An 11-day training course cosponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Andrews University brought lecturers to train local leaders in an International Master Development Program, an effort focused on strategies connecting faith-based organizations, such as churches, with their communities. 

Supported by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), the course covered the biblical bases for community involvement and the potential that churches have to face social, economic and emotional needs in a community.

Dr. John Graz, director of Public Affairs and Religions Liberty for the world church, in collaboration with Russian experts of religious freedom and church state relations, talked about church relations with the state, other religions, and religious authorities.

“This training was extraordinarily interesting, because it was very much practical, very much up-to-date, and answered our unspoken questions,” said Vladimir Kotov, personal ministries and Sabbath School director for the church in the Euro-Asia region.

Following the training sessions, employees of the Euro-Asian regional headquarters of the church were joined by Graz in bidding farewell to pastor Victor Krushenitsky, who is resigning after eight years as Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the region. Krushenitsky was also a regional leader of the International Religious Liberty Association, and will be succeeded by Victor Vitko in that role. Feodor Shilov-Kovediaev, an economics professor at the University of Moscow and former first deputy to Boris Yeltsin’s foreign minister, will become the new IRLA chapter president.