The Wild, Wild East

Russians who live near the Pacific Coast here, familiar with the American "Wild West," sometimes joke that they are living in the "Wild East." This refers to more than the wildlife, in which the region is truly rich (e.g., we drove through a wildlife reserve meant to protect the critically endangered Amur leopard.) However, the "wildness" of the Far East is primarily tied with lack of contact of the region with the rest of the country, particularly with the federal government in Moscow. When you visit the Far East, you are struck pretty quickly with the differences that come with living much closer to China, Korea and Japan than even to central Siberia, not to mention the nation's capital.

Near the end of July, my family and I had the pleasure of taking part in a seminar for leaders in Lutheran congregations in the region, which has its center in Vladivostok. Dean Manfred Brockmann was able, for the 19th time, to find the significant financial resources needed to bring everyone together - from as far west  (1800 miles) as Chita, and as far northeast (1300 miles) as Magadan. You can read a bit more about the deanery here.

Seminar participants. Dean Brockmann is on the far left in the first row.

The theme of the seminar this year was "Education in the Lutheran Church;” it turned out that the theme arose at a very important turning point in the church here. During the past year, the seminary where I served as a teacher for 8 years, Novosaratovka, went through a great deal of change, the most significant being a move to a "modular" type of curriculum (somewhat similar to the one-course-at-a-time program that is used in some U.S. colleges). While the transition, as expected, was somewhat rough, it is possible that support from the church's leadership would have allowed the program to continue. In its absence, however, Seminary President Dr. Anton Tikhomirov made the decision to suspend full-time education there for the 2012-2013 academic year.  

Many lay preachers in the Far East had studied at Novosaratovka, and they were concerned about its future; Dr. Tikhomirov, who was present for part of the seminar, helped calm some of their fears. It is hoped that the General Synod in September (including visits from other former ELCROS churches that have used Novosaratovka for their educational needs) might come to some conclusions about how to reform education in our church. 

In addition to providing my own perspective on a Lutheran approach to education, I was responsible for leading lessons in Old Testament, New Testament, Church History. We used the Moravian daily texts (popular in devotions in the Siberian church) as an entry point for how to read the Bible, as well as covering topics of church history that might shed some light on our identity. There were a wide range of themes taught by others as well, from Luther's life to liturgy, the Augsburg Confession to homiletics. 

Not all of time in the Far East was so serious. Rather, it was serious, but in a different way. Whenever the schedule and the weather allowed , we spent our time near the water. The seminar was located a few hours south of Vladivostok (not too far from the border of North Korea, actually) at the cove of Vityaz. While I am quite accustomed to bad roads, what I saw here reached new “heights” of low quality. Yet, there is a certain (Russian) logic to it; local residence said that if the roads were good, they would destroy them. The roads being as they are limited the amount of visits to the area; for the first time, someone has explicitly told me what I long suspected here – roads are not a means to get from one place to another, but a barrier for doing so. Now it all makes sense! That thought will help me smile was I drive on bad roads in the future.

However, it was not my intent to write about the roads! What is worth writing about is the nature of the area. The area was very beautiful - a bit like California and a bit like Hawaii – dense flora and unusual fauna (my boys were particularly impressed by the sea urchins!) along a rugged coastline.

 Overall, my first trip to Russia's “wild East” made me want to go back there to visit the people and places that I had a chance to become acquainted with; the sooner this will happen, the better.

(And I'm blessed to know that it will happen soon, since I'll be accompanying an American church group to the Far East in September!)  

Krymsk

One of the strongest impressions from the past month comes from our first days in southern Russia. As we made our annual camping trip to Abrau-Durso, we drove through torrential rains. We knew that this was not convenient for setting up camp; we had no idea that the rain would be the cause of a tragic situation for our neighbors. Because of the isolation of our location a few days past before we even learned what had happened about 50 miles away in the city of Krymsk. We had driven through there before the rain started...and by the time we drove through again, many residents had lost their homes.

