wfn.org | United Methodist bishop hopeful about relations with Russian

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Orthodox

Jan. 14, 1999        Contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71BP{022}

NOTE:  A photograph of Bishop Ruediger Minor is available.

By United Methodist News Service

The World Council of Churches' recent assembly in Zimbabwe gave United
Methodist Bishop Ruediger Minor an opportunity to do something that is
difficult back home in Russia: get better acquainted with Orthodox leaders.

As head of the United Methodist Church in Russia, Minor has found that
establishing relations with the Orthodox Church is a slow and difficult
process. The Orthodox represent what is essentially Russia's national
church, and they have viewed with wariness the growth of Protestantism in
their country since the end of communism. 

The recent assembly of the World Council of Churches provided an opportunity
for personal contacts with people in the Orthodox community, Minor said in
an interview with United Methodist News Service during the December event in
Zimbabwe.

"I've had a number of good conversations in which we're stating the
differences," he said. "Of course, we could not, in a few minutes, solve
them or move them aside, but it was possible to talk with each other.

"I will leave this place with a new conviction that there is possibility for
conversation," Minor said in Harare, "that there is needed patience in these
conversations ... (and) openness to be changed and accept positions that for
the moment seem strange to me and our people in Russia."

The United Methodist Church in Russia has 5,000 members and a constituency
of 15,000 people who are touched in some way by its work. About 40 churches
are organized, and about 40 Bible study and other groups are on the way to
becoming churches, Minor said.

Officially, the United Methodist Church is not connected with the Orthodox,
he said. Conversations have been held at a high level but have not led to
agreement or common understanding, he said.

"The Orthodox church feels offended by the Methodist presence in Russia and
sees the Methodist presence as just one part of ... a Protestant invasion
into Orthodox territory," the bishop said.

Minor wants United Methodists included in conversations about interchurch
relationships in Russia. That dialogue was started five years ago, but so
far, the United Methodist Church hasn't had a chance to participate, he
said. The conversations include the Orthodox, Baptists, Pentecostals,
Evangelicals, Seventh Day Adventists, Roman Catholics and Lutherans.

Last month, representatives of the Russian Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and
Buddhist faiths formed the Permanent Interfaith Council, and Roman Catholics
and Lutherans are expected to be added. The council was formed to promote
cooperation and avoid conflict among the different faith groups.

United Methodists have a very good relationship with the Lutherans in some
areas of Russia, and United Methodist congregations are even worshipping in
Lutheran churches in two cities, Minor said. Relations with other Protestant
churches differ from place to place, he said.

Part of the challenge faced by Protestant denominations is that the Orthodox
represent Russia's national church. For one church to have a claim on the
whole Russian population violates the spirit of religious freedom, Minor
said.

Minor said he doesn't expect quick results at the ecclesiastical level. The
acceptance of Methodism in continental Europe has taken a long time, he
noted. It took the Catholic Church in Europe 100 years to accept Methodism,
and even the Lutherans 50 to 60 years, he noted. "I should not ask my
Orthodox brothers to accept (a new church) within five or eight years. These
are processes that need time to recognize that there is genuineness on the
other side and to give the chance to see and to recognize each other."

The possibility of dialogue with the Orthodox is perhaps better at the local
or pastoral level, and some contacts have been made there, according to the
bishop. Methodists try to be open and aware of the spiritual tradition of
Russia, he said, noting that Orthodox people are teaching in the United
Methodist seminary there.

The Orthodox have complained about prosyletism by other Christian
denominations. "Prosyletism is evil," Minor declared. "We are not to steal
sheep ... from one community to the other.

"There has indeed been a lot of arrogance on the side of Protestants, mainly
conservative Protestants, in their encounter with Eastern Europeans," he
said. That's especially true with people going into Russia "without knowing
the great spiritual tradition of Russia and the Russian church," he said.

"United Methodists have tried very hard not to fall into this trap," he
said. The church has tried to overcome arrogance, but he noted, "arrogance
has not been on one side only."

"It's not the goal of the United Methodist Church to make Orthodox people
Methodist but to help people find a living faith," he said. The major goal
is not increasing the number of churches and members "but to contribute to
spiritual renewal."

During the World Council's Eighth Assembly, it was said that mission and
evangelism and the proclamation and invitation to the faith should be major
emphases of the council, "and I can only say this is why we are in Russia."

The United Methodist Church has tried to be low key in Russia. For example,
it has abstained from renting stadiums or buying air time on television,
Minor said. 

Much of the denomination's growth has come from "unchurched" people, people
who don't have a personal relationship to a faith community, he said. Many
of them aren't baptized.

"So far, the work of Methodism is almost entirely in cities, and the
majority of people who are attracted to Methodism are from the educated
middle class."

The church is drawing quite a number of families, and care for children and
youth has become an important part of its work, Minor said.

The biggest challenge facing the church is reaching "those many persons who
have not yet had the chance for a personal living encounter with the
Gospel," Minor said.

And it's important that witnessing to the faith be done by United Methodists
who are Russian as opposed to foreigners, he said.

The way Methodists express their faith always reflects the heritage of their
country, Minor noted. 

"It is indeed one of the goals of United Methodist work not to create a
foreign colony but to help in the birth of a church that would be genuinely
Methodist and genuinely Russian."

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