Sabbatical with Pastor Curtis: Confessional Lutheran Church in Romania

The picture yesterday was taken at a Confessional Lutheran Church of Romania parish called St. Apostle Paul Lutheran Church in Bucharest. This church body is in its early years and many of the men who are serving as deacons and pastors are being trained by LCMS missionary pastors in the field to become Pastors. Some receive training from our seminary professors and the LCMS pastors teaching at Lutheran Academy in Riga, Latvia.

On Saturday, St. Apostle Paul Lutheran Church moved from the Episcopal Church building where they were worshipping to an Apostolic Church building. I was invited by Pastors Andrew Fedder serving as an LCMS missionary in Bucharest, and pastor-in-training Adrian Ghiurca to robe up and join them in the front of the sanctuary for the worship service. I was given a quick lesson in the pronunciation of the sung liturgy and was able to sing along for the most part. The service itself was more high-church than what we practice at Zion Lutheran. We entered the sanctuary singing a liturgical entrance hymn with insence. We crossed ourselves and bowed before the altar throughout the service. During the service we knelt and bowed during the collect, the prayers and the communion liturgy on the marble steps in front of the altar. Pastor Ghiurca after speaking the words of institution then handed me the host and I was priveleged to share the body of our Lord in English to all present. I was also asked to commune the two pastors and received for myself the precious body and blood of our Lord as we closed this sacramental portion of the service.

A young man who had just completed his undergraduate studies read the Holy Scriptures and served as the English translator during the sermon. We celebrated the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Elizabeth. The young man is Sergue Trifa. Sergue I discovered will be attending Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana following in the footsteps of his father. More about his father Dr. Trifa in future blogs.

The church of St. Apostle Paul Lutheran has gone through a number of transitions with a change in pastors and is now hoping to stay put at the new church facility. This is one of four Confessional Lutheran Churches being supported by the LCMS congregations here in Romania and one of three I will be visiting. We had a wonderful time getting to know Prs. Fedder and Ghiurca while here in Bucharest. You will see a picture of the new church building they are now worshipping in and also more pictures of the worship service. Enjoy!