Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Our Church is very serious about her liturgy and, therefore, only ordained ministers serve the liturgy and distribute the holy sacrament.

The laymen can help at the liturgy (for example, to open the altar gate and to light the altar candles). The laymen can also read the Scriptures during matins and vespers. Such laymen are called “subdeacons” or “readers.” To become a reader, a man needs to receive a special blessing.

Last Sunday in the parish of Saint Andrew our bishop, Vsevolod, conducted the rite of blessing of subdeacon for Seminarian Yury Kulikov.

Yury Kulikov (born in 1982) is a real Siberian: he grew up in Olekminsk in Yakutia (the north-eastern part of Siberia). Yakutia is officially the coldest place on earth, with winter temperatures there reaching -80F.

Following graduation from the State Pedagogical University in Yekaterinburg in 2003, Yury worked as a schoolteacher.

Being a member of the Baptist congregation in Yekaterinburg from 1999, Yury assisted a pastor there, leading the youth ministry. Continuing his theological self-education, Yury grew increasingly dissatisfied with Baptist “theology,” a path which finally led to his confirmation in the parish of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (SELC) in 2015.

Yury entered the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Novosibirsk at 2016. So, now he is in his third year of studies.

Yury’s wife, Ekaterina, currently works as a schoolteacher at the state elementary school in Novosibirsk. Yury and Ekaterina have 3 children: David (born in 2005), Kristopher (born in 2006), and Maria (born in 2013).

During the order of blessing of subdeacon, Bishop Vsevolod said:

“Beloved brother, God the Father revealed the mystery of salvation, and completed it through His Son Jesus Christ, Who became Man and, after He told us all, has entrusted to the Church the responsibility to preach the Gospel to all creation. Becoming a reader, you will proclaim the word of God, assisting the Church in the fulfillment of this duty. You will obtain a special mission in the community of God’s people and will be assigned to service of the faith, rooted in the word of God.

“For you will proclaim the word of God in the liturgical assembly, will teach the faith among children and adults, and prepare them to receive the sacraments properly. You will also proclaim the message of salvation to people who does not already know it. Thus, with your help people will come to know God the Father and the Son, Whom He sent, Jesus Christ, and obtain the eternal life.

“Proclaiming the word of God to others, you take it in obedience to the Holy Spirit and attentively consider it every day, so that you may fully experience its living and sweet action. With your whole life imitate our Savior Jesus Christ!”

Please pray for the Siberian Lutheran clergymen and their helpers. Especially pray for subdeacon, Yury Kulikov, and his family.

“Faith and hope”

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Please see attached photos.

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Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

We just celebrated one of the most significant festivals of the Church: Presentation in the Temple.

This festival is unusual. We are already far from Christmas, we have already heard about the Baptism of the Lord, we heard about the miracle at the wedding at Cana and about the call of the first disciples, we observed the Confession of Saint Peter and the Conversion of Saint Paul, and Feast of his followers: saint bishops Timothy and Titus.

But today we read again about Saint Mary and about the Wonderful Child, again almost there is a Christmas theme.

It looks that we are back to Christmas, but this is not by accident: thus, the Church reminds us again that the Word became Flesh, that the Light came into the world, and that this Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.

(From the sermon by our Bishop Vsevolod).

You hold salvation in your hands. That is why the confession of Simeon — “now let Your servant, O Lord, to rest in peace, for mine eyes have seen Your salvation” — for all the time the Church recognizes this in the Eucharistic sense.

“My eyes have seen Your salvation.” One of the ancient liturgists, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem wrote: “Do not think that it is about your feelings. No, but about your unbreakable faith. Because when eating, you not eat the bread and wine, but the flesh and the blood of Christ. Come… and place the left palm under the right, and make as the throne, to obtain the King and receive… the Body of Christ and say amen. Carefully consecrate your eyes at the contemplation of this holy body and then taste of it” (end of the quote).

Have you noticed the similarity? “Make as the throne, to obtain the King … carefully consecrate your eyes…” — this is quite paraphrasing of the words of Saint Simeon. Our eyes see the King, the Lord, the salvation, too. What God has prepared before the face of all nations, now it has reached you and me.

In the holy sacrament, God comes to us so close that we can touch Him. He comes to us not in our dreams, or fantasies, or feelings, not in metaphorical sense, but objectively, really, that is: eucharisticcally.

Saint Simeon devoted to waiting to meet God through all his life. How hard it is — to wait through all your life? I do not know. Probably, it is very difficult. The Gospel does not say about it. Gospel just describes the joy that God’s promises come true. The joy that long life was lived as devoted to one purpose – to meet with the Savior. And now He came, and now we are not afraid to die. Because there is no death, if you hold in your hands your salvation.

We wish you blessed time after Epiphany.

Please pray for the Lutheran clergymen and laypeople in Siberia.

“Faith and hope”

Please see attached photos.

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Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

May we bring to your attention the words of greetings from our Bishop Vsevolod that were read in the parishes of Siberian Evangelical Lutheran Church during the Christmas liturgy.

Brothers and sisters,

The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem [Luke 2:15] to see the Saviour born.

“Bethlehem” is translated as “House of Bread”, and on Christmas night it became the real House of Bread; the Bread with a capital letter, the Bread descended from heaven [John 6:33], the Bread, of which we receive eternal life [John. 6:51].

