CONTACT: Ralph E. Baker
The United Methodist congregation in Parnu, Estonia, moved into its new Agape Center Dec. 17.
City officials, county officials and the ambassadors from Sweden and the United Kingdom attended the celebration.
Participants in the service consecrating the new sanctuary included United Methodist Bishop Hans Vaxby, Northern Europe Area; Superintendent Olav Parnamets of the United Methodist Church of Estonia; the Rev. Ollas Tankler and the Rev. Tonu Kuusemaa, pastors of the church; and several lay leaders of the congregation. The Credo Choir from the United Methodist Church in Tallinn, Estonia, sang for the celebration.
"After a long time of construction and fund raising, it was a big moment of relief, joy and gratitude for the congregation to worship in its modern and functional church," said Vaxby.
Although not entirely completed, the building is handicapped accessible with a concrete ramp to the front door. "I think for Americans this is something very ordinary," said Kulli Kuusemaa, church secretary. "But in Estonia, buildings were not built for the handicapped. They have high steps, for example."
The Agape Center is the first church and cultural building in this part of the city, according to Tankler. Half of Parnu's 60,000 inhabitants "have had no church at all" until now, he said.
According to Vaxby, the center's name, Agape, is a Greek word for "God's outpouring love." The building was built "to be a channel for God's love to the world and every one in the neighborhood and the whole city," he said.
In addition to a facility for working with people with handicapping conditions, Sunday school space and a worship sanctuary, the center will house a "children's refuge."
"We wanted to do something to help children," said Kuusemaa. "We have many children who have problems at home," she said, "but we don't have many places for them in Estonia." There is only one other children's refuge in Parnu, and that is on the other side of the river that divides the city, according to Kuusemaa.
The Memphis Conference is the largest U.S. annual conference supporter of the Agape congregation.
"We've donated well over $100,000 in total support so far," said the Rev Joseph Geary, conference coordinator of Volunteers in Mission (VIM). The conference also has sent three teams of volunteers to Estonia to work on the center, according to Geary.
He says that conference hopes to have four VIM teams in Parnu next summer to help complete the Christian education building and "Children's Refuge."
* Information for this story was provided by Terry Weide, Bishop Hans Vaxby and Kathy Farmer.Dec. 21, 1995
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