This fall, St. Paul’s Congregation in Novye Burasy, Saratov Oblast, celebrates 20 years since its official registration.

It was the congregation in Novye Burasy that put forward the idea that the Saratov region, too, should host theological seminars involving seminary professors from the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

In 2000, the Congregation of Novye Burasy was visited by pastors and missionaries from different Lutheran churches such as SELK Bishop Diethardt Roth from Germany and LCMS pastors and missionaries John Reehl, Douglas Reinders, and James Dimitroff from the USA, and many others. In the same year, the congregation was officially registered as the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of St. Paul.

Photo credits: personal archive of Rev. Aleksandr Furs