Estonia: New Church Leadership Elected. Leaders Continue To Build The Relations Within And Outside Of The Church

Tartu, ESTONIA. Estonian Conference re-elected last week its leaders for the next three year period and approved thus the focus on the relationships that has been main theme during the last working period.

Pastor Tõnu Jugar was re-elected to be the president and David Nõmmik the secretary of the Estonian Conference. “Pastor Jugar has been the president for 9 years and after one period of break he was elected again for 3 year term. Now nominating committee has decided to ask him to lead one more term,” said pastor Reinder Bruinsma, who was at the meeting as a Trans-European Division representative. “Its a marvellous thing to see the full support at the elections. This is a blessing for this work,” said Bruinsma.

“I was surprised that it was short as this was. But it was good to see the spirit. I was surprised that all the proposals were accepted so smoothly. Overall I had a very good feeling,” shared pastor Bruinsma at the end of the two-day meetings.

Last three years in Estonian Conference has largely been focused on relationships both within the pastoral family and also with the society. Pastor Jugar and pastor Nõmmik have visited all the pastors and their homes twice to build a stronger basis for unity and understanding.

“In the beginning of the last working period there were some misunderstandings among the workers of our conference and also among the members of our churches,” said pastor Tõnu Jugar. “And so we had to start looking ways to improve the co-operation and working climate.”

“We understood already in the beginning that in order to improve the relationships and the trust within the conference it is crucial to meet and speak with each worker privately and also with their families,” explained pastor David Nõmmik. “When during the first year there was felt some kind of a tension in these visits, because pastors also did not know what was expected and required from them, then this year it was already very good. Pastors were more open and the feeling was very pleasant. We prayed together and they shared their problems more openly.”

During the Sabbath service after the Constituency Meeting pastor Bruinsma and the leaders of the Baltic Union Conference ordained three pastors — David Nõmmik, Viktor Nõmmik and Vitali Miroshnitshenko. The Estonian pastors supported them.

Estonian Conference was established in 1917 and currently has 1720 church members. It is one of the two conferences and a mission field that comprises Baltic Union Conference.

Lauri Beekmann,
Estonian Conference Communication director