wfn.org | Church, growing in Baltics, seeks official status in Lithuania

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Feb. 26, 2002   News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71B{072}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Since the end of the communist era in Eastern
Europe, the United Methodist Church has been growing steadily in the Baltic
states of Latvia and Lithuania.

Recognized as a traditional church in Latvia, the denomination is seeking
similar status in Lithuania, where Methodism is regarded as a sect. Bishop
Oystein Olsen, whose Northern Europe Area includes the Baltics, is
optimistic that such recognition will be coming soon.

The church operates "rather freely" in both countries, Olsen told United
Methodist News Service on Feb. 23. However, without state recognition in
Lithuania, it cannot buy its own land and it is not exempt from taxes. 

As a result, individual church members had to buy the land for a new
sanctuary in Pilviskiai and lease it back to the congregation for 99 years.
Moreover, government taxes are adding $36,000 to the $226,000 construction
cost. Donors in the United States, including the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, are covering the bill; First United Methodist Church of
Green Bay, Wis., has raised $100,000 for the Lithuanian congregation, its
partner church.

Church officials are in dialogue with the Lithuanian government about the
denomination's status. The church officially requested recognition as a
traditional church in 1999, and since then it has been working closely with
the Ministry of Justice on the matter. On Jan. 16, the Parliament's human
rights committee approved the request for recognition, and the full assembly
is to vote on the committee's recommendation this spring or summer. "We
expect to be recognized," Olsen said.

"The Baptists were recognized last year," said William Quick of Detroit,
coordinator of partner church ministries in Lithuania and Latvia for the
Board of Global Ministries.

With the vote on the United Methodist Church approaching, recent radio and
newspaper reports in Lithuania have warned about the dangers of waves of
sects seeking government approval. Olsen said those reports are "very
troubling."

U.S. partner churches for congregations in the two countries met Feb. 22-23
in Nashville for the first Lithuania-Latvia Initiative Consultation. The
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries sponsored the meeting, drawing
110 people from 16 states and the Baltics.

At the end of the meeting, Olsen said he felt that the participants would go
home with a strengthened commitment to ministry in Latvia and Lithuania.
"That is crucial for the church and for the growth of the church in these
countries," he said.

Nine United Methodist churches in Lithuania and 12 in Latvia have reopened
since the end of the Soviet era in the early 1990s, according to Quick.
Churches began reopening in Latvia in 1992 and in Lithuania in 1995, he
said.

Total church membership in Latvia is 1,000, with a wider Methodist community
of 2,559. In Lithuania, the church has 434 members and a wider community of
1,102 people.

The church is growing through the Wesleyan approach of doing evangelism and
performing good works, Olsen said. "This is a very holistic way of being in
ministry."

Since the end of communism in Europe, the church has been growing
aggressively, and the Board of Global Ministries has been a vital part of
that, according to Quick. Along with providing financial resources, the
board has assigned seven missionaries to Lithuania and four to Latvia.

The church is training indigenous leaders in both countries, particularly in
Lithuania, where all of the pastoral leadership so far has come from the
United States. Five Methodists are attending the Lutheran theological school
in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and a sixth is attending the Methodist seminary in
Tallinn, Estonia, with plans to return to Lithuania. In Latvia, the pastors
are indigenous.

United Methodists in America are supporting congregations and social
services all over Latvia and Lithuania. "The social ministries have been
phenomenal," Olsen said.

For example, members of Hope United Methodist Church in Flint, Mich., raised
$20,000 last year and the Board of Global Ministries added the same amount
to build a gym at a boys' prison in Kaunas, Lithuania. The prison houses 300
young people ages 14 to 18. "That gym will be dedicated this spring," Quick
said.

"That is a real witness to the government of Lithuania and to the city of
Kaunas of the outreach of our church," he added.

Olsen wants to increase the interaction of churches in the Nordic part of
his Northern Europe Central Conference with those in the Baltic part. Church
members in Denmark are already providing support to congregations in Latvia,
and Swedish members are involved in programs in Lithuania.

The Nashville meeting was the first time that support groups for the
Lithuanian and Latvian churches had met jointly. Hans Vaxby, Olsen's
predecessor, saw the need for building a bridge between churches in
Lithuania and Latvia, Quick said. 

"The vision is that there comes the day when there will be a provincial
conference for the Baltics," Quick said. A provincial conference often is a
first step toward a regional unit of the church becoming a full annual
conference. Such a conference would also include Estonia, which has 28
United Methodist churches, he said.

Mary Foster, a member of the Duke Divinity Chapel congregation in Chapel
Hill, N.C., was among those attending the meeting as a newcomer to the
church's Baltic outreach. "This helped me understand ... what is going on
and how we go about getting involved," she said. After she reports back to
her congregation, the church members will discuss next steps, possibly
including a trip to the Baltics and seeking a Lilly Foundation grant to
enable two Lithuanians to attend Duke on scholarship.

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United Methodist News Service
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