It’s Sunday in St. Petersburg — the first Sunday of Lent — and for morning worship at the Anglican Chaplaincy in St. Petersburg, we’re seated on the free-throw shooting line.
This hardy band of believers, about 40 in all, come from Anglican traditions in their home countries — England, Wales, Australia, several African nations — along with a few from here in St. Petersburg and today four from the PC(USA): Joe and Hannah Kang, missionaries at the ELCROS (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States) Seminary who worship here regularly; Gary Payton, regional liaison for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland; and me.
They worship on what is now the third floor of the Swedish Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg (second photo from top). Before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 this was a large cathedral, with towering vaulted ceilings. During the communist era, the church was taken by the government, converted into a three-story complex and used for storage and offices and here, on the third floor, a gymnasium was built.
The backboards and goals have been taken down and the bleachers have been removed, but the floor is still intact. And so our seats in the front row of the worship space are even with the foul line (top photo).
A retired Anglican canon conducts weekly services here and provides pastoral care to the small flock. Lay member of the congregation clearly carry the ministry load. One woman gets up at the end of the service and announces the annual Lenten fundraising project — this is the third year for this program so, she says, “I believe we can now call it a tradition.”
The congregation is going to raise money to buy ducks for farm families in Bangladesh, a project akin to Heifer International in the U.S. Last year they raised funds for mosquito nets for poor Malawians.
She distributes film canisters and urges church members to fill them between now and easter with 5-ruble coins, which stack in the canisters perfectly. “Don’t use ‘kopeks’ (lesser coins that are worth a fraction of a penny),” she says in her clipped British accent. “They drive me simply mad.”
As at both services Gary and I attended last Sunday in Moscow — at a Russian Orthodox Church and at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, pastored by PC(USA) missionary Bob Bronkema — we partook in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Once again I was struck by the unity of Christ that is present everywhere in the world no matter the race or national origins of the congregation members nor the denomination of the church.
In such circumstances, particularly here in Russia where the church is reemerging after 70 years of communist rule, one is reminded that squabbles over the color of the new carpet in the sanctuary or tile in the church kitchen or color of new paint in the fellowship hall just don’t matter.
In the afternoon, we walked over to visit Jin Eun Kim, another of our missionaries in St. Petersburg, who worships with a Korean-Russian Lutheran congregation in the Church of Peter, the largest ELCROS building here (third photo from top).
This congregation, along with a number of other congregations that also use the building, worships in the second-floor sanctuary of a building that used to be a single towering worship space. The Soviet government turned this sanctuary into a natatorium (swimming pool). Pictures in the narthex depict large swim meets that used to take place here between the 1960s and 1980s.
The swimming pool is still here — the sanctuary floor is laid over it like a giant pool cover. The spectator bleachers are still intact on either side of the new sanctuary (fourth photo from top). Church members talk of converting the first floor, where remains of the pool can still be seen, into a memorial to Lutherans of various nationalities who died for their faith during the Soviet era.
Walking around St. Petersburg, we see dozens of churches, testaments to the faith that people from all over Europe and Asia brought to St. Petersburg after Czar Peter the Great began construction of this wondrous city in 1703 as a “Window to the West.” He moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg and it became a far more cosmopolitan city than Moscow ever was. After the revolution in 1917, Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow, and St. Petersburg — renamed Leningrad — languished somewhat until the collapse of communism in 1991.
It is once again vibrant here, with much new construction and rapid reemergence of the city’s many religious traditions. Russian Orthodox churches still predominate (fifth photo from top), but strolling down the main boulevard — Nevsky Prospekt — we see Swedish Lutheran, Finnish Lutheran, German Lutheran, Roman Catholic (bottom photo), Armenian Orthodox and other churches.
Some with former swimming pools or gymnasiums and some without.
This hardy band of believers, about 40 in all, come from Anglican traditions in their home countries — England, Wales, Australia, several African nations — along with a few from here in St. Petersburg and today four from the PC(USA): Joe and Hannah Kang, missionaries at the ELCROS (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States) Seminary who worship here regularly; Gary Payton, regional liaison for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland; and me.
