Holy Week and Easter

Unfortunately, camera malfunctions meant that I missed what turned out to be one of the highlights of Holy Week - the very beginning, Palm Sunday. That said, I did get my camera working by the end of the week, when it was easy to find people selling willow branches - in Russia, Palm Sunday is "Willow Sunday," palms being rather hard to find in Siberia. 

Palm Sunday was a joy because we did something new and the congregation actually seemed to like it! I was surprised, to be honest. It was nothing too special - we simply gathered outside of the church, carrying our willow branches, said a prayer, listened to the Gospel reading, and walked into the prayer house singing. "We've never done that before!" I heard some of the older woman say after church. And they said it with a smile.


That said, the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, which were planned according to fairly traditional western models, were a little too much change all at once. I heard "we've never done that before!" again, though this time there was no smile.


Yet, our woman are tolerant and faithful, and they kept coming. Below are two pictures from the traditional time of singing before the service on Good Friday. Further down are pictures from our Easter morning and Easter Monday services.  

One of the best parts of Easter this year was seeing kids in church again! I hope that we'll be able to build on the small re-start of Sunday School that we had on Easter. 

...but then again, when kids come to church their grandmothers frequently want them to recite poetry in front of the congregation - maybe that's what's scaring them away! :)

I was completely overwhelmed by the flood of baked goods the women of the congregation brought for me on Easter morning - don't be surprised if the latest pictures you see of me make me look a kilo or 5 heavier.

As usual on Sunday nights, together with Slava (far right) and another young man from the Ingrian congregation, Max (far left), we visited the rehab center and led a Bible study on Easter. The resurrection has special meaning for those, like Igor (center) who are in recovery. 

CPE Seminar in Omsk

Shortly after the end of the seminar in the Ingrian congregation, I traveled to Omsk for a seminar organized by the church I am working for, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East.

In contrast to the previous seminar, I had no special job to do...nor did I find myself in tension with the theological positions of the presenter. Instead, I really felt "at home." There were a number of reasons for this - I would be in a familiar place, true, but more important was the fact that I'd be in a learning environment again with a number of people who had been my students - Gleb, Andrey, and Denis, now all pastors in the ELCUSFE.

Denis - pastor in Polevskoy, near Ekaterinburg.

Gleb, pastor in Krasnoyarsk.

Andrey, Pastor in Tomsk.

And while I'll have further opportunities to continue to work with these young men, the approach to education at this seminar was truly unique for this country. The leader of the seminar, C.K. Schmidt, is a highly experienced Clinical Pastoral Education supervisor in Germany. Those who serve as pastors in churches in the U.S. know CPE, since we all had to go through this training in order to attain our M.Div. I had a wonderful experience when I was in CPE in seminary, and the chance to renew my knowledge and expand my skills in pastoral care was very welcome...and very, very rare in Russia.

Pastor Schmidt

The seminar last an intense 10 days. Many in the group fought sickness - I was fortunate enough to remain healthy....but remaining healthy meant that I had to go through all the difficult personal reflection that goes into developing our abilities as pastoral care givers. I came out of the seminar feeling renewed, supported, and hoping to find the opportunity to put into practice that which I had begun to discover at the seminar. 

Despite the intense nature of the seminar, we were able to laugh together as well.

We explored Biblical drama as a technique both for understanding texts on a new level 
as well as learning more about ourselves.



Thomas Grote, the pastor in Irkutsk, helped coordinate the seminar. 

I was ready to soak up whatever the seminar had to offer...and it had a lot to offer. I'll be processing the experience in the months to come. 

Visit from Arden Haug

After returning from Omsk, I had the opportunity to host the ELCA's Regional Representative for Europe, Pastor Arden Haug for a few days. Arden was my supervisor for some of the time that I worked directly for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and he played a significant role in helping to organize the ELCA's support for my service through the Hermannsburg Mission (ELM). 

Arden has made many trips to Russian in the past, but this was his first time so far east (and even then he only made it half way to the Pacific!) - below is a picture that Arden took of the chapel (built 12 years ago) that stands in the center of Novosibirsk...and the geographic center of Russia. In some ways this photo says a lot about modern Russia.

Arden accompanied me and Slava to our regular visit to the children's TB hospital outside of the city...

He met with the church council...

And preached at worship. 

Apparently, his sermon went over well, since the women in the congregation sang a special farewell song to him after the service had ended. 

Seminar of the Ingrian Church

The month of march gave me a number of educational opportunities...that's something I never pass up. Even better, these opportunities helped me understand more about the state of Lutheran congregations (and, most especially, their pastors) in Siberia. I can say that I felt privileged to have this chance. 


The first seminar I took part in was held locally - the Lutheran Church of Christ the Savior, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria in Russia (i.e., part of the Finnish tradition of Lutheranism in Russia) held a seminar for the pastors of their deanery called "The Red Thread of the Bible," based on the book and taught by a Finnish theologian, Leif Nummela. While at first it was planned that I would just participate with the rest of the pastors, preachers and other church workers that would attend, it eventually became clear that I'd have an important role to play - translator. No, I don't know Finnish! :) But Leif, like most Finns, speaks English very well, and I was able to translate for him into Russian. 


You can see some pictures and commentary below:

The Siberian Deanery of the ELCI stretches from Omsk in the west to the Transbaikal region in the East. Some congregations are served by Finnish missionaries, though most now have local, Russian leaders. 

Leif's lessons had us digging deep in Scripture....

Had it been my role, I probably would have debated with the teacher a bit about Biblical interpretation. Perhaps it was good that I had another job to do - translate!

Participants of the seminar. To the far right in the back row is Gennady Ivanovich, the leader of the Novosibirsk congregation of the Ingrian church. Second to left in the front row is Juha Sari, the Dean of Siberia for the Ingrian Church.