Dear One -
I hope this finds you and yours healthy and happy.
As I get ready to leave Moscow and fly to Vladivostok, there are a few more things I want to share with you. On Wednesday morning I was blessed to attend one of the Students' Worship Services again. Several of the people who work in the Seminary office or in the Bishop's office were there, too. All the students took part in the service, and Artur preached on the ways that in Christ we are able to call God the Creator our Father in Heaven. In order to illustrate the idea that God is Father to the fatherless, he began by telling a story about his work with orphans in his home town of Samara in central Russia. He also did a good job pointing out that we often have spiritual parents who are important in our faith journeys. Sometimes they are the people who lead us to a saving knowledge of God in Christ. Sometimes they are those who listen to us, pray for us and guide us in the Way.
Sergei Nikolaev, who is also the E. Stanley Jones professor of Evangelism here, was also at the service. He occupies a professorial chair named for Bishop Ruediger Minor and his wife, Gerlinde. Back in 1992, Bishop Minor was the first United Methodist Bishop appointed to shepherd the clergy, laity and work of the UMC in the Eurasian Area. When it was time for Communion, Sergei got up to be the celebrant, and I found the peace I usually receive as I begin to hear the words of the Communion liturgy in English.
The first time I heard the words of the Communion service in Russian, I was the one speaking them It was in 1998 at the time that I was blessed to be given the opportunity to start the outreach to Russian-speaking immigrants in the Baltimore-Washington region. After meeting several immigrants, we started holding worship services in Russian in the Chapel at Rockville UMC. In case you don't know the Washington, D.C. area, Rockville is one of the Maryland suburbs straight north of the District. From there north through the town of Gaithersburg there are many former Soviet people, some of whom have lived in the locale since the mid-70s when because of a condition of Détente between the US and the Soviet Union, Jewish people who could prove they had been persecuted were allowed to emigrate. Many of them went to live in Israel, and many more came to the U.S.
Anyway, in 1998, my Russian language ability was pretty rusty, so I was blessed to practice my Communion liturgy pronunciation with a elderly Russian woman named Sophiya, whose daughter had called and asked me if we could help her mother come to our services. It was a joy to bring her to church with us, and spending with her in her apartment was lovely, too. Along with helping me with my Russian language, she led me to understand a bit more about what keeping the faith was like during the Soviet era. She described the difficulties this way. Not only was it often not possible to worship in a church, but there were few Bibles available and they had to be kept hidden, often even from family members. She told me that each believer's faith was very private, and most of the time it couldn't be shared with other people. I saw how in Sophiya's life that these conditions had led to a very deep intimate life in Christ. We were all happy that she came to worship with us because the peace of the Lord could be seen in her eyes and light was all around her.
As Sergei continued to recite the Communion liturgy the peace of God turned into a deep sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit with us. We had sung praise songs, listened to testimonies of God's faithfulness, heard prayer requests, prayed and worshiped with one another. Now we were joining with the Host of Witnesses to take part in the essential activity of the Body of Christ together. My heart soared and I felt so blessed to have been able to be here, to have been able to share in the life of the students for a while, and to be able to have studied with Sergei. God is so good and so wonderful!
If you feel led, please pray for the students, the people of the Seminary, the Bishop, District Superintendents, pastors and parishioners of the Eurasian area - and for everyone in the former Soviet Union, in order that they may come to know the fullness of God's love in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and yours.
Blessings in His Love - Kathy
In Remembrance of Him
When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And Jesus said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Luke 22:14-20
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment