This occasional newsletter gives up-to-date information about the Russia Initiative, which includes the countries of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova.
August 2009
To Friends of the Russia Initiative, a mission program of the General Board of Global Ministries
Dear Friends,
Summer is the season for United Methodist Annual Conferences, mission trips, summer camps and retreats. Thank you so much for the support that makes it possible for all these events and programs to be so significant in the life of the United Methodist Church in Eurasia. This newsletter alerts you to a number of informative articles posted on the Russia Initiative webpage.
Bishop Hans Växby presided over the five annual conferences in May and June. His summary report was included in an article that can be found at Russian Conference Focus on Development.
The annual conference in St. Petersburg also included the major centennial anniversary celebration of Methodist beginnings in Russia. It was a joyous event that featured the history, greetings from guests representing the United Methodist Church in Europe and America, mime performers, musical groups and vocalists Centennial of Methodism in Russia Observed.
The same article appears with a few more photos on the Eurasia UMC English version website: www.umc-eurasia.ru/en
Bishop Sally Dyck led a delegation from the Minnesota Annual Conference to the St. Petersburg events and shared a report with her annual conference on their website. Visit the Minnesota Annual Conference website where you can also see the bishop's report together with a streaming video of our visit to the new ministry center property in St. Petersburg made possible with the very generous contribution from the Minnesota Annual Conference. The center will play a very important role in the Russian Northwest Annual Conference and the St. Petersburg District: www.minnesotaumc.org
Jan Snider, producer of The United Methodist Communications, has published an article in the July-August issue of The Interpreter that discusses the challenges facing the United Methodist Churches in Eurasia: www.interpretermagazine.org
Jan wrote her story as a part of her work in producing a new video in relation to the centennial celebrations of the Methodist beginnings in Russia. Recollecting the inspiring story from the past, the video presents a view of the present ministries in several settings together with the challenges and hopes for the future. The video in its Russian version is now available to the churches in Eurasia, and will soon be available in an English version for US partner churches.
We are excited to share all these great stories with you and we encourage you to find ways to make them available to the people in your congregations. We are also receiving good reports of the more than 20 partner church mission teams that already have traveled to Eurasia this year. More teams are planning to visit their friends in the near future. Others are already making plans for next year. Please contact us and we will be happy to assist as you make your plans for mission team trips to Eurasia.
Finally please give special attention to the needs of the churches in Eurasia right now. We thank you for your generous support of our brothers and sisters there. We are now able to see the status of financial support accounts for each of the churches in Eurasia after a comprehensive auditing. Many of the support accounts from which pastoral salaries are paid remain at low levels or even negative balances during these difficult times of economic recession and general decline in mission support.
While there has been generous giving for many special projects such as church buildings, youth ministries, summer camps and retreats, leadership development seminars and other special ministries, there is a crucial need for more contributions designated for the basic pastoral salaries.
We need additional church partners to participate in the Russia Initiative. We would welcome your advocacy in helping to encourage new churches to join with us in this mission. Please refer us to new potential church partners.
Grace and Peace,
Jim Athearn
Dr. W. James Athearn
Coordinator, Russia Initiative
GENERAL BOARD OF GLOBAL MINISTRIES
The United Methodist Church
116 Frasher Drive, Clear Brook, VA 22624
Tel:
jimathearn@gmail.com
http://new.gbgm-umc.org/work/initiatives/russia/
