We Observe with Alarm and Puzzlement
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Russian Baptist reaction to new draft legislation on missionary activity

M o s c o w -- New draft legislation introduced by the Russian Ministry of Justice on 12 October will, if it becomes law, greatly curtail religious freedom in Russia. On 20 October, the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (RUECB) published an open letter signed by its President, Yuri Sipko, and addressed to Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation. The letter states: “We observe with alarm and puzzlement the development of church-state relations. Planned changes in the law on freedom of worship will reduce that freedom to a declaratory level” present only on paper. This new legislation intends to exacerbate the already-restrictive current law “On the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations” of 26 September 1997. Sharper legislation had been proposed previously – the present proposals are in some instances a milder form of those initially introduced in 2006.

Baptist leadership is also offended by the fact that government representatives at a roundtable of religious leaders in the Justice Ministry on 18 September, which Yuri Sipko attended, did not reveal all segments of the new draft legislation. Yet Baptists understand that the new legislation of 12 October already enjoys the approval of Russia’s four official, “traditional” religions: Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. They are defined as such by the legislation of 1997. Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, the RUECB’s “Director of External Church Relations”, believes the new laws are directed above all against Roman Catholics and Protestants – those without their own geographical territories in Russia.

This new legislation will attempt to register and regulate all forms of mission activity while also determining how it is to be carried out. Mission activity must occur without psychological pressure or the offering of material gain. Activities to the contrary will result in fines.

Proposed changes
The new draft legislation stipulates that only religious groups registered in Russia for at least 15 years will be allowed to apply for permission to engage in missionary activity. Only members of a religious organisation will be allowed to evangelise, and the individual’s sponsoring body will also be held responsible for any infractions the missionary commits. But one church organisation may officially delegate a member to work for another church body.

Persons excluded from engaging in missionary work include anyone ever sentenced for engaging in extremist activities and foreigners in Russia on a temporary (for ex. tourist) visa. Missionary activities must exclude all “offers of material, social and other benefits” while avoiding “any threat of physical violence, psychological pressure and manipulation of consciousness”.

Mission activity shall not occur in hospitals, orphanages or homes for invalids or the aged without the approval of government and institution officials. Such efforts may also not take place within or on the grounds of government buildings, nor in the vicinity of a religious structure of another faith. The journalist Roman Lunkin (Moscow) notes that this requirement should also trouble the Orthodox, for they have several chapels within government buildings in Moscow.

Central to the draft legislation is the stipulation that minors may not be present at religious activities – nor may they be given printed, audio or video materials - without the express permission of their parents or guardians. The Baptist response points out that requiring pastors to turn away the young flies in the face of Jesus’ commandment to “let the little children come to me and do not hinder them“ (Mark 10:14). The absurdity of such a law is backed-up with an example: “Ill-wishers can send minors to a church service and law enforcement will then fine the church for their presence. This will be a convenient and profitable way to ruin a congregation and supplement the city budget. Why should the pastor need to serve as policeman?” The paper continues: “Why should a teenager need parental confirmation to attend church when the same is not demanded from cinemas, stadiums and discos? Is a place of worship more dangerous than a secular location? This legislation wants to define religious organisations as harmful, and that is clear discrimination.”

Baptists resent being placed in the same category as foul language and property damage. The paper asks: “How can unauthorised religious activity be more malicious than a drunken uproar?”
According to the draft legislation, fines could run as high as 15.000 roubles ($517 US or 349 €) for organisations. The average Russian salary presently consists of 24.600 roubles ($848 US, 572 €) per month. The paper assures that a curtailing of missionary activity will also negatively affect the social work of Protestants. “Without missionary activities, drunkenness and the abuse of narcotics will only increase. Protestants have been involved in the rehabilitation of alcoholics and addicts with very good results. If the state begins to destroy the social ministry of churches, it will be forced to build more prisons.”

