutheran synod in the world”¹ considered both practical and theological issues; the positive tone of the assembly was set by Bishop Otto Schaude and reinforced by a wonderful facility, excellent weather and common worship.

I should probably apologize – the above sounds more like a press release
than a blog entry. At the same time, it is a sincere reflection of the events of the weekend.

But now, back to the beginning - as soon as I arrived in Omsk, I was reminded of the great variety of congregational life in Lutheran churches in the region. A few congregations are working more or less like a “normal” congregation would – they have a pastor, a building, and are striving to be the best stewards of what they've been given and to build up ministries that meet the needs of their congregations and the wider community. A few have something in common with new mission starts in the U.S. - they are building their congregations from the ground up and are, as a rule, small, yet experiencing a fruitful spiritual life. A third group of congregations are in the process of re-development, moving from German to Russian or trying to overcoming some other significant challenge. These congregations tend to be very small and a bit depressed. But even having the opportunity to be together and to realize that we're not in that boat alone was quite helpful.Events of particular interest for me included a theological presentation by Dr. Jürgen Schuster from the Bad Liebenzell mission. Missionaries from this evangelical mission organization have been working in the Ural region for quite some time, and the influence of their missiological approach and piety have certainly been felt throughout the years. At the same time, it has been my experience that our sense of mission has serious differences, so I cannot say that I was the most unbiased of listeners when Dr. Schuster began. It was to my great pleasure that my prejudices were found to be false. Dr. Schuster's presentation itself was very helpful; even if the information presented was not particularly new for me (much of the same ground had been covered in a Missiology class taught by Dr.Richard Bliese then at LSTC, by focusing on the book of Acts (and in particular on the events leading up to and surrounding the “Apostolic Council” in Acts 15), we were all reminded that the church has always had to think about its relationship to culture. This has been important because for all of my years here I've been a participant in the process of trying to understand how Lutheranism applies to the Russian context. In particular, I've been a big proponent of doing what I can to help the church “russify,” as opposed to remaining so very close to its German (Finnish, etc.) roots. Now, after 10 years, I'm a little bit uncertain. The more I think about it, and especially the more I see the everyday life of congregations here, the more I realize that the Lutheran church needs to retain a certain degree of distance from the culture if it is going to find an audience here. What I mean is this – if the church were to strive to be “typically Russian,” then it would clearly do this in a less successful way than the bigger, stronger, more experienced churches in this regard (especially the Orthodox, but also Baptist and Charismatic, in their own way) will. Instead, the Lutheran church will find its place here if it realizes that it's “target” is not to be in the broad center of the culture, but around the culture's margins, among those who either do not wish to or cannot participate in the dominant culture. This is not to say that I want the church to remain an ethnic ghetto - not by any means! Instead, though, I hope that the Lutheran church can become a spiritual home for those who do not see the church as addressing their situation. A relatively successful example of such an attempt is the ministry of the Probst (Dean) of the Far East, Manfred Brockmann.Pastor Brockmann will have been in Russia 20 years by this time next year. In his particular context of Vladivostok, he's been able to support a congregational ministry that uses culture (for example, they have a very large program of German culture events every year as well as a very active ministry of free, classical music concerts) as a means to demonstrate a different way of being church than is common in wider society. St. Paul's in Vladivostok is a unique congregation with an experience that is not likely to be repeatable elsewhere. At the same time, despite all my respect for the Eastern Orthodox tradition, by looking at their work I become even more convinced that we cannot and should not try to become a second Orthodox church.

The youth choir from the congregation in Omsk singing at closing worship. 

It is not only our German-rooted church that is going through this struggle. This weekend I also had the opportunity to meet the Probst of the Finnish-rooted Ingrian church, Juha Saari. Like me, he is a long-time missionary in Russia, and we both easily agreed that we would like to do what we can so that the Lutheran congregations in the region would come together. It seems that I have yet to mention the fact that there are actually four (!!!) different Lutheran church bodies in Novosibirsk and a 5th is also represented in the region. Many of the congregations are small and struggling, while their divisions sometimes reflect either “foreign” conflicts (“liberal” Lutherans vs. LCMS vs. WELS) or battles over personal leadership. It is my hope, then, that we can do a lot of work together both on a local and a region-wide level. Already later this week I'll be joining one of the deacons of the local Ingrian congregation on a visit to a children's Tuberculosis center, and Probst Saari has already invited me to a seminar for ministers of their church that will take place early next year.

Closing worship led by Synod President, Pastor Evgeny Philipov

This contact with the Finnish-tradition church brings me back again to the central question of our synod assembly – the church and culture. As the Finnish Lutherans have enculturated, they've decided not to follow the practice of some of their western partners and have rejected women as preachers and pastors. At synod assembly, though, one of our differences from the surrounding dominant culture was highlighted when two women (former students I know from seminars I taught) were blessed as preachers for their congregation in Krasnoturinsk. I have full confidence that these women will be engaged in the very important ministry in making Christ known to their neighbors, even if it is not "culturally correct."  


The synod assembly highlighted for me both the opportunities and challenges that come with a wider vision for the church, a vision that will make us question again the ways we interact with surrounding cultures. 
_ _ _ _ _
1 Only geographically the largest, of course.  Blue dots on the map below represent ELCUSFO congregations that had delegates at the synod assembly.

Synod assembly delegates and guests