That is why in the heaven above Bethlehem, the angels sang about “peace on earth” [Lk. 2:14] – peace with God, Who so loved us, that He sent His only begotten Son to us so that we might live through Him [1John 4: 9].

Let us hurry and go where Christ the true Bread from heaven awaits us. And let us constantly come to church in the new year to worship Christ here, not in front of His manger, like shepherds, but in front of the altar, from where the salvific Eucharist is given to us.

My beloved parishioners, I congratulate you with Christmas and I wish you a good, happy and churchly New Year!

And we wish you all God’s blessings at this Christmas time and New Year!

Your Siberian friends from “Faith and Hope”

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Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Rejoice with us! Today in the Parish of Saint Andrew in Novosibirsk Deacon Vitaly Smirnov was ordained into the priesthood. This is a real Christmas gift from God to the Lutherans in Siberia.

“The Bishop and the assistants lay their right hands on his head, and the Bishop says: By virtue of the authority given to me, I, with my brothers in the ministry, intrust you, according to the apostolic tradition, through the laying of our hands, the sacred ministry of the Word and sacraments, and define and ordain you as a priest of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the name of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! May the Lord bless you, and make rich fruit in the vineyard of the Lord, and let this fruit be to the everlasting life. Amen.” (Quotation from the Rite of Ordination).

Please pray for Rev. Vitaly Smirnov and for other Lutheran clergymen in Siberia.

“Faith and hope”

Please see attached photos.

P.S. And… in our “Faith and hope” archive we have a “Newsletter” from the year 2014 about the same man:

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Peace to you dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Recently our Bishop Vsevolod ordained Mr. Vitaly Smirnov as deacon for the parish of Saint Andrew in Novosibirsk. We asked several people in the parish what they think about it.

Pastor Alexey Streltsov, rector of Lutheran Theological Seminary (Novosibirsk): I remember Vitaly as a young student with acute interest in theology. He came to the Lutheran faith from Protestant background. So during his first year of study we jokingly called him among ourselves “Vitaly the Calvinist.” He knew Calvin’s Institutes quite well and wanted to compare reformed points with what he heard in our classroom. All in all it made him a very good and committed Lutheran student of theology: he got to know really well the treasures of the Gospel as they were presented in the Scripture and the Lutheran confessions. Vitaly stroke me as a man with utmost integrity. He had some difficult time with his disease, but his condition now allows him to serve in the Church. I am very glad that Vitaly has been ordained a deacon: ministry in the church is a logical result of the seminary studies. Vitaly still has a couple of courses left at the seminary, but it is a technical matter now. I am sure his work in our parish will be the real blessing for the Church.

Mrs. Nina Kasyanova, nurse: I think, Vitaly will be very good deacon, very good Church minister. I know him for long time. Not like some of former seminarians, he missed matins and vespers very rarely. He is the man of duty; he always does what he promises. He helps parishioners, cleans the church building, he does the work at the churchyard. Thus, he does the work that many people prefer to avoid. He has some health issues. Somebody else would say: “I should take care of myself, let others do the work.” But Vitaly didn’t make health the most important thing in his life. Ministry is more important for him. I saw him speaking to unbelievers. He never presses people, but at the same time he is very persuasive. I think it helps someone to come to the Church.

Ms. Natalia Sheludiakova, church organist: Deacon Vitaly has “speaking” last name, Smirnov. In Russian it is consonant with “smirny”, that is “humble” or “meek”. May it be a God’s providence? Saint Paul admonishes: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” [Eph. 4:1-2]. All these qualities Deacon Vitaly has. Sometimes it seems to me that if he would have three or four cheeks, instead of two, he would turn all of them to those, who smite him. I hope Vitaly will serve for long time in our Church. We always need people who reveal in themselves the image of Christ, humble Lamb of God.

Mr. Ruslan Zinnurov, seminary student: I know Vitaly for some years, and it always was a pleasure to communicate with him personally and in the ministry, when we both were sub-deacons (readers) in our parish. Especially I admire his good Scripture knowledge, his willingness to help people, and that he is very good father to his children. I believe, it “guarantees” that he will be good spiritual father for our parishioners. Thanks be to God, that He raises new ministers for our Church. I pray that Vitaly will be given with the pastoral office.

Bishop Vsevolod said: I remember a long time ago my Archbishop Jaan Kiivit said once, that the biggest problem of the Church is that there are people who are serving there, although they must not serve. It sounded a bit disappointedly, but that is why it is so important for the Church to keep the tradition to ordain a candidate first into the deaconate, and after he serves for few years, then the Church decides if he is worthy to be ordained into the priesthood. Because for the Church the priesthood is very serious matter, and she should always be attentive to those who enter into the holy ministry.

For me it is a great joy that Vitaly became our deacon. Because sometimes it seems that nowadays it is not easy to find young people, who are desire faithfully to serve God and His holy Church. But Vitaly is one of most faithful and pious Christians I know. I know him for many years. So I would like to wish him to keep “the gift of God that is within him through the laying on of my hands” [see 1Tim. 2:6] and to become a priest in few years.

Please pray for our newly ordained deacon Vitaly and for all the Siberian clergy.

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