Every year at Pentecost, the Different Service takes place at Riga Luther Church. Why “different”? It is a charity service with a concert featuring well-known Latvian musicians, at which funds are raised for some socially significant project. Funds have been raised for various purposes, for example, children’s palliative care, an animal shelter, the creation of the “Garden of Souls”, repair of the church clock, and others.
At Pentecost 2017 – on Sunday, 4 June, at 12:00 the Different Service will take place at Riga Luther Church.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; even upon the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my Spirit! (Joel 3:1-2)
There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministry, but the same Lord. (1 Cor 12:4-5)
At Pentecost we celebrate that God’s Spirit has been poured out upon everyone and that each person is called to take part in various ways in how the Spirit transforms this world into a place for a better, more love-filled life for us all. From the very first moment when the Church comes into being, no one is excluded from the community that is held together by trust in the way of Christ and a readiness to act so that this way embraces all and everything. There is one ministry that manifests itself in various forms, in which God calls us to take part. One of these forms is also ministry in the office of pastor. Therefore both women and men must be given the opportunity to receive a theological education, to become theologians, and to serve in the Church. The Spirit may call anyone to any ministry – women and men, old and young, including the “male and female slaves”, that is, the oppressed, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the rejected. Yet it is not always easy for us to open ourselves to the Spirit, who blows where it wishes. We must learn this together, listen to one another together, pray together, and in shared openness and dialogue – not only with one another but also with our Christian sisters and brothers throughout the world – help one another experience how the Spirit guides the Church in this world and this age. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. We will be able to remember and become aware of this once again at Pentecost in Torņakalns.
This year’s Different Service is dedicated to the theme “Women’s Ministry in the Church”.
At the Different Service there will be the opportunity to donate to the Association of Latvian Lutheran Women Theologians, to the Society of the Faculty of Theology – supporting theological education and ministry in the Church that is accessible to all – and also to the work of the Riga Luther congregation as a whole.
Source: Riga Luther Congregation