Thank you, Archbishop Jānis and the Latvian Church!

The above footage comes from the August 29, 2025 retirement ceremony of Archbishop Jānis Vanags of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. The new archbishop, Rinalds Grants, was installed the next day.

Archbishop Jānis assumed leadership over the Latvian Church, which dates back to the organization of the Livonian Christians into a diocese in 1186, through the Reformation, becoming Lutheran in 1522, continuing through the birth of the Republic of Latvia (1918) and Soviet annexation and occupation (1940), as well as the restoration of Latvian independence (1989). Archbishop Jānis took office in 1991. Having suffered under the USSR himself, he served the post-Soviet church as archbishop for 32 years - taking controversial, unpopular, and yet biblical positions, like the abolition of women’s “ordination” and the rejection of homosexual “marriage,” abortion, and euthanasia.

Perhaps the Latvians - like all of our sister churches that emerged from behind the Iron Curtain - have a different perspective about their faith than many Americans, having suffered persecution and martyrdom within living memory. There is a seriousness and a sense of continuity that stretches back before the days of the Soviet Union, an organic connection to not only the Reformation, but the church of the Middle Ages, the church that survived the fall of Rome, the church that suffered under the Caesars, and the church of the apostles themselves.

In our sister church of Latvia, one doesn’t find pastors in sports jerseys at the altar. One doesn’t find a rock band on a stage replacing altar, font, and pulpit. Maybe that kind of thing would seem flippant in a cathedral built in 1211 and in churches under the archbishop’s oversight - in which some of the worshipers survived Gulag camps on account of their faith. Maybe suffering produces a desire for dignity, decorum, and continuity instead of entertainment and an iconoclastic severance from our brothers and sisters of ages past.

Some may think this is all about copes and miters. It isn’t. For those things are not the essence of the church. Our Evangelical Catholic confession of Jesus, God and Man, His blood shed on the cross, and our justification by grace through faith as testified by the Scriptures remains central. And in fact, the one time I had the pleasure to meet the archbishop, he was wearing jeans and a tee shirt - and it was entirely appropriate to that time and place.

But in the time and place of the Divine Services of the Church, in preaching and administering the Holy Sacraments, it is fitting that we be dignified, confessing not only the awesome majesty of our King as His ministers, but also to the apostolic continuity of the church through the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires. How ironic that it may not be a tyrannical regime that does the most damage to souls and in weakening our ties to the apostles in our own country, but rather a decadent culture that lusts for immediate gratification, shallowness, and 24/7 entertainment.

Thank you, dear brothers and sisters in Latvia! We are honored to be in fellowship with you. Thank you, Archbishop Jānis Vanags for your decades of faithful service, and your ongoing ministry in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. And thank you, Archbishop Rinalds Grants, for saying “yes” to the call of the Lord to take up the crosier, to stand in continuity, and to shepherd your flock! May the Lord grant you faithfulness, steadfastness, and many years of ministry!