Lutheranism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Eastern Europe and Asian Russia==== [[File:Spb 06-2012 Nevsky various 06.jpg|thumb|[[Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul]] in [[Saint Petersburg]]]] Although historically Pietism had a significant influence on the understanding of the ministry among Lutherans in the [[Russian Empire]],{{efn|See [[:ru:Вюст, Эдуард|Edward Wust]] and [[:ru:Вюстизм|Wustism]] in the Russian Wikipedia for more on this.}} today nearly all [[Russia]]n and [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] Lutherans are influenced by Eastern Orthodox polity. In their culture, giving a high degree of respect and authority to their bishops is necessary for their faith to be seen as legitimate and not sectarian.<ref>[https://www.sonntagsblatt.de/artikel/kirche/ihre-gemeinde-ist-annulliert Kirche weltweit Ukraine: "Ihre Gemeinde ist annulliert"] 18.09.2016 by Von Helmut Frank]</ref> In [[Russia]], lines of succession between bishops and the canonical authority between their present-day hierarchy is also carefully maintained in order to legitimize the existing Lutheran churches as present day successors of the former Lutheran Church of the Russian Empire originally authorized by [[Catherine the Great]]. This allows for the post-Soviet repatriation of Lutheran church buildings to local congregations on the basis of this historical connection.<ref>[https://logia.org/pdf-back-issues/15-1pdf-lutheranism-in-asia A New "Old" Lutheran Church in Asian Russia] by Alexei Streltsov, in Logia, Epiphany 2006: Volume 15, Number 1</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page