As I see it, no one is completely safe from natural disasters, and human decisions about where (in this case, in a valley) and how (in this case, mostly in cinder block homes) to live contribute to the circumstances that sometimes lead to tragic results. Yet, this case was different from disasters I've witnessed in the past. This time I saw a distrust towards the government that would make even my fellow Montanans look government-friendly in comparison. Immediately there were all sort of rumors about the tragedy...and the circumstances around it certainly were strange. A large portion of Krymsk was washed away by a huge wave; people were asking, “how can rain lead to a wave?” There must have been dam broken somewhere, was the conclusion. And how could that happen? “The government blew it up” as a way to avoid the possibility of flooding for a more well-off area, people speculated. And government emergency services and the region's governor, while denying any wrong-doing, were very slow in coming up with alternative answers. Officials spoke of around 160 deaths, while “everyone knew” that the local morgue, which holds up to 400, was full and that a grocery store warehouse was being used to hold more bodies. My apologies for the gruesome nature of such details, but it reflects the real thoughts and words of people in the area. The government did not help their case at all; it is clear that emergency warning systems didn't work, and that those with the right connections knew ahead of time about the approaching disaster...while the most vulnerable (the poor and elderly) were left to fend for themselves.

Despite all these very sad aspects of the tragedy, I witnesses once again the way Russians, when moved by pity for the neighbor, can be moved to give of their (sometimes very limited) resources to show support. Even more impressive were the efforts of volunteers who traveled to Krymsk in order help with cleanup; for Russia, this is a rather new mark of developing civil society.

Yet, once again, the government's reaction shows an enormous degree of mutual distrust. After the initial wave of public reporting on the event, lawmakers proposed a bill that would control and limit the efforts of volunteers; a need, it was said, that was recognized after volunteers in Krymsk “spread ugly rumors.”

I don't pretend to know what really happened in Krymsk. What is clear enough, though, is that the people do not trust the government and vise versa. This situation is in no one's best interests, and it multiplies the negative effects of tragedy.

Russian Summer 2012

Despite the fact that we did not visit my homeland this summer, this July we probably came close to covering as many miles as those years when I was in the U.S. on“home assignment.” We were on the coast of the Black Sea and the Sea of Japan, the banks of the rivers Angara and Ob. My mind is still filled with many and various impressions; in my next few posts, I'll share some of them with you. For now - a few pictures.


The places we visited (all near Russia's southern border) are marked with green.

Our "dacha" near the Black Sea (Abrau-Durso)

Abrau lake with an Orthodox church in the background

My wife Natasha took this picture and shared the following insight: 

"Do not lean!" (written on the train door window) is not only good advice

for using public transport, it is also an appropriate reminder to take care

of the ecological wonder that is Lake Baikal.

Reflecting in Irkutsk

Vladivostok's new suspension bridge disappearing into the fog.

On the Sea of Japan south of Vladivostok



Past, Present and Future

This month I've come face to face with questions of the past, present and future of our church.

Pastor Gernot Friedrich on one
of his trips to the USSR.
Picture from a recent feature
 in the German magazine Spiegel. 

Pastor Friedrich, holding his book,
during his visit to Novosibirsk.

The past came alive to me when our congregation in Novosibirsk had the privilege of welcoming back an old friend, Pastor Gernot Friedrich. Pastor Friedrich is a man with a very adventurous spirit. He has visited dozens of countries and learned a number of languages...but not just for the sake of his own entertainment. In fact, Pastor Friedich was one of the rare people from the West (if one can consider East Germany to be the West!) who had the gall to travel illegally in the former Soviet Union, making friends and visiting Christian congregations along the way. He wrote a book about his adventures called “Through the Soviet Union with a Bible and a Camera;” I had enjoyed reading this book a few years ago...but I was very surprised when he showed up once again in Novosibirsk! It was from him that I learned that he continues to make trips here every other year; he no longer has to sneak Bibles in through customs, but he still brings spiritual (sermons, postcards, home visits, his wonderful singing voice) and material (his offerings helped the congregation install energy-efficient windows a few years ago) support from Germany. Pastor Friedrich knows about the “good old days” of the congregation, when the prayer house would be overflowing with brothers and sisters in Christ, united around their German identity and their Lutheran faith. His faithfulness even in times of drought, like now, is an important sign for the congregation not to lose hope, and not to find value only in being successful in the ways they imagine that from the past. Gernot also by his example continues to live in the present – he went with the new pastor in Novosibirsk to the banya, for example, and after Russia he be traveling on to other new adventures.

The students picked questions at random from each of
the 5 major disciplines taught at the Seminary. They then
had 40 minutes to prepare their answers, which they
presented to us orally.

