Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

Our modern time is not like the time of the first apostolic community. But our Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8), which means that His Word is no less alive and active (Heb. 4:12) now than then. His mercies never come to an end (Lam. 3:22), and He does not stop adding the saved to the Church.

An example of this is the confirmation of two new sisters in the village of Sukhovo (Taseevsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Region).

Distances in Siberia are large, and you have to spend a lot of time “moving in space” to visit parishioners who are living far from a nearest parish.  Although, of course, the term “far” is relative in Siberia. Here everything is “far.” Or maybe everything is not far. Just a few hundred miles — and we are already there.

Father Vitali Gavrilov or the parish of the Transfiguration in Tuim regularly visits Maria Innokentievna, the parishioner who many years ago moved to the village of Sukhovo and lives in there [see Newsletter #271].  This is about 750 kilometers (465 miles) away from Tuim, and it takes about 10 hours to get there. Some parts of the road are uncertain.

Every time when Fr. Vitali visits Maria Innokentievna, her neighbors also come to her home to listen to the Gospel. And on January 2, the two sisters Valentina and Nina, who were listening to the Word of God and attending our home Divine services, received the confirmation and became new members of our Church.

Now in the village of Sukhovo there is a tiny home congregation, and there are still more of those who come to listen to the Gospel.

Please pray for new members of our Church and for their neighbors, and for safe travels of the priests in Siberia.

And please come to visit us!

We wish you blessed Christmastide and Happy New Year!

“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,

When did the Christian Church begin?  Different people respond differently. Martin Luther speaks of Adam and Eve as the first church.  Most people consider the feast of Pentecost to be the birthday of the Church, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in tongues of flame.  Sometimes such a beginning is seen in the events of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

But about Christmas, it is quite possible to say that with it began the Church — the mysterious Body of Christ, in which we are all members, according to Saint Paul [1Cor. 12:12-13]. After all, the Lord Himself was born “to save His people from their sins” [Mt. 1:21].  The Word has become flesh to dwell among us [John 1:14].

In the Church for each of us, this salvific presence of Christ began and continues, when He abides in us, and we in Him [John 6:56].  That is why, today, as those ancient shepherds [Luke 2:15], we came to worship Christ and hear the Gospel.  But we are more blessed than the shepherds, because we have the Eucharist — a meal of eternal life.

If we take of Holy Communion, we will not die [John 6:54], but we will live forever with our Wonderful Savior.

I congratulate you on Christmas, my beloved parishioners, and I wish you a 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”

Please see the photos from the Christmas night liturgy in the Parish of Saint Andrew (Novosibirsk).

Please visit our “Facebook” page: https://www.facebook.com/siberianelc

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Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Let us tell you about the trip of Fr. Igor Kizyaev (of the parish of the Holy Trinity in Chita) to Kharagun.

This village is not far from Chita (only about 150 miles), but it is almost impossible to get there by car, because the road is quite bad, and so you need to go by train.

In Kharagun, Fr. Igor visited house of Ivan Konovalov.  Ivan graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Novosibirsk and served as a subdeacon (layman helping a priest) in the parish in Chita for some years, but then the family reasons forced him to leave for Kharagun.

But there he does not sit idle and does not lose time in vain, but instructs his relatives and neighbors in the faith.  And so in order to baptize some of them that Fr. Igor came now.  On the first day of his visit, he met with them and conducted a lesson on the basics of Lutheran doctrines.

The next morning, Ivan’s father arrived (he is 70 years old), who has not yet been baptized.  But by this time he was already instructed in the Lutheran faith, and had long dreamed of being baptized.

So Fr. Igor conducted the more detailed lesson with the catechumens, and then he celebrated the Mass.  During the Mass, four people were baptized (including a newborn baby, Ivan’s son) and received Holy Communion.

Please pray for Lutherans living in villages scattered throughout Siberia, for Subdeacon Ivan and his family, and for safe travel of priests. And we wish you blessed time of Advent!

