Methodism in Russia was born at the end of the 19th century in St. Petersburg and was revived in 1990 in Yekaterinburg . The founder of the church was Lydia Istomina, the first woman pastor in Russia, and her family. Vladislav Spektorov in 1991 created a community in Samara with the help of the Estonian Methodist Church . Ivan Kozlov founded a community in Sevastopol in 1991. Lydia Istomina, with the help of Elena Tishchenko, started the church in Moscow in January 1992. With their help, Lyudmila Garbuzova founded the Church of Singing Christians. Lydia's sister, Irina Istomina, created a community in St. Petersburg and Pskov . Nelli Mamonova became a pastor in Pskov. Other women from the church of Lydia later became pastors in different cities of Russia: Olga Kotsuba, Tatyana Tomah, Elena Stepanova, Elena Tishchenko, Elena Chudinova. The first building of the Methodist church in Yekaterinburg was built under the direction of Olga Kotsuba and Tatiana Tomah.
History
Before the October Revolution , Methodist communities existed in Russia in St. Petersburg and in Estonia . In 1889, the first Methodist community in Russia appeared in St. Petersburg, which was served by pastors from Sweden and Finland. In 1907 in St. Petersburg, Pastor Hjalmar Salvi received official permission to work. In October 1907, the Finnish and St. Petersburg Mission of the Methodist Church, led by the American George Symons, was founded in St. Petersburg. In the first decade, Methodism in Russia magazines were published in English and Christian Supporter in Russian (in 1909 the circulation of this journal reached 15,000 copies). At the same time, the canonical catechism, the doctrines and disciplines of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodists: who they are and what they want, and the John Wesley character Methodist character were published in Russian. In 1909, the Methodist community received an official permit for its activities under the name of the First St. Petersburg Methodist Episcopal Church. This community united 132 Methodists under the leadership of Pastor John Simons. The premises for worship were located at number 10 on the Tenth Line of Vasilyevsky Island.
Since the fall of 1908, the deaconess community “Bethany”, led by Anna Eklund, began to operate in St. Petersburg. In 1914, the Methodist community acquired the ownership of house number 58 on Bolshoi Prospekt, in which the church was opened on September 1, 1915.
In 1906, the first Methodist community in Lithuania was founded. In 1912, the first meeting of the Russian Missionary District was held in Kovno .
Methodism was widespread among Koreans who, in the pre-revolutionary period, massively migrated to the territory of the Russian Far East . They formed several dozen ethnic church communities in Primorye . In 1921, a Methodist Siberian-Manchurian mission was created in the USA to work among the Korean and Russian populations in the Far East and in Manchuria . In early 1923, the Russian-speaking community in Vladivostok was founded by missionaries. However, because of the persecutions of believers that began in the USSR, the missionaries were forced to leave Vladivostok and fully concentrate their work in Manchuria. Despite the significant success of the mission among the Russian-speaking diaspora of Manchuria, which numbered hundreds of thousands of people, in 1927 the work of the Russian branch of the mission was completely curtailed, the Russian-speaking Methodist churches that arose there were left to their own devices [1] .
In 1924, the Ritual of the Methodist-Episcopal Church was published in Vyborg.
In 1935, the Estonian Methodist Church received independent status. From 1943 to 1973 , after Estonia was incorporated into the USSR, the Methodist communities increased from 1242 to 2,300 believers. The church has survived years of persecution and repression, and it still functions. The revival of Methodism in Russia in the early 1990s largely began with evangelism in the Korean diaspora. .
In 1990, the first United Methodist Community was registered in Yekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk). Lydia Istomina became its founder and leader. On September 22, 1991, she was ordained a pastor by Bishop Hans Vaksbi, who later became Bishop of the UMC of Eurasia, and Bishop William Oden.
In 1993, the Russian United Methodist Church was registered in Russia, which in 1999 received the status of a centralized organization uniting all Methodist communities in Russia. The Russian United Methodist Church includes about 100 communities, which serve about 70 shepherds. At present, Methodist communities in Russia are divided into six territorial districts: the Volga-Vyatka, Moscow, North-West, Central Chernozem and Southern, which are headed by senior pastors. The highest body of the Methodist church in Russia called the “Annual Conference of the Russian United Methodist Church” meets annually.
Notes
- ↑ Methodism in Russia & the Baltic States: History and Renewal, ed. ST Kimbrough, jr. Nashwill, 1995, pp. 71-74.