I was touched to receive a "teacher trophy" from the
students, who also sang a song. 

Then, just last week, I had the opportunity to think about the past, present and future all in a very short time and in one place – Novosaratovka, the Theological Seminary where I worked for most of 8 years. I was invited by the ELCUSFE to go there to take part in the graduation exams of the full-time students. I knew these students well, and had maintained contact with a number of them. The students and staff at the seminary had a very hard year – it was the first year of an experiment with one-course-at-a-time curriculum, developed both with the hope of expanding the potential for participation in the seminary's educational program as well as being the result of simply having too few full-time teachers. Together with the on-going financial and leadership challenges the church faces, it is not quite certain what lies ahead for the seminary – more of this experiment? A different experiment? A pause in educational plans? But for the students (all of whom passed their exams, by the way), there is the burning question of the present – the beginning of their internships. When they finish, they will continue to carry the church towards its future by taking on important leadership positions, as have seminary graduates in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Odessa and Astana, Tblisi and Baku, and to serve as faithful pastors to their flocks throughout the former Soviet Union. Knowing what these graduates have done and will continue to do, I will certainly be an advocate for theological education in this church. How or whether this will be related to Novosaratovka I do not know, but I am convinced that Lutherans in this part of the world will continue to need educated lay and ordained ministers, and I hope that solutions can be found for the financial and leadership problems currently being faced.    

Siberia as Urban Space

In Russia every large urban center finds a day, usually in the summer, to celebrate their “city day.” Novosibirsk's was this past weekend.

Founded in 1893 as “Novo-nikolaevsk” (“novo” meaning “new” and “nikolaevsk” in honor of Tsar Nikolai II), it must have been hard to imagine at that time that the city had the potential to grow into Siberia's largest city. To the north (Tomsk), south (Barnaul), west (Tobolsk, Omsk) and east (Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk) were cites more than a century old that already functioned as trading and cultural centers for the vast region. Novo-nikolaevsk had really only one reason to be established – to serve as a base for building the railroad bridge across the Ob River. This, apparently, was one of the tricker parts of the building of the Trans-Siberian, and as the bridge was being built it became clear that the location of the settlement provided a number of serious strategic advantages for commerce and transportation.

The city grew quickly in the pre-Revolutionary years, but it did not earn its place as the region's unofficial capital until after World War II. Today the city is a large and growing metropolis of more than a million and a half people, but at the same time it is still in some sense seeking its identity. A recent article I read "Waif-cities" (“Goroda-besprizorniki.”A. Kozmin, S. Chernyshov, A. Popov. Ekspert.#24 (336). 18-24.06.2012. 10-18) put it this way: “Novosibirsk, born almost 120 years ago...quickly turned into a large trading center thanks to its advantageous geographical position. During [World War II] the city gained its industrial identity as a result of factories being evacuated from the European part of the country. Then Academgorodok,” one of the Soviet Union's most significant centers of scientific research, “was built there... but despite all these obvious advantages, there is still no true synergy between these parts of the city, they have been 'sewn together' by history in a chaotic way.”

The state of cities in Siberia is quite important for the fortunes of the territory as a whole, despite the fact that a significant amount of the region's vast mineral resources are located in very isolated areas. Approximately 70% of the population of our state is urban; this is consistent with the rest of Siberia... and urbanization continues. Yet, few of the cities have actually planned well for the changes that have faced them in the past two decades; instead, they've been busy “putting out fires.” Despite a dramatically improved economic situation, there are whole aspects of life that are difficult even to consider (e.g., the state of apartment buildings built in the 1950s-80s), though these problems will only increase. In the meantime the long-term problems of city development affect people on a daily level. To quote from the article again: “morning for a resident of any large Siberian city is full of inconveniences. Leaving his apartment building, the city dweller immediately falls... into infrastructure hell. He has a choice – either to go to work on public transport that is so overcrowded that to he  must use force to push his way through, or else to go in his car and inevitably stand in traffic jams for an hour or two. Just outside of his apartment door he runs into the "charms" of utility companies, Soviet clinics, dying factories, run-down parks and dozens of other urban problems, all of which make it impossible to feel comfortable. At the same time the official press turns out a stream of positive information – about constant road repair, building new bridges and interchanges, opening up new hospitals and parks. But from a subjective point of view it seems that the problems of cities are not being solved in a systematic way. And the government, distracted by impressive, but isolated projects, is not capable of finding real, serious solutions.”

