July 3, 2009

Rev. Irina Margulis, pastor of Aspiration United Methodist Church, and Anton Kuzmin discuss how United Methodists in St. Petersburg, Russia, will use the new space purchased by Minnesota United Methodists.

At annual conference session in May, I asked, “Why did the United Methodist cross the road?” The answer is based on the old why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road jokes: to get to the other side. But why would United Methodists want to get to the other side? Because Jesus is always crossing the road to the other side, where our neighbor is.

The Minnesota Annual Conference crossed the road to meet our neighbor when it made the commitment to purchase a building for the Northwest Conference of the Eurasia Area of the United Methodist Church. The road was wide and the journey was long to fulfill this commitment to our neighbors in St. Petersburg, but in January 2009, we sent $600,000 to purchase the building.

On June 14, a delegation from Minnesota (Steve Mahle, Rev. Kathi Austin Mahle, Rev. Ken Ehrman, and I) visited the newly purchased building in St. Petersburg while visiting the annual conference. We saw the building that will become the conference and district headquarters as well as the worship site for three congregations and a teaching space. I never dreamed—nor did our brothers and sisters in St. Petersburg—that they would be able to purchase such a wonderful space! The global economic crisis actually worked in our favor, enabling them to purchase a much better building now than they would have months ago.

The building is two subway stops plus a ten-minute walk from downtown St. Petersburg—a great location! It has a police substation on the floor above and a youth center above that. It has new replacement windows and is bright even without lights on. Plans are already in place to use part of the money to renovate and the first worship services are expected to take place in September.

During this visit I learned a few lessons about crossing the road to our neighbor.

Our neighbors are focusing on reaching out. There are mostly young people in the United Methodist Church in Russia—both clergy and laity. Again and again young people in their 20s and 30s told us they came to Christ and the church because “a friend invited me and I went.” Most of them had not been raised in the church and now many of them invite their parents to church! Invite, invite, invite!

I also learned that the church is small in Eurasia, including St. Petersburg. There were only 46 people at the Northwest Russia Annual Conference session (with about another 15 visitors such as ourselves). Therefore the session felt more like those in the early history of our denomination. People came together to support one another, to “see each other’s face,” as it says in the great annual conference hymn, “Are We Yet Alive?” They spent an entire evening singing and receiving the greetings of those of us who were visiting them. Their business is less formal with few, if any, legislative proposals! Their accommodations were very sparse and simple.

They aren’t as sophisticated in their organization as we are, but they are learning to take more ownership of the church. Bishop Hans Växby is helping them to have a functioning Board of Ordained Ministry and other decision-making bodies that are both empowered and held accountable.

Bishop Växby asked all the clergy to prepare ministry plans (just like we are now asking of our clergy and congregations) and at conference session each pastor reports on their progress toward their goals. Bishop Växby told me that one clergywoman sat weeping in the session because she didn’t realize that they were really going to have to report on their work and she hadn’t taken ministry plans seriously enough to report anything!

Give your neighbor what they need, not what you want to give them. Some Minnesota United Methodists may have been thinking that one way we could be neighbor to our brothers and sisters in St. Petersburg is to organize a work team to renovate the new building. It will be renovated shortly so they don’t need that from us. What they do need is a continuing relationship.

Funds raised by Minnesota United Methodists purchased space in this building for church, office, and learning space for the United Methodist Church in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Photo by Ken Ehrman

They also hope that we will be able to help them equip and furnish the building. They need many things for their offices and worship space once it is renovated and they can move in. I will let you know in early fall the list of equipment and furnishings they need so your Sunday school classes and other groups might be able to provide the monies for them—like a gift registry. Plan for that in the near future.

Also, they long to learn more about Christianity and United Methodism. Many of them—even the pastors—are new Christians and so training is essential. They have a curriculum and they need teachers to help them learn and grow in their faith and being the church. They hope to see some of us come to Russia to help them learn.

Our neighbors can teach us about hope. When you consider that the United Methodist Church in Russia had declined to almost nothing and now it is rising out of the ashes, you can’t help but have a sense of hope about our own experiences of decline. The church in Russia is really a re-start, having existed before the Soviet Union, but having almost died. It reminded me of being a seed, sown in the cold, dark earth for many years, but now sprouting in a warmer, more nurturing environment.

We met in a Lutheran church in St. Petersburg to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Methodism in St. Petersburg and 120 years of Methodism in Russia. The Lutheran building existed before the revolution but during the years of the Soviet Union, it had been converted into a swimming pool! This was not an unusual way to use church buildings; many were also used for grain and commodity storage. Signs of its former use as a swimming pool are evident and yet it’s a sign that not even the gates of hell will prevail against the church of Jesus Christ! Let our brothers and sisters in Russia give us hope to rise again in our own communities to be church, sharing and giving witness to life in Christ.

Getting to know your neighbor is fun! Russians have little but they give a lot and they offer incredible hospitality. One 27-year-old, Anton Kuzmin—who has been a Christian for about a year—took time off from his job to coordinate the conference session, including taking us guests around St. Petersburg for a day. He made sure that we lacked for nothing, and with a delightful smile and spirit! He exemplified radical hospitality in all that he did.

Raising the money for the building in St. Petersburg has been hard and sometimes frustrating work, but I am joyous at what the Minnesota Annual Conference has provided to a young church that is rising anew after nearly dying out.

Please keep our brothers and sisters in your prayers as they are church in a changing culture and time; much like us!

Read more about the challenges of ministry in Russia in the July-August 2009 issue of The Interpreter Magazine.

Bishop Sally Dyck