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Lego for the Sunday school
One of the most important ministries in GELCU congregations is children’s ministry, though it can take different forms. Apart from traditional Sunday school with Bible lessons and various classes, congregations have other kinds of children’s ministries. For instance, assistance for children with their homework in Novohradkivka (village in Odesa ...
11.02.2022
Reaction of international community to the crisis around Ukraine
Die beunruhigende Situation, die durch die Konzentration russischer Truppen an der Grenze zur Ukraine entstand, löste Reaktionen von Kirchen und zwischenkirchlichen Organisationen weltweit aus. Dr. Anne Burghardt, Generalsekretärin des Lutherischen Weltbundes, erklärte: „Wir haben mit wachsender Sorge verfolgt, wie die Rhetorik und die ...
09.02.2022
Ministers of evangelical churches of Ukraine came together for the time of learning and planning.
1-3 February, a conference for GELCU and CREC (Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches) ministers took place in the premises of a congregation of Holy Ascension. As always, the conference had a rich and serious learning program. Dmytro Tsolin – the head of the Sacral texts’ translation laboratory at National University of Ostroh Academy, ...
05.02.2022
Urgent prayer request from the Bishop of DELKU
“In you, Lord, I have taken refuge. Let me never be put to shame. In your righteousness deliver me. Turn your ear toward me. Hurry! Rescue me! Be a rock where I take refuge, a fortified place that saves me.” Psalm 31:1-2 (EHV) Photo: Sergiy Maidukov for NewYorker Our dear brothers and sisters, friends, and partners! Our country has been ...
26.01.2022
How to be an everyday missionary?
Having small or missionary groups is a practice that gradually becomes more widespread across Lutheran churches. In my pastoral ministry I repeatedly came across this idea, but whenever I tried to launch it, I did not have enough time to lead such a group myself. After Greg Finke’s book “Joining Jesus on His Mission. How to Be an Everyday ...
20.01.2022
Christmas workshops
What is the best way to spend school holidays? Especially when parents constantly complain about their children “living” in their smartphones. The answer is, of course, to organize church holiday! That was exactly what Sunday school teachers in Petrodolynske, Novohradkivka and Odesa decided to do. They prepared three days’ camps (January 3-5) for ...
08.01.2022
Christmas presents for children
Christmas season is the perfect time to give children presents! This winter children from Lutheran congregations of Odessa region, Kharkiv, Kremenchuk, Kryvyi Rih, Zmiivka, Zhytomyr, Bila Tserkva, Zaporizhzhia, Berdiansk and Kyiv (St. Catherine congregation), as well as Reformed congregations in Rivne and Ivano-Frankivsk received Christmas ...
06.01.2022
Christmas Market in Odesa
19–27 December 2021, St. Paul Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Odesa hosted a main cultural event of the season – the Christmas Market with a rich cultural and spiritual program. The opening of the Market took place on the 19th December, the fourth Sunday of Advent, after the festive service, during which the biggest stollen in Ukraine was ...
27.12.2021
Christmas in the GELCU and CREC congregations
ODESSA https://youtu.be/QVellPKzlCA?t=680 KHARKOV KIEV (ST. MARTIN) ANDREEVKA (ST.MARTIN`S MISSION STATION) BELAYA TSERKOV PETRODOLINSKOE AND NOVOGRADKOVKA BERDYANSK KRIVOY ROG ZMEEVKA ZHYTOMIR ROVNO (CHRIST THE SAVIOR AND GOD`S COVENANT REFORMED CHURCHES)
26.12.2021
LWF Christmas Message: Hope born in a manger
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, I bring you greetings of joy and peace, rooted in hope, the traditional gifts that we wish for each other in this blessed Christmas season. Yet how difficult it is to experience joy and peace in these uncertain times, as new variants of the Coronavirus continue to cast shadows over our longedfor festive ...
24.12.2021
Christmas Message from the bishop of GELCU
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Many of us celebrate this Christmas with mixed feelings. On the one hand we joyfully anticipate this special holiday and opportunity to meet with our loved ones. On the other hand, we feel anxious watching the events unfolding in the world, near or within the borders of our country. We are happy to ...
When Jesus Was an Embryo
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13) “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Phil 2:7) As one who has used some of the techniques of developmental biology, I have a rather different perspective on Advent to most people. ...
09.12.2021