What was an Evangelical Lutheran “Consistory”?
The book The Lutherans of Russia, Volume 1 which is a Parish Index to the Church Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Consistory of the St. Petersburg 1833-1885, provides great front matter to better understand the background to the creation and the specifics involved to better understand the scope of this question. From page xiii of that great work: ” . . . procedural requirements outlined for recording births, baptisms, marriages and deaths . . . The law required each regional administration to copy their parish metrical books (read as church books). . . . These transcripts were created by local pastors and forwarded annually to their consistorial headquarters (such as St Petersburg in our case) . . . they were archived.
