Lithuania: keeping the faith alive in hard times

Voices from the Communion: Treasurer Milita Poskiene on the importance of being part of a global Lutheran family 

(LWI) - The history of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania can be traced back to the early days of the Reformation when Prussia became a Lutheran state in 1525, a development which significantly influenced the spread of Protestantism across the region. In 1555, a Lutheran community was established in Vilnius, while another settled in Kaunas in 1558. Over the centuries, the use of local languages in church liturgies was an important factor in ensuring their survival during successive waves of colonization in the Baltic region.  

But after the Second World War, the number of Lutheran congregations declined sharply in the majority Catholic country, leaving empty churches and just a handful of ordained clergy. In the following period of Soviet occupation, when Christians were persecuted for their faith, many people were exiled to Siberia, while others emigrated to Germany, the United States or Latin America. 

Milita Poskiene serves as treasurer of this small church, working at its head office in the capital, Vilnius, alongside Bishop Mindaugas Sabutis. She was elected as a member of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council during the Thirteenth Assembly in Kraków, Poland. At the first Council meeting, she sat down to talk about her own faith journey and about her hopes for the future of the church in her country. 

You come from a mixed Lutheran and Catholic family, don’t you? 

Yes, my father’s family were Catholics, while my mother’s family were Lutherans who could trace their origins back to the Austrian refugees expelled from Salzburg during the religious persecutions in the 18th century.  

I was baptized secretly as a Catholic, but we did not practice our faith at all because my father was a chief of police who risked losing his job if my parents went openly to church during the Soviet era. We were only able to start attending church again after [Mikhail] Gorbachev introduced his Perestroika reforms. 

How did you first learn about the church? 

We lived together with my grandmother and she was also careful not to speak openly about her faith because she didn’t want to cause problems for the family. But I could see her praying silently and reading the Bible, her most treasured possession, and I was very curious to know what was inside this book with its strange Gothic letters.  

I have mixed feelings because I really wanted to learn more, but at the same time I remember an episode in my primary school when our teacher asked if anyone in the class went to church. One brave boy stood up and the teacher told us all that this boy was “retarded” because he still believed in made-up stories.  

So how did you discover more about the Christian faith? 

From early childhood, I always liked to read and as a teenager I became interested in philosophy, so I went deeper into the church's history. We lived in the same town as our former Lutheran bishop, so I got in touch with him, and I was eventually confirmed by him when I was 16 years old.  

After school, I did a bachelor's degree in theology and then studied pedagogy so that I could teach in a school. At the same time, I also wanted to work in the church and so I started helping with the administration. I needed some proper training, so I got a master's degree in economics to understand the financial markets. That is how I came to work as treasurer, but I am glad I have a background in theology as that helps me a lot too because I believe that everything in life is related. 

You served as a youth delegate at the LWF’s Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg – what do you remember most about that experience? 

It was my first experience of the global church, and I remember thinking this is what the world should look like! It felt so good being able to talk to everyone there and they accepted me. It was the place where I first understood that if you accept diversity with an open heart and without prejudice, it really enriches you.  

People fear that accepting diversity means losing one’s own identity, but I saw that it simply meant going deeper into understanding the Lutheran family. It broadened my horizons and that has helped me in so many different life situations since then. 

You were a member of the Council after that Assembly and you have just been elected to serve a second time – what hopes do you have for the coming years? 

As you know, the three Baltic states take it in turn to be represented on the Council and now it is the turn of Lithuania again, so that makes our small church more visible. 

There are differences from my first time, for example the LWF has more programs than before and many people have changed, but I think the task is the same. I have been assigned to the financial committee and so I will do my best to bring my expertise and support its important work.  

What does it mean for your church to be part of the LWF? 

I think it means the same as when we joined in 1967 but in a very different context. Back then, we were a completely closed society, we couldn’t travel and our church was isolated, so it was an opportunity to reach out to others and to be enriched by the whole Lutheran family. Today our situation is quite different, but the purpose is similar, to learn, to share, to be enriched by other churches in other parts of the world. 

What will you share with your church about your experience of the first Council meeting since the Kraków Assembly? 

As I am a member of our church Consistory, I will bring my experience back to them. They are very curious about what is happening elsewhere, but it is much harder to reach the grass roots. The pastors are the ones responsible for sharing information with people in their parishes but there are only around 22 of them, with many empty churches and no one currently in training for ordination.  

What hopes do you have for the future of the church in Lithuania? 

We are very concerned and so we discuss a lot about what we can do to face these challenges. We are asking our pastors to talk with young people and to encourage them to come and study theology. The other thing we must do is to pray a lot, and we ask people to remember our church in their prayers. Above all, it is important not to lose hope for the future because we know that we are in God’s hands.  

I think the Lithuanian church can bring valuable insights for the wider Lutheran family too. Over the centuries, our minority church has learned how to survive without relying on help from the authorities, without relating to the politics of changing regimes, always adhering to the essence of the Christian church which is preaching the gospel and administering the Sacraments: this continues to keep us and our faith alive.