Latvia: Church leaders raised up

During August most normal church activities go quiet - but camps, song festivals and enjoying the sunshine begin to seriously kick in.

For the Latvian Biblical Centre (LBC) this is the time of the year when the social media campaign for new students begins in earnest.

Over 60 students graduated in June from its five main programmes: Theology and Ministry, School of Preachers, School of Christianity Work and Society, Counselling, and the BA course it runs in partnership with a Norwegian Seminary. For the first time there were also graduates from a new programme that focuses on the family.

The graduation was also a time to say farewell to the LBC director of 17 years, Victor Petrenko, who with his wife Ester used to bring the courses offered up to date with the 21st Century, and build partnerships with the main church denominations in Latvia.

New beginnings

It was also a time to welcome a new director, Almers Ludviks. Almers has decades of experience in church leadership, church planting and a para-church organisation called Bridge Builders.

Bridge Builders, amongst other things, has run a hugely successful summer arts camp, that aims to foster an integrated approach to being a Christian and being a creative. This year the camp was run as an arts and apologetics camp, led by two former School of Preachers graduates, Roman Ivaskevics and Efraims Smits (who also works part-time for LBC).

They lead Baltic Minds, an initiative to improve the way that Latvian Christians think about and communicate the Christian faith in contemporary society.

Baltic Minds runs regular seminars and produces a podcast that is hosted by Roman and Gabriel Zīverts, who is also a School of Preachers Graduate.

On 30 August, another School of Preachers graduate, Rinalds Grants. will be installed as the Archbishop of the Lutheran Church in Latvia.

Rinalds signed up for the two-year School of Preachers course in 2021, graduating in 2023. He had been charged with the task of teaching preaching at the Lutheran Academy in Latvia and wanted to learn how he could do it better.

It is encouraging to see the reach of the Latvian Biblical Centre in the church and society in Latvia.