“Faith and hope”

Please see attached photos.

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Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Our Bishop Vsevolod visited three parishes in Khakassia (Tuim, Abakan and Sayanogorsk) to celebrate the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels there. Local priests assisted the Bishop during the liturgies.

May we bring to you attention part of the Bishop’s sermon:

We read in today’s Gospel that,

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!”

And He said to them, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.”

(from Lk 10:17-19)

An invisible war becomes visible not only in the world, but also in the Church, where the successors of the apostles use the power God has given them to attack the force of the enemy, to conquer it through “the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of testimony” (Rev. 12:11). The Word and sacraments are the weapons that God has placed in our hands.
  
That is why the Lord commanded the Church to baptize all nations: to snatch people from the power of darkness and to put them in the safest place in the world: into the Church. The Church is a fortified city set on the top of the hill (from Ps 60:9 and Matt 5:14), she is a fortress that the most terrible gates of hell cannot prevail.
  
Here, through baptism, we and our children become people of God, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hands (from John 10:29). Here we are sealed with the sign of the cross and our names are written into the “Book of Life” (Dan 12:1). Here the Lord is with us not only spiritually, but even physically: in the Eucharist, our body unites with His Body, and our blood mixes with His Blood.
 
All this the Lord gives us to save us. This is our God.
• He wants us to follow Him.
• To resist in all life’s trials.
• To believe in Him.
• To imitate Him.
• To learn from Him to love even those who hate us.
• To forgive them and to pray for them.
 
It is precisely because we have little strength for all this, that we are constantly sliding down to sins and hate, God sends us His invisible helpers – angels to help us.

Please pray that the travels of the Lutheran clergymen in Siberia are safe and fruitful for the Kingdom of God.

“Faith and hope”

Please see attached photos

P.S. In the church of Saint Luke, we cannot finish the necessary repairs. A lot has already been done, first of all, what is needed before the winter starts (the walls are insulated; a new coal stove is bought and installed). But now the money from the donations raised has completely run out, and we need help to complete the repairs in the rest of the church building (install new heating and water pipes, insulate and put new floors). If you can help the parish in Abakan, please help!

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Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

May we share with you the small travel-report we received from father Vitali Gavrilov of the parish of Transfiguration in Tuim.

Many of our parishioners live quite far from us. Well, what is “far”? Here in Siberia, everything is “far.”  Or… maybe not far. Just a few hundred miles — and we are already there.

So last week I needed to visit a lady who is our parishioner; her name is Maria, she lives in the village of Sukhovo. It is about 750 kilometers (465 miles) away from Tuim.  This is my responsibility!  So in the early early morning we got into a car and drove off.  The roads in our Siberia are ambiguous.  Sometimes you have to drive for a very long time.

But be that as it may, we arrived in the evening.  Before that, sister Maria, finding no place for herself, left the house many times and gazed steadily at the road, waiting for us at the gate. The meeting was with tears and joy.

And then the amazing began.  After all, we were traveling with the goal of visiting our parishioner, to give her Holy Communion and to instruct in the faith, supporting and comforting her. But there are eight people came to her house.  These were the neighbors who were also waiting for us.  Using this wonderful opportunity, I talked with them for two hours, told them about the Church and her sacraments, about our Lord Who gave His Church authority to baptize new people and to forgive sins. Then I explained why now I can’t give Holy Communion to everyone.  But I can teach them, and then, after baptism (or confirmation, if someone was already baptized), I can give them Holy Communion. All people listened attentively, asking questions, and these were really good questions.

Do you know what happiness is for a priest when people listen to him?

Well, after this long conversation, I served the Mass, with music (my wife Anna brought a small battery-powered synthesizer).

And in the morning, before we were about to leave, one woman brought us a basket of domestic eggs and asked me to come to their house and to bless her family. I went to visit this family immediately. I talked with people, encouraged them and said the blessing.