One local architect, Tatyana Taychenacheva, says that the problem is that “we do not have a clear definition of a contemporary city.” This is in contrast to the “subjective feeling that we get from visiting, say, European cities – a person feels comfortable there on an subconscious level.” As the article notes “the economic growth of the 2000s did not bring about an equivalent growth in the level and standard of living...The expectation of people have risen together with their incomes, but their places of living (cities, towns, villages) have almost not changed at all. They still fail meet contemporary demands either in terms of their infrastructure or in terms of the quality of services. The result – a stable migratory pattern to the western part of Russia and to places abroad.” 

This post is getting rather too long, but I hope that it does a bit to explain the context in which I am working...and I cannot help but wonder, perhaps in the case of Novosibirsk, some of its problems could be solved by considering its origin. It was founded in order to build a bridge. If Novosibirsk, located directly in the east/west geographic center of the country, could be the bridge city today, it would be a meeting point for Russia's neighbors from relatively near-by Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan and Central Asia while still being a part of Russia's (mostly) European culture. Of course it is my hope that our churches, too, might make a positive contribution to this bridge-building work between cultures as well as providing a moral voice that calls for the protection of the most vulnerable as new ways of development are sought.  

Russia Day

The paradoxical nature of Russia was well-captured in the
recent art exhibit "Rodina" ("Motherland,") which opened
at the end of May after twice being banned.

It is appropriate that the holiday named "Russia Day" is one that provokes ambivalent or even paradoxical reactions among those who live in the nation for which the holiday was named. It couldn't really be Russia Day otherwise.


While June 12 was never officially "Independence Day," that is what many people called it for a number of years. And they asked themselves - "Independence? From what? From whom? Wasn't it better to be together (even with tension) than to 'enjoy' the kind of 'independence' we have now?"



The images above contrast various aspects of society
and culture today and in Russian history.

And now, more than 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, on a day that was intended to invoke national pride and be a signal of a new way of organizing society, some opposition leaders and ordinary citizens are being harassed just because they want to make their voices heard. On the other hand the country is working hard on many fronts to improve its image and the standard of living of its citizens. There are many, many ways in which Russians can now truly celebrate independence.

Paradox exists both on the level of society as a whole and on the level of interactions between individuals. I've frequently been surprised here both by the way upstanding people could be openly aggressive and offensive, while I've had some of my most interesting (and sometimes quite intellectually and spiritually challenging) conversations with those are drunk or who live a life of crime.




A fire blazed on the upper levels of one
of Novosibirsk's most modern
buildings...while a Soviet-era firetruck
 stands by helplessly.

The fact that this country is full of paradox is why I was attracted to it from the beginning. Russia provides no simple answers. In fact, it is much better at supplying no answers at all, but instead dwelling on the "eternal questions" - "Who is to blame?" "What is to be done?"
Because of this, very little is settled and stable here. As a consequence few people experience a true and deep happiness. Even as a guest in this country, I am not immune to this situation. And, of course, Russia's complicated past and paradoxical present affect the life of the Lutheran church here as well. We as a church still do not“fit in” in so many ways, and it sometimes feels like Lutheranism could fall between the cracks of all of Russia's contradictions.


Yet, maybe we don't need to fit in exactly. Maybe it is enough to share a love for the questions and to avoid the easy answers. We might not be happy, but we are authentic. And true to life, with all its paradoxes.

That is what I will be celebrating as this “Russia Day” draws to a close here in Siberia.



Even after living here more than a decade,
I am sometimes confused by the
things that I see. This picture is
from my neighborhood.



If you look very closely at the picture with
the car parts, you'll see this church
 in the background.

May Flowers

In my last blog post I promised to provide pictures of May flowers. I've been suprised to see here in Siberia how much time and energy people put into growing tulips, narcissus,  etc. even in the public courtyards that are otherwise simply bare ground, weeds or worse. Perhaps in this way they compensate for the harshness of the winter. In any case I know that observing their efforts to cultive beauty despite real challenges (social and climactic (!) conditions) is one of the things that brings me happiness. The first two pictures are from outside our church building.  

April and May showers, waiting for flowers...

While Lent saw me spending most of my time in the congregation in Novosibirsk, April and May have "showered" us with guests and with opportunities for travel.

