Ukrainian Lutherans: Man Must Seek Salvation in Daily Life
The Day has been paying special attention to the Orthodox churches of Ukraine. It is only natural, considering that Orthodox adherents make up 50-60% of believers. Also, the local Orthodox Church is divided into several antagonized sections, which does not make public life any easier. Meanwhile, there are quite a few other Christian churches in Ukraine, among them ones founded several centuries ago and now freely professing their creed. Some communities boast active and eventful religious life, showing tolerance toward other confessions and a high cultural standard. Too bad our traditions do not include steady contacts among various Christian churches, for this would certainly benefit one and all. The feature below is about the Ukrainian Lutherans, descendants of German settlers in Ukraine.
Last year, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine marked the 10th anniversary of its foundation — the second one since the fall of the Soviet regime. In 1992, the first GEL communities started functioning in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk. Having risen from ruin, GELCU proclaimed itself the legal successor to the Lutheran Church of the Russian empire, whose first communities had emerged in the 18th century in Ukraine. That same year, GELCU became part (as a regional church) of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The central GELCU office is in Odesa, accommodating the largest German Lutheran community. Since 1999, GELCU has been headed by Bishop Dr. Edmund Ratz from Bavaria.
The name “German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine” was discussed for quite some time and, in 2000, it was finally decided to leave alone the adjective German. According to Dr. Klaus-Jurgen Rjopke (Munich), the main reason is the German Ukrainians’ desire to remember their origin in the country of Reformation and Martin Luther, the founder of the Church. However, an increasing number of voices have been heard of late, protesting its ethnic insularity. At the last Synod (October 2002), President Waldemar Lisnij declared, “It is necessary to make people of different parentage feel at home in our Church; we must use the Russian and Ukrainian languages more actively, otherwise we will remain an ethnic church without a future because of German emigration.”
At present, GELCU consists of 40 communities uniting some 4,000 German Ukrainian adherents. The services are celebrated by 10 pastors. In some communities [judicatories], this is done by female community leaders and Synod members. Services are conducted in German, aided by interpreters (as most parishioners do not know their ancestors’ language), Russian, and Ukrainian. In addition to Sunday services, children’s services are performed in certain temples (e.g., St. Catherine’s Church in Kyiv). Religious classes are held for adult attenders on a regular basis, along with theological lectures and conferences. A conference dedicated to Martin Luther was recently held at the National University. After ruthless purges under the Soviets, the Lutherans still consider the revival and blossoming of their Church a miracle worked by the Lord.
The Lutheran Canon, adopted back in 1832, reads that the GELCU “belongs to the single Divine Christian and Apostolic Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ... It is called upon to preserve and propagate His Message, the Gospels, for the glory of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost... The Evangelical Lutheran Church is attached to Scripture, the Old and New Testaments, as the only source and the infallible norm of all the teachings and deeds of the Church;... it further recognizes the creed of the Lutheran Church, especially the veritable Augsburg Confession and the Small Catechism of Martin Luther, regarding these as pure interpretations of the Word.”
The Bavarian Land Church has, since 1992, most actively participated in the organizational and spiritual renaissance of the Lutheran Church in Ukraine, sending pastors to work on a permanent basis, financing restoration projects at old Lutheran temples and pastor’s homes (e.g., in Dnipropetrovsk, Simferopol, Yalta, Mykolayiv, Lutsk, Kyiv, Odesa), assisting newly established communities with the acquisition of buildings and premises, financing training courses; most importantly, aiding with rest and recreation projects for children and youth (in the Carpathian Mountains, Truskavets, Yalta). This year, St. Catherine’s Church in Kyiv provided the parishioners’ children with resort accommodations; 30 elderly adherents received spa treatment in Myrhorod. One of the faithful, Tetiana Fokina, wrote in the parish edition The Community Letter: “Our community and the Church are a small island of humanity in the surrounding, often cruel world.”
