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‘Heroes of the faith’ In Russia, Lutherans are also building up their church, focusing primarily on lay leadership. Unlike Tanzania, identifying as Lutheran there “means to be a minority,” said Dietrich Brauer, archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia (ELCR). The majority of people are Russian Orthodox


or practice Islam, and many consider Lutheranism a sect. “[Being Lutheran] is not always easy. It demands courage,” he said. Lutherans who kept the faith during the Soviet


regime know much about courage. From 1922 to 1991 the government only tolerated religion behind closed doors. Lutheran bishops and pastors were executed or lived in exile. Despite this, Russian Lutherans continued to worship in each other’s homes. “They knew hymns by heart, baptized children and prayed as they could,” Brauer said. Bradn Buerkle, an ELCA missionary in St.


Petersburg, believes faith helped the Lutherans survive that era. “Part of the responsibility of the church [today] is to take care of people who lived through the oppression,” he said. “They were heroes of the faith.” Today the ELCR has 50,000 members in


300 congregations across Russia. The distances between congregations are huge, and many are without pastors. “The church is very young after being reborn,


after having the freedom to develop a public church again starting in the 90s,” Buerkle said.


Members of a congregation in Abakan, south-central Siberia, participate in a seminar conducted by ELCA missionary Bradn Buerkle.


Marina (left), Anya, Viktoria and Galina (last names withheld), Lutheran lay leaders from the Abakan region, attend a team building retreat led by Buerkle.


A need for more theological training inspired


the church to partner with the ELCA on the Equipping for Service project. Buerkle administers the project, which is being funded by gifts to Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA. For three years, he has traveled throughout the country to conduct educational and leadership seminars for lay leaders. Buerkle has seen the strength of lay leadership


firsthand. While the 25 members of a congregation in Abakan, south-central Siberia, waited for a new pastor, lay leaders covered preaching, communion and other duties. By the time they called a new pastor, the congregation had grown to 35 people. Now, with a pastoral vacancy again, “the congregation is not so anxious, due in part to their participation in the Equipping for Service project,” Buerkle said. Today it has 50 members. The ELCR is unique in that “there is no


separation between laypeople and pastors. It is a complicated but a crucial point for Russia,” Brauer said. “For the church of the majority, the qualitative difference is very important. Ordination is not a sacrament in our church and there is no class of priests as a social group.” The empowerment of lay leaders combined with


the Lutherans’ strong faith gives Buerkle hope for the future. “When I saw how many great laypeople there were, their circumstances were such that they wouldn’t get to seminary, that’s what helped me to develop this program, seeing the potential that was out there,” he said. “It’s important to say just how committed the lay leaders are here. In the Russian context, you have to be willing to endure great hardships [to be Lutheran].”


16 JULY 2016


Photo courtesy of Bradn Buerkle


Photo courtesy of Bradn Buerkle


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