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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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.

Download as PDF

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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