(Français)

Since World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) has announced 2009 the year of John Calvin, the reformed churches from all around the world celebrate the 500th anniversary of this Great Reformat by publishing his writings. The Synod of Lithuanian Evangelic Reformed Church and the local parishes commemorate this date with a project "Calvin in untraditional places in Lithuania". There will be meetings in various locations in Lithuania, where people will read "The golden rules of Christian life" (the only book of Calvin that is translated into Lithuanian), talk and discuss about his life.

The first event took place on May 29-31 in Posalciai village, Varena district. Numerous group of the Reformed parishioners from Vilnius and Birzai was hosted by Jurate and Alvydas Virbickai. The meeting started with a song. The pastor Raimondas Stankevicius read the lines from the Bible according to the references of the book "The golden rules of Christian life".

knygos_mAurelija Arlauskiene made a presentation about John Calvin's life and his ideas on theology, church and politics. She says "What can be more real than this unreal moment, when we, young and old, are gathered from different places and listen to Calvin's words, written in a small room in the suburbs of Basel 500 years ago. Maybe it is the fact that Calvin's thoughts are still so deep and fresh that we can learn and refresh from them even centuries after his death. In order to understand his personality we need to know not only the dates and places, but also his spiritual world. In order to discover it we need to dive into the ocean of book written about him."

linksma_mEvaldas Tamariunas, theological student of Klaipeda University, read the first chapter of "The Golden rules of Christian life". Calvin named the Bible as "the guidebook of life" and the spirituality and holiness as the main principle, which means to follow Christ. The Holy Scripture shows not only the source of holiness but also the way to it, which is Jesus. Our heavenly Father tells us to become like Christ, the example of ideal human and real God inside human. In our lives we have to reveal the character of Christ inside us. What goal can be more fascinating than this? What else can we demand? We should not request for evangelical ideal from other Christians if we are not striving for ideal ourselves. It is not right to agree on compromises with God, by accomplishing only certain tasks and to leaving others undone whenever we want. "In the thoughts of John Calvin there is nothing unnecessary. Everything is well thought about and rethought, meaningful, deep and simple. He was very talented and had big responsibility for his thoughts and words", said Evaldas Tamariunas.

Aukse Skiparyte

Foto: Aurelija Arlauskiene.

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