Protests against ambiguity
Baptists are worried by the ambiguity of these legal proposals. In a society known for its tendency towards anarchism, growth in the quantity of laws will generally only contribute to greater abuse of the legal system. Their statement asks, for ex: What is meant by forbidding churches to offer “other benefits” beyond material and social ones? Promising an alcoholic sobriety through church attendance could also be listed among “other benefits”. In addition, the paper states, “virtually any discussion could be defined as a form of ‘psychological pressure’”. Roman Lunkin adds that a sermon on the Last Judgement and the necessity for the forgiveness of sins could be defined as “psychological pressure” and “manipulation of consciousness”. The fine for that is 5.000 roubles ($172 or 116 €).

Baptists note that the bill does not distinguish between professional missionary activity and the conversations held by laity in the course of living their daily lives. “Practically all believers will become susceptible to penal sanction” – any one of them could be legally punished whenever the need might arise. Parallels are drawn to the cult of denunciation from the terrorist year of 1937: “The murky formulation of legislation will bring to full bloom a fat tree of possibilities for the denunciation of Christians by hostile neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances.”

Generally, the Baptist statement believes the introduction of such legislation would lead to a further moral decline of Russian society. It would also lead to greater alienation between the privileged and the non-privileged faiths, for it offers no guarantee against the renewed religious persecution of minorities. After all, in the 140 years of the Russian Baptist movement, Baptists “have experienced hardly more than 25 years of freedom”.

Not least of all, according to the Baptist paper, this new legislation would “contradict the Universal Declaration on Human Rights accepted by the United Nations and ratified by Russia”. It clearly impinges upon the freedom of the individual to believe as he or she feels fit. Such legislation would “damage the international authority of Russia”. “There is no objective necessity for a new law on missionary activity,” the paper concludes. “There is enough legislation already in place to deal with those who deceive law-abiding citizens.” On the topic of extremist and terrorist groups it adds: “We doubt that any changes to existing law will be a serious obstacle to their activities.”

Vitaly Vlasenko assures: “The RUECB is not against regulation of missionary activities per se, but we are certainly against their prohibition.” The Union will be asking its 1.750 congregations and groups to “unite for prayer and fasting”. Foreign churches are also welcome to participate. He adds that his church is interested in foreign legal expertise and would like to hear from churches who have had similar experiences in their relations with the state. Letters of concern addressed to Russian embassies worldwide are always welcome.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 22 October 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Release #09-32, 1.265 words or 8.142 keystrokes and spaces.

No Return to the Cradle
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A report on Tushino Evangelical Church

Commentary

M o s c o w – In 1992, a congregational plant in the north-western district of Tushino began as a hopeful outreach of Moscow’s “mother hen”: the historic “Central Baptist Church”. But by 2002 Tushino was no longer a Baptist congregation. What began as a cell group meeting in Pastor Alexander Kuznetsov’s flat, had grown into a full-fledged Charismatic congregation. Tushino was a particularly big loss for the Baptist movement, for its impressive congregation (today roughly 400) also sported a large church building – a great rarity in space-starved Moscow.

The disappearance of Tushino Baptist Church is particularly painful because its leaders were the offspring of Central Baptist. Kuznetsov (born 1960) and his assistant, Andrey Petrov, were both active there as youth leaders. Alexander’s father, Alexey Kuznetsov, became the first pastor of the Tushino congregation; son Alexander was ordained a Baptist minister there in 1994. Past members of the Tushino congregation still speak warmly of Alexey Kuznetsov. One of its former leaders states: “Alexander’s father was like a father to many of us, too. As long as he was around, he was able to slow the Charismatic trend.” Kuznetsov Senior died in 1997.

As the music grew louder and the teaching increasingly Charismatic, Baptists left in droves. One of the church’s deacons, who departed in January 2002, reports: “Our sanctuary had been turned into a discotheque. I cited being a Baptist as my reason for leaving.” By the following year, well over half of the congregation had departed. Today, the Tushino congregation retains only a small number of its original members. Eighty of the 200 who exited formed a Baptist congregation in a nearby basement. That group has not fared particularly well and is now meeting at another Baptist church in Khimki just north of Moscow.

