Russian CorrespondentFall 2014

Dear friends, It would be easy to fill a whole newsletter with all the exciting things our boys are doing. I could write about Martin's successful 1st quarter of 1st grade, about Matvey's recovery from a second broken bone to continue his progress as a figure skater, about 7-month-old Lukas' love of exploring by crawling around and pulling himself up.... but the purpose of this newsletter is not to bore you with news about the family, but to excite you with stories about mission!... OK, I admit that some of the time hearing those family stories is more interesting, but this time I really do have a lot to share with you about the opportunities God has opened up for service here. I am feeling blessed and thankful. I pray that in your families and in your congregations there is also much new and exciting happening. May each of us feel the chance to be a part of God's mission of love through Jesus Christ for our neighbors. Your brother in Christ, Bradn

ELCR Churchwide Assembly My first story, though, is about an event where I was more of an observer than a participant.The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia was held September 17-19, and I was struck there by two major themes - peacemaking and mission. Bishop Alfred Eichholz (photo, front row in red shirt) from Kyrgyzstan, representing the Union of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (i.e., the association of Lutheran church bodies in most of the states of the former Soviet Union), spoke about peacemaking during the sermon at opening worship.Bishop Eicholz chose atimely theme, since all ofus continue to be greatlyconcerned about thesituation in Ukraine (seebelow). It would not havebeen possible, I think, tofind one common point ofview even among thesmall number of delegatesthat attend the synodassembly, but it was atvery least helpful to bereminded that as thosewho have been reconciledwith God through Christ,we are to be engaged in the ministry of reconciliation. This was not unrelated, of course, to the theme of mission, which we spoke about more explicitly later. Particularly important in this regard was the presentation by the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Martin Junge (photo, front right of Eicholz). Dr. Junge gave a lecture that challenged synod delegates to think hard about the goals and limits of mission. Initial discussion seemed to indicate that there is a need to integrate at a deeper level the understanding that mission is not something we do, but that God does, not one task of the church among many, but the guiding vision and purpose of the church - to work together with God to make God's love manifest. Such an understanding of mission, if I'm not mistaken, is held by Dietrich Brauer (photo, right of Junge), my former student at the Novosaratovka seminary, Bishop of the church in

European Russia and recently the "Acting Archbishop" of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia. The assembly elected Bishop Brauer as Archbishop (without the limited time frame and scope of responsibilities that the word "Acting" suggested), which will help this church put the theme of mission squarely in the center of attention. It was after hearing his report (not so much about the work that has been done as about his proposals for a common vision of our identity and call) that I realized that our church is making slow but significant steps forward, coming into its own, even as many long-term challenges (personnel, stewardship, education, worship renewal) remain with us for the time being.

May the Equipping Begin... The past months have been filled with new opportunities for the “Equipping for Service” educational program for which I am responsible. The core idea of the “Equipping...” project remains the same – “to maximize accessibility to quality educational opportunities in the Evangelical Lutheran Church through a program that is collaboratively planned, flexible, anddecentralized,” but in marked contrast to the events of the first part of the year, recently I've not only been a teacher, but also the primary organizer of events. To a degree this was truealready of the seminary I co-lead in Novosaratovka in mid-August - “Introduction to theSpiritual Life.” Most of the 14students who attended werefrom northwest Russia and arestudying theology through aninternet-based program ofdistance education. Some ofthem I knew quite well – theywere from the firstcongregation I served here inNovogord. Others were newacquaintances. In both cases Ienjoyed speaking with aboutspirituality since it is not atheme that would typically be addressed in an educational setting here. I led lessons about the goals of spiritual life, using a contemporary example (Thomas Merton) to bring the issue a bit closer. From there I went on to speak about this history of Christian spirituality through the lens of monasticism, and then from there returned to the question of collective aspects of spirituality, i.e., to congregational life. In this sphere I attempted to share with students a fewtools for analyzing their own congregations. September brought not only the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (see above), but also two more chances to arrange seminars. The first of these came together at the last minute – “Two Issues in Christian Ethics”, held in the congregation in Krasnoyarsk (Siberia). I thought that this active congregation that values educational opportunities would be open to approaching a difficult, contemporary issue, and I was not mistaken. We looked atthe question of whom we help and why, and that led us into the underlying question of how we go about moral decision making in as Christians. The two evenings brought together a total of 24 participants, which I consider to be quite successful given that people needed to make the trip to church after work in order to attend. I was also very pleased to see congregational members interested in applying their faith to concrete ethical and social questions that surround them. I hope that the future provides more opportunities for similar seminars.

