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.