wfn.org | Communion Set Returned

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3222 notes).

Note 3221 by UMNS on Oct. 10, 1996 at 16:43 Eastern (2285 characters).

SEARCH: Methodist, Latvia, communion
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                             507(10-71B){3221}
         New York (212)870-3803                      Oct. 10, 1996

Special communion set returns
to Methodist church in Latvia

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- A Holy Communion set kept safe for years
in the United States finally has been returned to its original
home at the Akas Street Methodist Church in Riga, Latvia.
     The Rev. S.T. Kimbrough, Jr., an executive with the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries, participated in a Sept. 27
celebration service at that church.
     "These people have so little of their past to claim,"
Kimbrough said, that when they receive anything to affirm their
faith "they are so grateful."
     The communion set originally had been presented to the Rev.
George A. Simons. He served as superintendent of the Methodist
Episcopal Church's Russian mission from 1907 to 1918 in St.
Petersburg. Forced to leave St. Petersburg because of the
Bolshevik Revolution, Simons moved his work to Riga.
     The sterling silver wine pitcher, goblet, two bread dishes
and baptismal font were presented by the church there in 1927 --
as the inscription on the wine pitcher notes -- to commemorate the
20th anniversary of his superintendency.
     When Simons was called back to the United States the
following year, he left the communion set for the Akas Street
congregation. But when the Russians invaded during World War II,
his successor, the Rev. Fricis Timbers, left the country, taking
the set and official church documents for safekeeping.
     After the death of Timbers, the communion set was left at a
Methodist retreat center in Bay View, Mich., where it remained.
     Kimbrough and other Board of Global Ministries officials
helped make the arrangements for the communion set to be returned.
     Kimbrough said he thought of the set's long history at the
September service in Riga as he poured from the pitcher into the
cup.
     "The feeling was indescribable because you knew it was coming
home to its rightful place," he added.
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