wfn.org | Kazakhstani Lutherans Need Church Workers 'Who Can Stay with Us'

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

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 acknowledgment.]

*       *       *
LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
PO Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Editor's e-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
Tel: (41.22) 791.63.54
Fax: (41.22) 791.66.30
http://www.lutheranworld.org/