They worship on what is now the third floor of the Swedish Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg (second photo from top). Before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 this was a large cathedral, with towering vaulted ceilings. During the communist era, the church was taken by the government, converted into a three-story complex and used for storage and offices and here, on the third floor, a gymnasium was built.
The backboards and goals have been taken down and the bleachers have been removed, but the floor is still intact. And so our seats in the front row of the worship space are even with the foul line (top photo).
A retired Anglican canon conducts weekly services here and provides pastoral care to the small flock. Lay member of the congregation clearly carry the ministry load. One woman gets up at the end of the service and announces the annual Lenten fundraising project — this is the third year for this program so, she says, “I believe we can now call it a tradition.”
The congregation is going to raise money to buy ducks for farm families in Bangladesh, a project akin to Heifer International in the U.S. Last year they raised funds for mosquito nets for poor Malawians.
She distributes film canisters and urges church members to fill them between now and easter with 5-ruble coins, which stack in the canisters perfectly. “Don’t use ‘kopeks’ (lesser coins that are worth a fraction of a penny),” she says in her clipped British accent. “They drive me simply mad.”
As at both services Gary and I attended last Sunday in Moscow — at a Russian Orthodox Church and at the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy, pastored by PC(USA) missionary Bob Bronkema — we partook in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Once again I was struck by the unity of Christ that is present everywhere in the world no matter the race or national origins of the congregation members nor the denomination of the church.
In such circumstances, particularly here in Russia where the church is reemerging after 70 years of communist rule, one is reminded that squabbles over the color of the new carpet in the sanctuary or tile in the church kitchen or color of new paint in the fellowship hall just don’t matter.
In the afternoon, we walked over to visit Jin Eun Kim, another of our missionaries in St. Petersburg, who worships with a Korean-Russian Lutheran congregation in the Church of Peter, the largest ELCROS building here (third photo from top).
This congregation, along with a number of other congregations that also use the building, worships in the second-floor sanctuary of a building that used to be a single towering worship space. The Soviet government turned this sanctuary into a natatorium (swimming pool). Pictures in the narthex depict large swim meets that used to take place here between the 1960s and 1980s.
The swimming pool is still here — the sanctuary floor is laid over it like a giant pool cover. The spectator bleachers are still intact on either side of the new sanctuary (fourth photo from top). Church members talk of converting the first floor, where remains of the pool can still be seen, into a memorial to Lutherans of various nationalities who died for their faith during the Soviet era.
Walking around St. Petersburg, we see dozens of churches, testaments to the faith that people from all over Europe and Asia brought to St. Petersburg after Czar Peter the Great began construction of this wondrous city in 1703 as a “Window to the West.” He moved the capital of Russia from Moscow to St. Petersburg and it became a far more cosmopolitan city than Moscow ever was. After the revolution in 1917, Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow, and St. Petersburg — renamed Leningrad — languished somewhat until the collapse of communism in 1991.
It is once again vibrant here, with much new construction and rapid reemergence of the city’s many religious traditions. Russian Orthodox churches still predominate (fifth photo from top), but strolling down the main boulevard — Nevsky Prospekt — we see Swedish Lutheran, Finnish Lutheran, German Lutheran, Roman Catholic (bottom photo), Armenian Orthodox and other churches.
Some with former swimming pools or gymnasiums and some without.
2 comments:
Thanks Jerry. Gary took me on a very similar trip a little over four years ago. I came back wondering why, we as PCUSA waste so much time, energy and money in minutia, theological battles and arguments over the color of carpet, when the Christians of Russia, of all denominations take their faith so seriously.They continue on, committed to serving Jesus Christ. They continue to rebuild that which was torn apart over 75 years. They lovingly remember the sacrifices and those who gave their lives to preach and live the Gospel. Wow, a people with so little reaching out to others around the world that they feel have even less.
Thanks so much for sharing your trip. You too will return to the offices in Louisville changed by your experiences on this trip. May you continue to be blessed.
Francie Irwin
REally great blog Jerry -love the photo of KFC in Russian
hadn't realised he looked so like old joe Stalin!
love jane
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