Today in the Mission Yearbook - Mission co-worker serving as pastor for Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy

The Rev. Jessica Derise is already reviving a congregation fatigued by COVID-19 and Zoom worship

February 28, 2022

The Rev. Jessica Derise

The Rev. Jessica Derise has served as a mission co-worker for more than a year, but for the first time is able to do so in person.

Derise is serving in an interim capacity as chaplain for the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy (MPC), an international congregation founded in the 1960s as a Protestant worshiping community for the U.S. Embassy. From the beginning, five denominations have worked together to ensure that the congregation has had pastoral leadership — the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Methodist Church, the American Baptist Church and the Reformed Church of America.

Ellen Smith, World Mission’s regional liaison for Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland, met Derise in Moscow to introduce her to the partners there. Smith and her family lived in Russia for more than 10 years as mission co-workers.

“Jessica is already reviving the MPC congregation fatigued by COVID restrictions and Zoom worship, brainstorming with colleagues in the social ministry for trafficked people, and in conversation with ELCER (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia) about ways to engage with a French-speaking congregation,” she said. “After 18 months of ministering from afar, she has hit the ground running.”

Smith said with the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago, the congregation left the Embassy compound and began serving the larger expat community in the city. During the days after the collapse, MPC responded to the dire needs of the Russian community around them with soup kitchens to feed the elderly. During that time, the congregation attracted members from all over the English-speaking world, including students from many African and Asian countries.

During the impoverished years of the early 2000s, there were many racially motivated attacks in Moscow. With the help of the African members of the community, MPC began to respond to the needs of young Africans who had been attacked, many of whom had lost their documents or become homeless. As they got to know the needs of this community, they expanded their ministry.

Today, the social ministry of MPC is working with people who have been trafficked into Russia. They have a medical advice center, a food sharing ministry, a clothing ministry, language lessons, and health and nutrition lessons. COVID-19 has been difficult for this ministry, but, except for the periods of lockdown in Moscow, it has continued to function.

Smith said Zoom fatigue has been real, and the congregation there has suffered without a pastoral presence. The Presbyterian Mission Agency implemented a travel ban when the pandemic began in March 2020, but in August 2021, Derise was granted an exception to travel, arriving in Moscow on Aug. 30. The news of her arrival spread throughout the congregation and her first Sunday saw a nearly tenfold rise in attendance. She was officially installed on Sept. 12. She is focusing on creative ways to engage members.

She is partnered with MPC and the Social Ministry, as well as ELCER.

Derise was ordained for ministry in the UCC in August 2010. She earned an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary in 2005 and is a board-certified chaplain. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in 1993 in English Education. She has done settled and interim pastor work for Presbyterian, Lutheran and UCC congregations. She has also served as a trauma and hospice chaplain.

Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Amy Lewis, Mission Specialist, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Bridgette Lewis, Mission Specialist, Young Adult & National Volunteers, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

You who are Word made flesh, we thank you for the many ways we have to spread your good news. May the presence of your churches reach many who are in need of ministry and the news of your living presence in our midst.

Minute for Mission: Human Trafficking Awareness Day

January 11, 2022

Photo provided

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many have migrated to Russia for a variety of reasons. People from countries of the former Soviet Union came because economic opportunities were better in Russia during this time. In the past 10–15 years, there has been a growing number of people being trafficked from African nations. Often, they have been told that if they can get to Moscow, they will have a gateway to Europe and ultimately to financial success. Traffickers lure with many promises that are, of course, never fulfilled.

Upon arrival, they are warmly met at the airport by fellow countrymen or other Africans but have quickly been confronted by a harsh reality. The traffickers have delivered them to overcrowded apartments and they have been given menial jobs in difficult circumstances. Oftentimes, they have found themselves out on the streets in harsh winter temperatures passing out flyers from stores.

Usually, they have not realized that their visas are not correct for work and will expire quickly, leaving them illegal within weeks or days of their arrival. There is a deep sense of shame and trauma in those who have found themselves in this situation. Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy (MPC) has been able to work with embassies to help repatriate some, but others refuse help because their families sacrificed so much to get them there.

In the early 2000s, MPC became aware of the plight of such migrants and began to seek ways to support them. They established a social ministry program that provides a warm, safe space to gather and use a computer, a medical advice center, a clothing closet, a food distribution program and an educational program. The migrants are all victims who arrived with hope for a better future and now trudge through an extremely dangerous space.

Children are often the unseen victims of this global migration. Many children have been sent ahead by their families with the hope that the whole family might follow. They now live in camps for unaccompanied minors and often fall prey to drug rings and prostitution. The parents are traumatized and find it difficult to provide basic parenting. Numb from the life they have fallen into and without family support to guide and help raise these children, neglect is prevalent. These children, surrounded by languages from many countries, find themselves with no language fluency.

The question before us is how to alleviate that sense of hopelessness and to provide safety, security and skills for a better future and it is one that we are constantly striving to answer. Currently we are in the process of designing a language program for children who find themselves without adequate language skills. The MPC needs resources for their many ministries, but the proposed project with the children of trafficking victims is a new endeavor. We covet your prayers. Quite simply, we cannot do this without you. For further questions, please contact mpcpastor@pcusa.org.

Rev. Jessica Derise, Pastor/Executive Director, Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Mark Hare and Jenny Bent, Mission co-workers serving in Costa Rica, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Maggie Harmon, Ministry Relations Officer, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

God of all of us, we pray that you provide a sense of loving protection over those who find themselves traumatized in this situation. May you bring a sense of hope and restoration upon their lives. May you also give those of us who accompany them on this journey a sense of compassion and an ability to help bring dignity into the lives of the people we serve. Loving God, may you restore us to wholeness. Amen.