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German Lutherans in Odesa to Reconstruct Church Building

29.09.2003, [08:04] // Lutheran Churches //

Odesa -- The German Lutheran Church in Ukraine and the Lutheran community in southern Ukrainian Odesa have started a fund for the reconstruction of the local German church. This news was posted on the RISU Ukrainian website on 25 September 2003.

According to Yurii Shefer, the reconstruction work will begin in the summer of 2004. In the mid-1990s, this church building was transferred to the renewed Lutheran community in Odesa, which is assisted by the Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Germany.

The total amount needed for full reconstruction is approximately 4 million dollars. Thanks to financial aid from Bavaria, the pastor’s house has already been repaired and the foundation and walls of the church have been examined.

The building of the Odesa German church was built in 1897. After the communist revolution it was transformed into a storehouse and a gym. The present reconstruction will be the third one in the church’s history. The repair work that started 30 years ago ended in a fire.