May 6, 2013
Pastorgraphs: “Eurasia”
Methodist Bishop
Eduard Khegay of Russia and Eurasia knows better than anyone what John
Wesley meant when Wesley said, “The world is my parish.” Khegay has
responsibility for overseeing Methodist congregations and missions in a region
that covers eleven time zones. The Far East District alone is larger than the
United States. And if that is not enough of a challenge, throw in Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, Belorussia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Bishop Khegay (photo center) is young and
energetic, much like the emerging population of Eurasia. He speaks English
fluently, and because he is the first Russian-born citizen to hold the
episcopal office in Moscow, he doesn’t have to leave the country after every 90
days and have his visa renewed.
Bishop Khegay was guest speaker at the
Russia Initiative Consultation XVI held at Christ United Methodist Church in
Memphis, TN, April 26-27. My friends Larry Sieck (right) and Winston Wade of
Hope UMC in San Diego and I (left) were in attendance. San Diego area
Methodists support missions in Far East Russia. Last Friday night, Anita and I
had the pleasure of joining a group from Hope and Foothills United Methodist
churches of San Diego for a pot luck dinner with Bishop and Mrs. Khegay and
their daughter, Liudmila. (The Bishop is in San Diego for a meeting of theCouncil of Bishops before returning to Moscow.)
United Methodists from Russia and the United States gather once every other year to plan and support Methodist missions in Eurasia and Russia. There are approximately 100 United Methodist congregations in what was formerly the Soviet Union. This year’s Consultation in Memphis featured a live worship service via teleconference with ten Russian Methodist congregations. Bishop Khegay presented an update on The Roadmap that seeks to help Russian congregations achieve self-sufficiency by 2015. The next Consultation in 2015 will be held in Russia.
United Methodists from Russia and the United States gather once every other year to plan and support Methodist missions in Eurasia and Russia. There are approximately 100 United Methodist congregations in what was formerly the Soviet Union. This year’s Consultation in Memphis featured a live worship service via teleconference with ten Russian Methodist congregations. Bishop Khegay presented an update on The Roadmap that seeks to help Russian congregations achieve self-sufficiency by 2015. The next Consultation in 2015 will be held in Russia.
While American Methodists see the lack of
material blessings (refer to last week’s E-Vangel), Russia is experiencing a
spiritual revival that comes after a generation of “godless” communism. Sure,
there are lingering social problems and political/religious opposition; but
Bishop Khegay says things are getting better. While many American Christians
sit in ornate, almost empty cathedral-type sanctuaries, small apartments all
over Russia serve as church houses, packed wall-to-wall with those hungering
and thirsting for the Love of God and fellowship with other believers. Rev. Patrick
Friday, Director of the In Mission Together (IMT) Partnership Program of the
General Board of Global Ministries, reminded us in Memphis that the Wesleyan
revival and Great Awakening that followed grew when there were few church
buildings, where circuit riders traveled from house church to house church.
That is a microcosm of what is happening in what we call the Third World, where
Christianity is experiencing its greatest growth. (Photo of the crowded,
youthful Svetlaya Methodist congregation in Far East Russia that we support.
They worship in an apartment.)
I am encouraged that Russian churches are
embracing technology, perhaps faster than their American counterparts. As we
saw in Memphis, technology can bridge the miles that separate us. Using the free
ooVoo teleconferencing service, we were able to hold a joint worship service
with ten congregations in Russia in nine different time zones. One congregation
was at their church at midnight so they could participate. We saw their faces,
heard their voices, and joined our hearts in praising our Risen Lord.
Because the nearest Methodist congregation
may be 300 hundred or 3000 miles away, I pray our Russian pastors will not feel
isolated, and that Russian Methodists will know they are not alone. Please join
me in praying for and supporting our sisters and brothers in Eurasia, and
especially Bishop Khegay as he leads and labors in this vineyard.
Doxology!
Pastor
Bill
From the
Quote Garden:
“I’m always inspired by the final part of
the novel by Leo Tolstoy
“Resurrection”, where the main character Dmitriy Nekhludoff who has
committed many sins comes to the understanding of meaning of life in Christ.
Here is an extract form the novel:
“The husbandman imagined that the vineyard
in which they were sent to work for their master was their own, that all that
was in it was made for them, and that their business was to enjoy life in this
vineyard, forgetting the Master and killing all those who reminded them of his
existence. "Are we do not doing the same," Nekhludoff thought,
"when we imagine ourselves to be masters of our lives, and that life is
given us for enjoyment? This evidently is an incongruity. We were sent here by
some one's will and for some reason. And we have concluded that we live only
for our own joy, and of course we feel unhappy as labourers do when not
fulfilling their Master's orders. The Master's will is expressed in these
commandments. If men will only fulfill these laws, the Kingdom of Heaven will
be established on earth, and men will receive the greatest good that they can
attain to.
"'Seek ye first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.'
"And so here it is, the business of my life. Scarcely have I finished one and another has commenced." And a perfectly new life dawned that night for Nekhludoff, not because he had entered into new conditions of life, but because everything he did after that night had a new and quite different significance than before. How this new period of his life will end time alone will prove.”
Sisters and brothers! Christ
has Risen! It changes everything. Forever. It has changed my life. Some time
ago God led me off the way of egoism and personal advantage and set me on the
way of ministry to people. Let every Sunday remind us of Easter, of the
Resurrection of Christ, of the strength and courage and of God who can change
every person.”
Christ United Methodist Ministry
Center
“Christ
in the Heart of San Diego”
3295
Meade Avenue - San Diego, CA 92116 - (619) 284-9205
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