In 2000, the still-Baptist congregation became the official owner of an impressive meeting place: the one-time culture hall of a bankrupt textile factory. Alexander Kuznetsov stresses that not only Baptists are unaware of the identity of the non-charismatic, North American donors who had made the purchase of the building possible. Even he is only aware of the intermediaries with access to the actual donors. That also is said to have ethical reasons: “The right hand should not know what the left one is doing.” Kuznetsov is adament in pointing out that funds for the purchase of the structure did not pass through his hands. But being that he and Petrov were the actual founders of the congregation and had access to funding for purchase of the building, they were at a distinct advantage when it came to overcoming the desires of the majority.

The congregation is proud of its financial self-sufficiency. In a conversation, the Pastor stated: “We do not have any partners in the West. We simply have personal friends – and they consist of a married couple residing in Richmond/Virginia.” The extensive renovations on the church building, which cost roughly half of the original purchase price, were covered by the congregation alone. Kuznetsov insists: “If we only had a traditional understanding of the Holy Spirit (as Baptists do), we would not have achieved our financial goals.”

Tushino was expelled from the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) in 2002. In May of the following year, the congregation joined the Charismatic, Sergey Ryachovsky-led “Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith” (ROSKhVE). This large, loosely-structured umbrella supplies its members with government registration and remains a welcome partner for congregations led by strong individuals committed to forging their own, independent path. ROSKhVE-members include Moscow’s “Good News” “megachurch” headed by the Oklahoman ex-Baptist Rick Renner.

Russia’s Charismatic leadership contains many ex-Baptists, and Tushino is no exception. (This is less true of the Pentecostal denomination of Pavel Okara, for it is rooted in the historical movement reaching back to Czarist times.) Tushino’s division is most likely a product of the Baptist tendency to reach verdicts and expell quickly, and the Charismatic tendency to experiment recklessly while disregarding the sensitivities and convictions of others. Baptist deliberations on Tushino were lengthy – but Charismatic churches in general have many worshipers who feel they were unjustly and rapidly excluded from Baptist circles. Alexander Kuznetsov repeatedly stresses that it was the Baptist Union which expelled him and his church – not vice versa. Yet those who left counter that the Pastor was unwilling to make the compromises necessary for continued unity.

Tushino’s Senior Pastor adds: “Change is never easy, for its leads to a polarisation of opinion. But without it, one cannot bring a movement forward:” He is very gifted in working with the young. Youth and music festivals, summer camps and youth involvement in the Sunday services have made the congregation especially appealing to the young.

Developments since 2003
At the point of the organisational break with the RUECB, Tushino’s position on Charismatic teaching was relatively radical. Dissidents report that the highly-frightening “Toronto Blessing” of 1994 made inroads there. Alexander Kuznetsov is a backer of Alexey Ledyaev, the flamboyant, ethnic-Russian head of the Riga/Latvia-based “Novoe Pokolenie” (New Generation) denomination.

Yet segments of the world Charismatic movement are moving towards the evangelical mainstream and Tushino is no exception. Though he continues to defend Benny Hinn elsewhere, Kuznetsov stressed in a conversation with our department that his congregation has never been a friend of the “health-and-wealth” gospel. “There needs to be a balance,” he stated. “We do not say that a believer must in every case be wealthy and healthy.”

Speaking in tongues is also no requirement for membership at Tushino. “In contrast to the Pentecostals, we do not believe that only those persons who speak in tongues have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Speaking in tongues “is a matter of one’s personal faith – not a question of church polity”.

Kuznetsov generally expresses solidarity with Rick Renner and the embattled, Nigerian-born, Kiev pastor Sunday Adelaja – both of whom have taken on the title of “Apostle”. Yet he distances himself from their teaching of the “Apostolic vertical”. “We believe a brotherly form of leadership is necessary. We do not see a basis for the vertical form of rule as practised by Sunday.”

Kuznetsov’s wife, Ludmilla, was ordained a pastor five years ago. Yet he hastens to add that his Belarusian-born spouse is not a deacon and could not become the senior pastor. “But a pastor who works with people, family matters and the service of women can also be a woman.”

