wfn.org | Churches in Russian Federation lack trained co-workers

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Synod calls for younger generation church members

OMSK, Russian Federation/GENEVA, 23 November 1998 (lwi) - "Send us your
best young people," was the appeal contained in Bishop Volker E. Sailer's
keynote address at the Sixth District Synod of the eparchy "Ural, Siberia
and Far East" of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other
States (ELCROS).

Meeting from 22-24 October in Omsk, the 85 synod members agreed that
winning new co-workers for preaching, congregational leadership, work with
children and young people as well as social services was the main problem
in maintaining and rebuilding the almost 200 parishes of the district.

Since by far not enough local staff can be trained, "we continue to need
help from outside," Sailer underlined.

According to delegates' reports, the emigration of younger church members
to Germany has had an adverse effect on numerous congregations in Siberia
and the Ural. The older members become frail and die, said Hans Henning
Ness, in charge of relations with Eastern European churches and foreigners
in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover (Germany), which as partner
church supports the region.

According to Ness, the shortage of pastors and persons trained for work
with children and young people as well as the use of the German language,
no longer understood by the younger generation, mean that not enough new
church members can be recruited among the youth.

Furthermore, the synod members suspect that there are still many
Protestant groups and congregations in the immense area between
Vladivostok in the Far East and Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) in the Ural who
need to be identified before they can join the ELCROS.

Superintendent Rudi Blumcke reported that in the course of a trip he came
across 28 new congregational groups. Georg Kretschmar, the bishop of the
ELCROS, urged the congregations in spite of the considerable bureaucratic
hassle to register according to the provisions of the new Russian law on
religion. This would benefit their work and their survival in the future.

*       *       *
Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/