St. Catherine’s congregation in Kyiv, led by the Rev. Peter Sachi, is constantly in touch with fellow members in Germany. Ukrainian parishioners visit Munich and their German counterparts travel to Kyiv. The latest Feast of the Pentecost in Kyiv was attended by guests from Munich. They heard Bach’s cantata performed by the capital’s reputed Lutheran choir, conducted by the Rev. Sorokopud and accompanied by the National Opera’s orchestra.
Also, St. Catherine’s Church is well known to Kyiv music lovers, especially those living in Pechersk, with its regular Sunday and red-letter-day religious concerts, including famous compositions. Last summer, the choir toured Poland and enjoyed great success with its Evangelical, Orthodox, and Ukrainian folk songs.
The 200th anniversary of the German Evangelical Lutheran community in Zhytomyr marked an extremely significant event for all Lutherans in Ukraine last year. Remarkably, the city’s Lutheran Kirche was built by the local German community in the late 19th century and currently belongs to the Baptist community. Its owners, however, allow the local Lutherans to use the premises (a good example for the Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities that cannot agree on taking turns at their temples). The Zhytomyr community consists of 78 Lutherans, but the jubilee gathered over 200 guests, including politicians and clergymen of other Christian confessions. Quite a few guests arrived from Germany, among them members of the Ukrainian Lutheran Friends societies. Those present were addressed by an official of the German embassy in Ukraine. He greeted the Lutherans of Zhytomyr and reminded that “Germans brought their creed here once, along with their industriousness, and became respected residents of this city. They also lived through the horrors of the 20th century and suffered because of their religion and ethnic origin. They have lost a lot of things, particularly their mother tongue, yet they have retained their faith and survived.”
In the Lutheran tradition, music played a major role during the festivities. A string orchestra and the organ performed Mozart’s church sonata (the fact that the great composer was Catholic and wrote music for his Church does not prevent the Lutherans from playing and marveling at his religious compositions). Two big choirs took part in the divine service: Oreia and the local music college’s student choir.
St. Catherine’s congregation celebrated Christmas on January 6, New Style, with special solemnity. A divine service was conducted and the parishioners’ children received presents. The pensioners were each handed an envelope with several dozen euros. After the service, the adherents and their pastors gathered in a large hall with festively laid tables. And again there was music.
This author wishes to thank Tetiana Terioshyna, editor of St. Catherine’s Community Letter, for her assistance in the preparation of this feature.
— P.S.: Lutheranism is one of numerous Christian confessions collectively known as Protestantism, emerging on the crest of the first Reformation wave, adopting Martin Luther’s doctrine laid down in his Augsburg Confession (1530). The Reformation started by Luther is generally understood as a revision of the Roman Catholic doctrine and canons then prevalent in the West. In other words, it was a new interpretation of Christianity. According to Martin Luther, salvation depends not on man’s meticulous observance of the sacraments and rites but exclusively on man’s faith (e.g., the principle of Justification). This approach considerably reduced the role of the Church and clergy as intermediaries between the Lord and man. Luther claimed that man should seek a road to salvation not in reclusion, monastic solitude, but in his daily life.
Luther’s other radical thesis discards the so-called Divine Tradition — i.e., enactments by Church Councils, rules and canons other than those laid down in the Scriptures, teachings of the Fathers of the Church, rulings by Roman Popes. The Word — the New and the Old Testament — is the only source of the Christian Truth. Of the traditional seven sacraments, only two are recognized: baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist). The rest are regarded as rites [Lutheranism holds that only the said two sacraments were instituted by Christ]. Monasticism and worshipping saints, icons, and holy remains are canceled. In the 16th century, Luther proclaimed the right and need to celebrate divine services in the vernacular rather than Latin. Likewise, he held that everyone should be able to read the Holy Bible in his native tongue. Luther declared that the Scriptures should be in every home. Moreover, he translated them into German [from Hebrew and Greek]. Incidentally, his translations were a seminal contribution to the development of a standard German language. There are more than 65 million Lutherans world-wide.
In Ukraine, in addition to German Lutherans, there are other Lutheran churches, among them a Ukrainian one.
