“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Heb 4:16
Welcome to the website of Saint John’s Lutheran Evangelical Church in Riga! This congregation is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Latvia. We preach Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins. The Word of God has been preached in Latvian in this church for over 430 years! We are very proud of this fact, but now this is also one of the few worship services in Riga where you can hear the Gospel in English.
To hear the Good News, to experience a beautiful, historical church, and to listen to a wonderful organ accompaniment — that is the English worship service in Riga at St. John’s! We conduct an English worship service on every Sunday at 12:30 PM. It is not hard to find our church – it is located in the center of the Old Town, between the shopping center “Galerija Centrs” and St. Peter’s church (with the tallest church tower in Riga) at Skarnu Street 24. You will find the entrance on the side of the church facing St. Peter’s. We look forward to having you join us!
At an English worship service at St. John’s you can expect a traditional Lutheran liturgy. We believe that in this way the Almighty God serves us with His Word, His sacraments, His absolution of our sins, His promises, and His presence. The traditional and confessional Lutheran understanding does not maintain “worship” as something that we do for God, a time for self-improvement tips, or being “relevant” to a non-Christian culture. Together with the angels, archangels and all the saints in heaven we worship the Lamb who is upon the throne. Jesus Christ alone makes us worthy of participating in such exalted worship by clothing us in His righteousness.
You will be able to hear God's word in Sunday Services' sermons.
Our church has incredible organ hymns and melodies performed at each Sunday service.
For those who are confirmed Lutherans, we provide with the Lord's Supper.
We first came up with the idea for English worship services at St. John’s back in Easter 2019. We consider this as an answer to the command that the Lord Jesus called His Church to do — to distribute His Means of Grace. The Means of Grace are gifts of Christ’s victory over sin, death and hell that He accomplished at the cross almost 2000 years ago. One of these Means is the Lord’s Supper — Christ’s flesh and blood distributed for the forgiveness of your sins that is practiced at every English worship service. You can learn more about the Lord’s Supper here. Since the Lord’s Supper is a confession of the faith that happens at the altar, any who are not yet instructed or in doubt about the Supper’s meaning are called to learn everything that is necessary prior to receiving His flesh and blood. You can learn more about being instructed here. You are most welcome at the worship service even if you are not an instructed and confirmed Lutheran, but the Lord’s Supper is not just a display of hospitality, as St. Paul wrote: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16)
Baptism is also a Means of Grace that we are glad to share because of the command of the Lord Jesus: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt 28:19-20) Here you can learn more about Baptism.
