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Recently one 11-year-old Presbyterian congregation established
by a Korean Presbyterian missionary applied for a membership to
the ELCROS here in St. Petersburg. The final decision will be
made by the bishops' conference in March. Upon approval, the congregation
will enjoy full membership in the ELCROS while it maintains its
own Presbyterian identity and autonomy.
In our previous letter we mentioned St. Anna's Church, the oldest
Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg. Construction was completed
in 1779, and it was dedicated the same year. This church housed
the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Soviet Union for ten years, beginning in 1925. It was then confiscated
by the Communist regime in 1935 and turned into a movie theater,
"Spartak," until 2001. In the summer of 2001 the city
authority turned down the request of the ELCROS to return the
property, and the "Spartak" was turned instead into
a nightclub.
On December 6, 2002 this church building burned down. Despite
the effort of 120 firemen from 4:40 in the morning the building
was completely lost. Now the city authority is willing to return
the burnt building to ELCROS, and the legal process has begun
along with the plan of restoration of this historic building.
Beside St. Anna's Church, ELCROS is now negotiating for the return
of nine other historic Lutheran Church buildings within the Russian
Federation. At any rate, ELCROS is planning to restore the building
of the St. Anna's Church and to open it not only as a Lutheran
but also as an ecumenical center. We ask your prayers especially
for this painstaking effort of our partner church, ELCROS.
After the three-week Christmas break the seminary opened its
second quarter on January 13. Joe is still teaching two courses:
theology of the Old Testament, and interpretation of the fourth
Gospel. He enjoys his students, who are all bright young Russians
and very eager to study theology for their future ministry. Currently,
all ten students are of Lutheran background. This seminary, however,
is open to admitting students from other churches of the Reformed
tradition. Coming from the PC(USA) we are really excited about
the chance to train non-Lutheran students, too. In a few month
the construction of new offices and faculty housing will be completed.
Hannah has resumed her Russian language study three days a week
while doing her ministry through the home. She sometimes meets
with and entertains Korean missionaries and their wives in this
city.
We both want to extend our sincerest thanks to you all for your
continuous prayers and support for our ministry in this country.
Until we bring the next update to you, stay in peace, good health
and joy of resurrection Jesus has brought. Especially in our ardent
prayers we hold all of you, our fellow Christians all over the
world and political leaders of nations to work for the "Shalom."
"Dosvidanya!" - Bye for now!
In Christ,
Joe and Hannah Kang
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 79
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