On April 26, 2021, Bishop Ivan Laptev of The Church of Ingria and Archbishop Tapio Luoma of The Church of Finland met online. The church leaders discussed various matters of church life and cooperation of the two church bodies, the situation at the ELCIR Theological Institute, and some of the logistical particulars of signing the cooperation agreement. On April 16, the Advisory Council of the ELCIR and the ELCF made the decision to prolong the agreement unaltered. The leaders agreed to invite representatives of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia to the theological conference “The Attitude to the Holy Scripture and the View of the Bible in the Modern World.” The date of the conference will be announced later. Its organizers hope they can do it in the customary format.The online meeting was attended by the following participants:
ELCF: Archbishop Tapio Luoma; Kimmo Kääriäinen, Director of the ELCF Foreign Affairs Department; Juha Meriläinen, Theological Assistant to the Archbishop.
ELCIR: Bishop Ivan Laptev; Pastor Konstantin Subbotin, Bishop’s Vicar; Pastor Mikhail Ivanov, Chief Secretary; Merja Kramsu, International Relations Secretary.
Official interpreter for the meeting: Yaroslava Novikova