Synod 2019

The first day of the Synod opened with a Divine Service. The official business began with an opening speech by the Main Secretary, pastor Mikhail Ivanov. This year, out of a concern for fairness, he did not present a full report, as he was one of the four candidates for the post of Bishop, but only reminded those gathered that the calling of the Church is not to seek funding or engage in building projects, but, before all else, to preach regardless of any difficulties.

Following this, the heads of the various departments in turn gave reports of their work in the past year and shared their plans for the next year. At the end of the meeting, the schedule for the upcoming election was announced and the voting process covered in detail.

The second day of the Synod opened with a Divine Service, during which the Church gained two new servants. Artur Semenov was ordained as a pastor to serve in Kazan, and Aleksander Dyshenov was ordained as a deacon to serve in Ulan-Ude.

After the Divine Service, the election of the bishop began. After an opening speech by the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee, pastor Vladimir Bitkin, the floor was given to the candidates for the office of bishop, the order of speaking being chosen by lot. Each of the presenters emphasized the fact that the key task of the Church is the preaching of the Word. They also stressed that the head of the Church of Ingria in Christ, regardless of who would be chosen as the next bishop.

Eighty-five people took part in the first round of voting, and the votes were divided as follows: pastor Ivan Laptev received 36 votes, pastor Olav Panchu received 21 votes, pastor Mikhail Ivanov received 20 votes, and pastor Ivan Hutter received 8 votes. For a deciding vote in the first round, 43 out of 85 votes were required.

In the second round, Ivan Laptev received the majority with 48 votes. Pastor Olav Panchu received 27 votes, and five of the 80 received ballots were considered invalid.
The Bishop-elect, pastor Ivan Laptev, was born in 1979, ordained as a pastor in 2011, is currently the rector of the Theological Institute of the Church of Ingria and the head pastor of the Gubanistsa parish and pastor in the Koltushi parish.

There were surprising similarities between the past two elections for bishop: when Arri Kugappi was elected bishop in October of 1995, there were also four candidates. In addition, both the current and the future bishop have four children.

Pastor Ivan Laptev will be ordained as bishop on the 9th of February 2020.

Text and photo: Liliann Keskinen
Translation from Russian: Alyssa Anders