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.

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. 
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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