Ukraine seminary studies heat up!

by James Morgan

Winter in Ukraine is not unlike here in Canada. Cold temperatures and the blustery weather make winter a season where warm clothes and heated buildings are an absolute must. This basic necessity was almost not there for students and staff at Concordia Seminary in Odessa, Ukraine. 

A new furnace fired with coal and wood keeps students warm

Dedicated in August 2010, the facility, operated by the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Ukraine (SELCU), was set to spend the winter without central heating due to the delay of a natural gas hookup until spring 2011. Eight students and their professor faced the prospect of staying warm with only blankets and portable electric heaters that would not work during the occasional power outage. Fortunately, this situation has improved. 

In the middle of December, radiators were installed. Currently, they are fuelled by coal and wood, not the natural gas that was expected. Students now have a new responsibility: taking turns working in the boiler room. “You have no idea how grateful we are to have the heating,” reported Rev. Oleg Schewtschenko in a recent e-mail. “There is no need to sleep under three blankets or wear jackets inside the seminary building.”

Rev. Schewtschenko is currently preparing classes for September’s seminary session: one on preaching, and the other on worship and liturgy. He is also organizing the seminary library. “I am looking around for some good books in the Russian language from which students would benefit,” he said.

Lutheran Church–Canada, through Concordia Lutheran Mission Society, supports the theological education of SELCU seminarians.

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