The second event was south of Krasnoyarsk, in the region of Khakasia. This was a retreat forlay leaders that we called “I am a Servant.” The region has 10 congregations spread over a

150 mile radius, and most of them get only monthly visits from their pastor. The purpose of the seminar, then, was to support the team of people leading congregations on a week to week basis. I hoped to reach this goal both through fellowship and through thinking about the following questionstogether - “What does it mean to serve? When do I feel like a servant? How can one serve effectively?” In the process we talked about the way service is understood in society and in the Bible, Jesus as a model of service, love at the center of Christian service,

the Lutheran understanding of internal and external call, and our communal call as the church in this place. A number of concrete ideas were raised that the leaders intend to bring to realization – e.g., fund-raisers to help those in acute need, printing fliers about Lutheranism for distribution, and a cooperative attempt to form a new youth group in one of the congregations. In October I was very pleased to welcome Pastor Chris Repp (photo right, standing, clarifying a point with Andrey, a future pastor) back to Russia. Chris had been my mentor when I came to Russia at as a seminary intern in2001. About 2 years later, he passed on to me theposition of teacher of Church History, Systematicsand Ethics at the Novosaratovka TheologicalSeminary. When the opportunity arose to invite himfor participation in an academic conference co-organized by the church, we decided that it would begreat if he could also have contact with others throughthe “Equipping...” program. Chris and I chose to leadtwo 3-day seminars, one in Omsk (Siberia) and one inUlyanovsk (in European Russia on the Volga). Wethought that the title, “Law, Gospel and the LutheranConfessions Today,” would attract mostly pastors and students. We did have participants from these groups, but it turns out that the topic had wider appeal than we might have expected. In Omsk there were 9 participants (along with 7 others who were in and out) and inUlyanovsk a week later we had a very large number – always more than 20, and most of the time around 30. Although the theme of the seminar was the same, Chris and I had to seriously adapt our material to the different audiences we saw, but in both cases I believe that the time we spent together was meaningful. In Omsk the main thrust of my teaching was to motivate members of our church to familiarize themselves with the contents of our confessional documents in order to decide what role(s) they are to play in the life of our church. Chris focused on the issue of Law and Gospel as address in the Augsburg Confession and the Apology, demonstrating why this was important and how it applies to the interpretation of Biblical texts. In Omsk Seminary President Anton Tikhomirov was also with us and he first spoke about the confessions as a textual expression of Luther's Reformation break-through and then traced the development of Western theology from that time forward. In Ulyanovsk (photo top of next page) we kept things simpler, giving the most attention to the uses of the law and Biblical interpretation.

While there are not currently any plans for more seminars in 2014, the calendar for 2015 is filling up quickly. Priorities for the coming year will be: a pastoral care seminar in Samara, Holy Week worship and seminars in Magadan, a congregational leaders' seminar in Omsk , and liturgical training in western/central Siberia. If everything comes together as I hope, we'll also have a seminar on healthy congregations in the Urals, as well as events in Saratov and Irkutsk. Many thanks to you for your support and prayers. If any of you or your congregations are interested in making a special gift to help cover the expenses related to the “Equipping...” project, you can learn more about that through the ELCA's “Always Being Made New” initiative www.ELCA.org/campaign.