First, Pastor Stephanie Fendler (one of the clergy couple who had responsibility for the Novosibirsk congregation before I arrived) made a brief visit to Novosibirsk before traveling on to Omsk to lead seminars for women and for married couples the ELCUSFE. Our congregation very much appreciated seeing their former pastor, and I certainly enjoyed reflecting with her about the life and development of the congregation. Stevie and Michael are continuing to work for my employer, ELM (Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony), in the area of partner congregation relationships, so I'll be blessed with further opportunities to be in contact.  

Pastor Stephanie is second from right.

While Pastor Stevie was an old friend of the congregation, the next weekend saw the congregation welcoming new guests. Two of them were also from Hermannsburg (where ELM is based), while two others were from Omsk. Niels von Türk and Ingrid
Höse had led a seminar for youth workers in Omsk the week before, together with Vladimir Vinogradov, a recent graduate of the extension program of the Theological Seminary and the coordinator for youth programs in the ELCUSFE. In our congregation Vladimir preached, while Pastor Evgeny Phillipov, the president of the ELCUSFE council, acted as translator and guide. Niels and Ingrid have been in charge or organizing weekend retreats for youth in Germany, usually based upon life and questions of faith in some foreign country. Therefore, in addition to the congregation, I tried to show them some of the sights in Novosibirsk, so that they might get a feel for life in the "capital of Siberia." Niels even joined me in the trip to the banya before my regular Bible study in the rehab center on Sunday nights.

When these four young visitors left for places further south and east, after a few days I moved in the same general direction...but to that in a minute.

The older woman appreciated the opportunity to hear a sermon in
 German; one of the woman in the congregation that morning,
Tamara, kindly agreed to translate for Helmut..

For now I'll remain concentrated on Novosibirsk where, for the third weekend in a row, we had a guest – Pastor Helmut Grimmsmann, Asia secretary for ELM. Helmut has loads of international experience and has been traveling to Russia for 5 years now...so I was proud to be able to offer him something new – a trip to the opera and ballet theater. As I've mentioned in previous posts, it is enormous and pretty impressive. We went toe theater's birthday concert, so were treated to segments by the symphony, both classical and modern ballet, and opera that included an attempt to bring together Stalin, the theater's birth as a part of the Soviet propaganda machine, and the current political environment. I'm not sure that I can say that we liked everything at the concert, but I very much respected their attempts to both entertain and to challenge their audience. Yet, the main purpose of the visit was to speak with Helmut, and he was helpful in talking with the church council about a few practical questions in addition to giving a powerful sermon.

Immediately preceding and in between these visits, I was away from Novosibirsk. First I traveled to Omsk, where 5 days were split between a meeting for all the pastors of our church and the synod consistory (much like a synod council). This visit to Omsk helped me learn a lot more about the life of our congregations in the far west (Urals) and Far East, as well as about the administration of the church. I was once again impressed by the development of ELCUSFE's structures; they show a maturity that compares favorably to some of the other Lutheran churches in the former USSR. At the same time the church structures are still young. One example – until now there have been no written guidelines for determining the process of ordination. Bishop Otte Schaude shared a draft text on this question with the consistory, though discussion with the synod and the pastors and approval of the document will happen only in the coming year.

My second trip took me the farthest east I have ever been – to Krasnoyarsk. There pastors connected with ELM met for two days of Bible study and business. Pastor Gleb Pivovarov was our host, and it was joy to be in his congregation, one of the most rapidly developing in our church. Below left: Gleb talking with Niels; we met with them again in Krasnoyarsk. Below right: a view of the Yenisei River outside of Krasnoyarsk.

In between all of that, regular life in the congregation in Novosibirsk continued. I must admit that I'm struggling a bit to write about congregational life as such, since a blog is probably not the best place to express one's frustration. A short way to express things would be to say that, for cultural and historical reasons, mistrust is the norm for many in Russia, and particularly among the Russian-Germans. This presents particular and rather peculiar challenges to ministry; most concretely right now I am feeling how this slows down the process of new birth (new initiatives and ministries) in the congregation. So, while nature around us is blooming (more pictures related to that to come), May's flowers have yet to break through the soil in the congregation.

Yet, Sunday is Pentecost, a reminder of how God can suddenly breathe new life on to and into a group of weak and scared believers. We'll be praying for the Spirit, and ask your prayers as well.

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.