The owner of this house is 88 years old; she is very kind and wise.  She asked me to give her confirmation as soon as possible, she said that she understands how important the Eucharist is, and that she believes that it is the true Body and true Blood of Jesus Christ.  I promised her and others that I would soon come to Sukhovo again and begin to instruct them, and then later I would conduct a rite of confirmation to all diligent students.

There are some very old people in the village who are already preparing to leave this world, and I will do everything I can so that they will be saved.

And then we were still talk for a long time. Because of that, we were not able to leave in the morning, but left only in the evening, before which we ate delicious properly made donuts. 🙂

Before we left, the villagers again said that they are waiting for us. Now I worry more, and I pray for those who want to be in the Church, but live so far from us.  I ask all of you to pray for these people, and I also ask the Bishop to let me visit regularly not only Angarsk and Buryatia, but also the village of Sukhovo.

Please pray for the Lutheran mission in Siberia and for safe travels of the priests.

“Faith and hope”

Please see attached photos. 

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Peace to you, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today, in accordance with her calendar, the Church celebrates the day of Saint James the Apostle.

Of course, in some parishes, this holiday (like the others that fall on a weekday) is moved to the nearest Sunday.

But we congratulate you today, and may we bring to your attention an excerpt from the sermon by our Bishop Vsevolod, that he read in the parish of Saint James the Apostle in Novokuznetsk.

Saint James became the first martyr of the twelve apostles. But we know practically nothing from the Scriptures about his life and ministry. The Book of Acts only tells us about his death, and even so briefly, as if by chance:

At that time, King Herod raised his hands to some of the Church members to make them evil, and killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

Acts 12:1-2

The compilers of the Church lectionaries had to add a few verses from the previous chapter [Acts 11:27-30] to this reading so that it would not look too short. Even though the history of collecting of relief during the famine under the days of Claudius Caesar has no direct connection to James the Apostle.

Although it is possible that among the priests who received this relief, there were those ordained by Saint James. After all, it was through the apostolic ordination that the Church received her first bishops and presbyters (and she is still standing in this continuous line of succession from the apostles).

Against this Church, King Herod (the grandson of the most “famous” of the Herods — one who killed the children of Bethlehem), “raised his hands”, and some Christians were arrested and Saint James was executed. Here is a description of his death: “and killed James, the brother of John, with the sword”; there are seven words in Greek and six in Russian.

And that is all we know about Saint James from the Scriptures. The early Church writers contradictory tell us about the guard who was captured by the apostle’s preaching so much that he publicly confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus and was executed with the one he guarded. Was it happen? Maybe.

But still, it is written so little! So little we know about the apostle! And I realized that this is because the greatest saints are almost always invisible. In the same twelfth chapter of Acts, much more is written about Herod. Earthly rulers always produce much more noise than God’s saints. The people glorify these rulers, the crowds shout to them (as they shouted to King Herod): “This is the voice of God, not of a man” [Acts 12:23], they get public adoration, they are named as “fuhrers,” “lifelong leaders” and “fathers of nations.”

Around them always there are a lot of those who want, if not “to sit at their right hand and at the left” (these places have long been occupied), then at least to snatch a small piece of a celebration of life, constantly hovering around them.

In our world, the most popular persons are obvious sinners, who are demonstrating their permissiveness. But I do not envy them: celebrity and authority impose too much imprint on a person, and it is doubtful that those who are caught in such nets will be able to save their souls. King Herod could not.

Once, brothers James and John both dreamed of such human glory [see Matt. 20:20-28]. But the Lord graciously chose another way for them. Following that way, Saint James refused a human glory and obtained the glory of God. He suffered death from the earthly king and entered the eternal kingdom of the King of Kings.

Please pray for the Lutheran clergymen and laypeople in Siberia.

“Faith and hope”

Please see attached photos from the parish of Saint James in Novokuznetsk.

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