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Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 07:53:53 -0400
From: Krister Ulmanis 

My name is Krister Ulmanis (born Beijbom) and I was born in the southern
town of Växjö, Sweden, on March 1st, 1954 to a Swedish father and Latvian
mother. Most of my time in Sweden was spent in Stockholm. Was very active
in the political movement and in the local church. Was confirmed in 1968.

Confirmation class was my introduction to social ministry in that we talked
about helping the needy and the poor, and visited a food bank. Have
continued to be active in social ministry ever since.

Came to Toronto, Canada, January 1, 1974. In 1986 I answered the call to
ordained ministry, a call I had first experienced at the age of 6. 1986 was
the year I began my studies at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in Waterloo, a
seminary affiliated with The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC).
Part of our seminary training is a required 12 week programme of Clinical
Pastoral Education (CPE). Mostly this is done in hospital settings, but I
did mine at Holy Name Catholic Church in Toronto. Following the CPE course
I did a 9 months internship at St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Elmira, ON.

After my internship year I took a year of school (September 1989 - August
1990) and went to live in Latvia to find my roots, and learn more about my
heritage. While there I served in Jauna Gertrude Baznica in Riga. I
addition I preached throughout the year at various places in the country.
It was an exciting time since it was the time period the Berlin Wall fell,
and the Soviet Union broke up.

While in Latvia I also had the opportunity to meet in person my pen pal.
Sigita is from Saldus, where we got married April 6th, 1990. At that time
Latvia was still part of the Soviet Union, so we got married under the
sickle and hammer and all the other trappings of the Communist regime. In
June of the same year we had a church wedding in Riga. We have a son,
Niklas, who was born in Toronto in 1991. A truly multicultural family, we
speak Latvian, Swedish and English in our house! My wife and I separated on
April 28, 1996 when she walked out on us to live with another man. Our
separation is cordial, civil and non-confrontational. I have custody of our
son. She is still the choir director of our congregation and is doing a
fine job at that.

Following the year in Latvia I returned to Canada to finish my seminary
studies. During the last year at Seminary I worked as parish assistant at
St. John's Evangelical Latvian Lutheran Church, Toronto. In October 1991 I
was called as Assistant Pastor to the 1200 member St. Matthew's Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Hanover, ON, a small town of 6500 people in the Georgian
Bay region of Ontario. In September of 1993 I came to Faith, St.
Catharines, a congregation of 114 members.

In addition to serving Faith, St. Catharines, I serve the St.Catharines and
Niagara Falls congregations of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in
North America (LELBA), (they meet once a month) and preach on a regular
basis in the Swedish Lutheran Congregation in Toronto. I am also active on
local and Synodical committees involved in World Mission and social action.



Krister Ulmanis
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

"Peccate fortiter" (Sin boldly, so that grace may the more abound)
				        	Martin Luther
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