GER-VOLGA-L Archives

Archiver > GER-VOLGA > 2002-07 > 1026567040


From: "Horst W. Gutsche" <>
Subject: [GV] Fw: LWI 2002-066 Kazakhstani Lutherans Need Church Workers "WhoCan Stay with Us"
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 06:30:40 -0700


DEAR FOLKS,

I THOUGHT THAT THIS NEWS RELEASE WOULD BE OF INTEREST.

BEST WISHES,

HORST W. GUTSCHE

-----Original Message-----
From: Pauline Mumia <>
Date: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 8:01 AM
Subject: LWI 2002-066 Kazakhstani Lutherans Need Church Workers "WhoCan Stay
with Us"


LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
PO Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel: (41.22) 791.63.54
Fax: (41.22) 791.66.30
Editor's e-mail:

* * *

Kazakhstani Lutherans Need Church Workers "Who Can Stay with Us"
Many Congregations Uncertain of Their Future

ASTANA, Kazakhstan/GENEVA, 3 July 2002 (LWI) - "We need staff who stay with
us." Thus Bishop Peter Urie, Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of
Kazakhstan (ELKRK), summed up a major concern for his church.

In the report of his first year as ELKRK bishop, Urie also asked how this
church could become even more alive.

Urie's priority in the first year was to get to know as many ELKRK parishes
as possible. He managed to visit all of them except those in the north. What
he learned is that the church urgently needs staff "who become full-time
preachers of the gospel, and who stay in Kazakhstan." Behind these words
lies the painful experience of the departure of many staff members from
Kazakhstan in recent years, so that many congregations wonder whether their
work can continue, the bishop told the church's 11th synod during its April
16-18 meeting in the Kazakhstani capital, Astana.

The ELKRK has 46 congregations or local groups, with 615 members, and 28
staff members. Thirty children and youth groups, with 370 children and youth
overall, are led by 27 catechists and nine congregational social workers.
But the bishop says the church needs 29 pastors, 20 catechists and 21 social
workers. All the parishes managed to identify only seven candidates that
could be trained for a church position.

Urie felt it was important that he has been teaching in the seminary at
Astana in the past year. For the first time, seminary graduates were sent
out as assistant pastors but finding qualified supervisors was a problem.
Pastor Viktor Moser, the seminary rector and director of the education
commission reported that theological education has been stabilised, to the
extent that plans could be carried out for the 2001-2002 academic year. This
year, he said, they intend to construct additional teaching space.

Urie expressed his conviction that "We have a well-functioning church," but
the question must still be asked, "How can we bring even more life into our
church?" It is important that all congregational events be held in both
German and Russian. "But the best would be to use Russian only, so as to
reach the middle and younger generations," he noted. He called for an
ongoing analysis: "How can we make our preaching more lively, and our
worship more inviting? How can all our work be made more fruitful?"

Significant areas for further work should include social service and prison
chaplaincies. Urie urged synod members to work gradually towards greater
financial independence.

At the synod's closing worship service, in the presence of Archbishop D.
Georg Kretschmar, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States
(ELCROS), Stanislav Mikula from Pavlodar was consecrated as a preacher.

The ELKRK is an independent regional church within the 250,000-member
ELCROS, a Lutheran World Federation member church since 1989. The
Kazakhstani church has partnerships with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of
Mecklenburg and Evangelical Church of Westphalia in Germany.

(By Irina Selezneva, ELCROS public relations officer.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 133 member
churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5 million of the 64.3 million
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas
of common interest such as ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission
and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented does
not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units.
Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material
may be freely reproduced with acknowledgement.]


This thread: