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.