Moscow Journal -- 5-17-07

Moscow Journal

5-17-07

This week has been amazing. Tuesday was a very special day here at the Methodist Seminary in Moscow. After a Worship service which included sharing communion together, seven people received their certificates of graduation. One of them, Andrei, was a full-time student in residence here, and the other six studied while serving churches as local pastors. It was a joyful occasion replete with caps, though no gowns.

The day before the graduation, the students presented sermons based on their dissertations which had already been evaluated by the Seminary professors and dean. They were not only judged on their academic work, their preaching style and sermons were reviewed and critiqued. Besides those who graduated, including a married couple, one student was asked to come back next year because of problems with his dissertation. The presentation of the sermons and dissertation defense sessions were open to everyone, so some of the students in residence, and a district superintendent came to the main classroom to observe at least part of the time. I spent the whole day there, and found it very interesting.

I couldn’t help contrasting my time studying at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., with all that I have observed here. Wesley Seminary, along with several of the thirteen other United Methodist Seminaries, is in partnership with the Seminary here. Instructors for the courses taught here come from various sources. First of all, for instance, the instructors for Biblical Greek and Hebrew are Russians. Some theology classes have been taught by indigenous Russian Orthodox theologians, too. Many other classes have been taught by professors from the United Methodist Seminaries in the States, and by Methodist theologians from the seminaries of other denominations. Professors coming from the States teach their courses for time periods varying from as little as three weeks to as long as a semester.

I’d like to share with you a little bit about the history of Methodism in Russia and the other countries that were part of the Soviet Union. Right now there are about 100 churches all together in the following countries: The Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belorussia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, and Uzbekistan. There are also Methodist churches in some other parts of the former Soviet Union that are now independent of Russia. This includes the Baltic republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia where historically, Methodism existed before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Those three nations are part of the Methodist area that includes Finland.

Nevertheless, before 1917, in Imperial Russia the only documented Methodist outreach consisted of two missionary efforts. One was in Peterburg (now St. Petersburg and, of course during the Soviet era, Leningrad. He worked among sailors there. The other missionary effort was in the far east of the Russian Empire, around Vladivostok and the missionary even published a Methodist hymn book in Russian.

In the era from Russia’s disastrous involvement in World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, the establishment of the Soviet Union, and World War II, of course, belief in God and the church were anathematized. There were still many faithful believers throughout the years until freedom of religion began to revive in the late 80s during the Glastnost’ and Perestroika years before the break-up of the Soviet Union. During the time of repression, people of faith and the institutions of religions were under various levels of persecution, beginning with all that the Russian Orthodox Church and its faithful suffered, but also citizens of many cultural groups including those of the Jewish faith, traditionally Islamic clans, and the Evangelical Baptist Church of Soviet citizens of German descent.

Even before the break up of the Soviet Union began, the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) responded to economic and medical needs in Russia. At first, in the early 1990s, the work was sponsored by and organ of the Russian Orthodox Church. A great deal of food, medical supplies and other help was given by the UMC and other churches of the World Council of Churches, much of it administered by UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief).


The first Methodist churches in Russian started independently of one another at about the same time in the late 80s in Ekaterinburg, a city in Siberia; and in Pushkin, formerly called the “Tsar’s Village”, where the Tsar’s summer palaces are. These churches began in response to outreaches from some Methodist churches in the U.S. during the period of Glastnost’ and Perestroika before the formal break-up of the Soviet Union.
The pastor and people from a church in Louisiana reached out to Russian citizens in Sverdlovsk, a city in Siberia now called again by its traditional name, Ekaterinburg. (It is the city where Tsar Nicholas and his family were held prisoner and then assassinated.) A Methodist Church pastured by a former Soviet Intourist employee grew up independent of any organized missionary effort, though supported in many ways by the church in Louisiana, and ultimately by the UMC GBGM.

After that there were several types of mission outreaches to aid the people of the former Soviet Union in the economically difficult early years after the formal break-up of the Soviet Union. Many new bible study groups and ultimately churches grew out of relationships between the people who came over to help in the Name of the Lord and those who were helped. Along the way, the European Methodists felt led to get involved, and when the decision was made that a Methodist Bishop be appointed, the East German United Methodist Bishop, Ruediger Minor, who had been instrumental in the administration of the aid and shepherded the pastors of the fledgling congregations was appointed Bishop of the Russian UMC. His office was established in Moscow and the Russian United Methodist Seminary was founded there, too

In 1999, the governing body of the Russian Federation, the Duma, passed a law stating that only religious organizations that had either existed before 1918 in Russia, or that had been legally sanctioned during all of the last 15 years of the Soviet era would be allowed to operate in the Russian Federation. This law was in reaction to the huge number of people from various religions, Christian denominations and sects who had flooded into the territories of the former Soviet Union in the early years after the break-up. The history of the Methodist Church in republics of the former Soviet Union such as Estonia, as well as in the Carpathian area of Ukraine along with the documented missionary work from the late 19th and early 20th centuries all helped to establish that the United Methodist Church could be certified as a legal religious entity. In all likelihood the amount of aid from the early years of the transition out of the Soviet era may have been a factor in the positive outcome.

Nevertheless, the stance of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy for many years has been very negative to the establishment of United Methodist Churches amongst ethnic Russians despite the efforts of the leadership of the GBGM and those here in Russia to build and sustain a positive relationship.

Today the United Methodist Church in the Eurasia Area encompasses the territory of most of the former Soviet Union, except for the Baltic Republics which belong to a conference that includes Finland, and some of the traditionally Moslem republics, like Turkmenistan. About 100 churches have been established, and the first of five annual conference starts tomorrow in Ekaterinburg. Bishop Vaxby headed out there last night to meet with the Cabinet – the administrative entity that includes the Bishop and the District Superintendents.

I hope all of the above has not been boring . . . I wanted to give you a bit of an idea of how the Lord has been working here in the former Soviet Union through United Methodists, though it’s just been a sketch, and there are many more very interesting stories of how it has been. I am happy to be a witness to a little bit of what is going on right now, and to have seen in person some of what has gone on in the past.

God is so good and so faithful! I’m sure you can tell me how that has been true in your life, too.

May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.

Blessings in the Love of Jesus – Kathy