Press-Release  

      The Reformed Church Conference on prospects for Reform-theology- Churches in the former Soviet Union took place in St. Petersburg from 10th to 12 th of November, 2006. 58 brothers and sisters from six different states and six Russian regions participated in the conference, among them were 17 pastors and presbyters, 16 preachers and deacons, 5 professors of theology and students from four theological seminaries. Moreover, three doctors of theology and 14 masters of divinity were among the conference participants. Representatives of the Christian media also attended the conference.

      The conference was initiated by St. Petersburg Reformed Churches and was the first international Reformed conference in the Russian northwest federal district. The conference was held at the Christian mission MIR ; therefore, the mission's director, pastor Hon, greeted the participants as well as pastor Che, the president of the Bible Institute.  In their turn, the conference standing committee thanked the mission MIR for providing great facilities for the conference. Furthermore, pastor Blake Purcell greeted the participants. Additionally, S. Gergzhshvilie conveyed greetings and kind regards from the Moscow-based Association of Evangelical Churches.

      The keynote speakers were the following: E. Kashirsky, the pastor of the Evangelical Reform Church at the city of Tver, the department head for mentoring of the Union of Evangelical Reformed Churches; S. Gergzhshvilie, the managing director of the Association of Evangelical Churches.

      Moreover, Kashirsky conveyed greetings from the presbyters of the Tver Evangelical Reformed Church; V. Skakovsky, as well as, S. Gergzhshvilie spoke on behalf of V. Ten, the president of the Association of Evangelical Churches. All keynote speakers were of high theological calibre, covered important and timely problems and issues related to the life and development of Russian Reformed Churches and were cordially welcomed by the participants.

      In addition to the Russian keynote speakers, our Hungarian friends spoke at the conference. Among them were the following brothers: Laslo Horkay (The Transkarpatya region, Ukraine), the bishop of the Transkarpatian Reformed Church, made a presentation, including video, on the social ministry of his church; Doctor Daniel Sabo (Sharoshpatak, Hungary), the president of Presbyters Association of the Hungarian Reformed Church and the president of the Hungarian Evangelical Alliance, spoke about activities of Reformed Churches in the world; and Kiss Boas ( Budapest, Hungary), the secretary of General Convent of Reformed Churches, gave an overview of theological educational institutions in today's Hungary. Our Hungarian brothers shared with us a great deal of useful information and their presentations and speeches were highly appreciated by the participants. 

        

      On November 10, the mission Operation Mobilization held a reception in the honor of the conference participants. This mission, one of the largest missions in the world, operates in more than 100 countries, has two ships used for evangelistic outreach. The member of the mission council A. Gvadibadze greeted the conference and wished the participants God's blessings. The foreign guests had a bus tour around St. Petersburg. On November 11, during the evening session, Pastor M. Fokin lectured on the topic of Sola Scriptura and M. Poluboyarinov's lecture was on Sola Gratia.

       The conference standing committee discussed the issues of cooperation and collaboration among churches, particularly, with pastor Purcell. Underlining the common aspiration for unity, we decided to have a number of additional advisory meetings.  

      The members of the Hungarian delegation received the information about the current situation with Russian reformed Churches, particularly, about the members of the Union of Russian Evangelical Reformed Churches. The Hungarian guests expressed their gratitude for these explanations and invited us to work together. It was suggested to conduct the similar conference for all the eastern European countries in the Transkarpatian region in 2007. 

      On Sunday, November 12, a joint worship service to celebrate the Lord's Day was held in one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the city, the St. Peter Evangelical-Lutheran Cathedral on Nevsky Avenue. The cathedral is the largest Protestant cathedral in Russia and the main cathedral of Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Russia. In addition to the Lutheran congregation, the Reformed Church Light of Christ has worship services there too. The lower part of the cathedral was almost completely filled. The Lord God was glorified by singing and praying in different languages such as Russian, Hungarian, English, Altayian and Korean. It was wonderful to hear in this old historical cathedral inspiring violin music performed by Gary Vader hart, a missionary and musician from the US. George De Wyst from the city of Mukachevo, Ukraine preached on this day. Everyone who presented there expressed their best wishes to the Church Light of Christ that celebrated its birthday.

       The conference's participants and guests expressed their gratitude to the conference hosts and their desires to attend the next conference in St. Petersburg in 2007. They underlined the fact that the conference was taking place under the Holy Spirit's guidance in the spirit of unity and mutual understanding. The conference communiqué was adopted unanimously.

The conference participants expressed their cordial gratitude to the conference secretaries: T. Kozyreva, T. Rechkina, and N. Serebriakova. 

The conference standing committee expressed their gratitude to the members of the following churches: Heavenly Kingdom; The Way, The Truth, The Life; The Light of Christ and to the Christian Reformed Mission of North America for financial support of the conference. 

      On November 14, Pastor M. Poluboyarinov gave a one-hour- interview on the conference outcomes for Transworld Radio.

      Sincerely yours, the conference standing committee:  

A. Kozyrev, the director of The St. Petersburg Library of Christian literature

A. Morozov, the pastor of the Church Heavenly Kingdom

M. Poluboyarinov, the pastor of the Church the Light of Christ

Gary Timmerman, the missionary of Christian Reformed Church of North America

M. Fokin, the pastor of the Church The Light, The Truth, The Life

K.Vass the deacon of the Church The Light of Christ