Continued Tensions between Russia and Ukraine As I write this newsletter, people are voting in makeshift elections in two breakaway regionsof Ukraine. Like almost every part of the situation in Ukraine, it is an ambivalent moment – is it right to hold a vote when there are questions about the vote's legitimacy? It is not clear how to react to this situation, but in this newsletter I thought that I might speak a bit about the view from here. This came up after I was asked to write a response to a short article that recently appeared in the online newsletter of my alma mater, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. The author of that article is a first year student at PLTS and has just recently returned to the U.S. from Ukraine, where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer. The article posed the question why Russia was doing what it is doing. Perhaps my words will also address some of the questions that arise in your congregations, too. * * * When it was suggested that I might offer a few words of how the situation in Ukraine looks from the other side of the border, my first thought was that I don't want to be in the awkward(to put it mildly!) position of defending authoritarianism and a cynical approach towards international law. But then I realized that it is possible to differentiate between explaining and justifying, and that it is possible to trust you to see that difference. One of the most important factors in understanding the feelings of ordinary Russians, why it is that they are so susceptible to state propaganda, is that they are convinced that Russians,Ukrainians and Belorussians are really one people. They know that their countries are different, that Ukrainians are a little poorer, a little freer, a little bit less straight-forward than Russians...and at the same time they think of themselves as close relatives. When they see hate for Russian among some radical Ukrainian nationalists, they feel betrayed by a family member, as if one of their cousins had all of a sudden become a fascist. (Russians really do think of all such conflicts in the light of the conflict that still so much influences

their history, WWII, during which tens of millions of Soviet citizens lost their lives). While this might do something to explain how Russians feel, this does not yet get to why Russia is acting as it is. I think that the issues are deeply psychological, we could even say spiritual. It seems to me that at the core is distrust and feeling of insecurity that flows from it. Why this distrust? While I think that it would be hard to pinpoint who is at fault for this, from a Russian perspective the history of the last centuries show that Russia's neighbors do not trust it, that they are not interested in just relations with Russia, that they are neither interested in a thriving Russia nor willing to reward Russia when it “plays by the rules.” FromEuropean powers limiting Russia's influence in the 18th and 19th centuries to the U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia in the late 20th and the expansion of NATO in the early 21st, Russians see evidence scattered everywhere that the West uses the rhetoric of democracy and human rights but in its international relationships holds to no principle other than the will to power. In that sense Russia sees itself as always a current or potential victim, and in cases like the situation with Ukraine it takes the position that the “best defense is a good offense.” Moreover, Russians are used to hardship and even take a sort of pride in the fact that they have survived despite great suffering (e.g., the memory of the 900 day siege of Leningrad during WWII is an an active part of St. Petersburg's identity today). Sanctions convince average Russians that the West treats Russia as an enemy, and it is this mentality that severely limits the effectiveness of sanctions. In general such pressure from the outside makeRussians either more fatalistic or more determined to resist, neither of which helps accomplish what sanctions intend. Today (though things could change tomorrow – this country is getting less and less predictable the longer I live here) I'd imagine President Putin has proven his point in eastern Ukraine - “we could make things much, much worse” - and thatin exchange for him not making things worse, the West will turn a blind eye to the annexation of Crimea. If in the past the West had been consistent in its approach to a whole host of issues - human rights, the right of peoples to self- determination, the principle of territorial integrity, etc., perhaps there would be the option of taking the moral high ground. But we've lost any moral credit that we might once have had in Russia's eyes, and right now even truly constructive suggestions for moving forward that come from the outside will be treated with great suspicion. While polls show that a very large majority of Russians support their government's position,there is a place where a different opinion is heard – the church. Here are the quiet voices asking for and praying for peace. Here are those who realize that violence and mistrust are a dead-end route. Here there is hope not just for getting through this time, but that by the witness and fellowship of the faithful, God might build trust between enemies and finally bring us to true reconciliation.

The basics.... I am a Lutheran pastor serving through the Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Lower Saxony (ELM) in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia, where I am in charge of an educational program. I maintainrelationships with partners (individuals and congregations) in the U.S. and in Germany through my blog: www.russiancorrespondent.blogspot.com and these newsletters. If you have any questions for me,please feel free to write to me at: bradnbuerkle@gmail.com.