Clergy

The Very Revd. Dr. Andris Abakuks (Dean emeritus) was a mathematician and statistician by profession; he studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge and received a doctorate from the University of Sussex. From 1973 until 2015 he was a Lecturer in Statistics at Birkbeck College, University of London.

He has been an active member of the Latvian community; from 1985 to 1993 he was chairman of the Latvian National Council in Great Britain.

From 1995 to 2003 he studied theology at King’s College, University of London, obtaining an MA in Systematic Theology. In 2002 he was ordained as a pastor. From 2007 to 2022 he was Dean of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Great Britain. Since 2016 he has been pastor of the congregation in the West of England and Wales and since 2020 also pastor of the United London Latvian Lutheran Church. Since 2016 he has had Permission to Officiate in the Church of England Diocese of Guildford.

The Very Revd. Daira Vavere (Dean)

The Revd. Viesturs Vāvere was born in Latvia on 4 March 1958. He was a pupil at Riga Middle School No.4 and went on to study at the Latvian Agricultural Academy, in the Faculty of Veterinary Studies.  Later he worked as a veterinary surgeon on various collective farms, also at the Riga Zoological Gardens.  In 1988 he began to study at the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church’s Theological Seminary.  At the same time, he joined the Latvian Movement for National Independence.

On 8 July 1990, he was ordained as an assistant pastor.  He was sent by the Lutheran Consistory to begin his ministry in the congregations of Madona, Laudona, Kalsnava and Cesvaine.  At the same time he was studying theology at the revived Faculty of Theology at the University of Latvia, from which he graduated in 1994, after which he was ordained as a pastor. For many years he was Dean of the Madona district and later pastor of St John’s congregation in Cēsis.

He had been a member of the Latvian Home Guard in Riga, then in Cesis, later serving as chaplain to a number of Home Guard battalions.

Since 1 May 2008, he has been working as a pastor in the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Great Britain, as pastor to the congregations of the Midlands and the East of England.  He has a wife, Daira, and a daughter Katrīne.