Alexander Kuznetsov wants his congregation to be a movement, not a denomination. Though he also describes his congregation as Pentecostal, he states: “I still consider myself to be a Baptist. It was not my decision to remove us from the Baptist Union. I think a church like ours could enter the Baptist Union and broaden the spectre” of its ministry. He still feels himself to be neither fish nor fowl: “When we were in the Baptist Union, they regarded us as Charismatics. In ROSKhVE, they now hold us to be Baptists.”

In stark contrast to Rick Renner, this Senior Pastor stresses the vital importance of interdenominational cooperation. “No congregation or denomination can afford to be self-sufficient,” he insists. “Without unity of the church, a significant evangelical movement and awakening is impossible.” He is particularly happy about the 40-member “pastor’s club” he recently helped found, for it includes Baptists. From 2005-2009, Tushino’s building was home to the interdenominational, partially-Presbyterian “Russian-American Christian University”.

Pastor Kuznetsov admits past mistakes, but he does not regret the fundamental route his congregation has chosen. He finds something very promising in its understanding of the Holy Spirit. Though he makes overtures and not a few Baptist observers desire reconciliation, one-time members regard some form of re-merging as highly unlikely. The pain of loss is still real and they see no indication of Tushino willingness to compromise significantly – wind down its loudspeakers several decibals for ex. - for the sake of church unity. In view of the congregation’s ability to survive on its own, there is no obvious need for Tushino to return to the cradle from which it arose.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 16 October 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. Release #09-31, 1.333 words, 8.527 keystrokes and spaces.

The Patriarch has Kept His Word
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Moscow’s CIAC plans rally for all Christian confessions

M o s c o w -- On 4 February 2010, a multi-confessional rally championing the values of the Christian family is scheduled to take place in Moscow. That was the primary result of a meeting of nearly 20 church leaders at headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchy (ROC) in Moscow on 15 October. The possibility of a much larger, three-confessional youth conference for Summer 2010 is also under discussion – such a conference last took place in 2001.

The event on 15 October was only the second meeting of the “Christian Inter-Confessional Advisory Committee for the CIS-Countries and Baltics” (CIAC) since 2001. Created in 1993 to foster dialogue between the former Soviet Union’s three Christian confessions, it held major conferences in 1994, 1996 and 1999. Yet its activity was suspended by the Orthodox in February 2002 after the Vatican upgraded its non-regional “apostolic administrations” within Russia to four regionally-organised “diocese”. The Orthodox view this as serious breach of Russian canonical law.

The CIAC is now led by Ilarion, Archbishop of Volokolamsk and since early 2009 head of the ROC’s Department of External Church Relations, Pavel Pezzi, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Moscow Diocese, and Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, Director of External Church Relations for the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Vlasenko serves in this capacity as the representative of all Russian Protestant churches. “The Patriarch has kept his word,” the Baptist concluded following the meeting on 15 October. At the CIAC’s last meeting on 2 October 2008, then-Metropolitan Kirill had assured that inter-Christian relations would move forward even if “I cannot claim that all matters of dispute have been resolved.” Kirill preceded Ilarion as head of the Orthodox external affairs department.

Questioned after the meeting, Vlasenko explained that in this initial phase of renewed relations, the biggest common denominators need to be addressed. An Orthodox release on the 15 October meeting therefore lists the struggle against drugs, alcoholism, pornography, a “cult of consumption and violence”, abortion and suicide as basic to all Christians. “We need to start with something on which we all agree,” the Baptist added. “Once we have a stronger, more trusting relationship in place, we can take on more complicated and controversial issues.” The possible youth conference next summer may highlight an issue such as finding a suitable marriage partner within Christian circles.

Despite heightened Protestant concerns regarding the possibility of new, restrictive state legislation, Vlasenko stressed the very hearty and cordial nature of the latest session. “The atmosphere was very open. A spirit of Christian love and acceptance prevailed.”

Other present developments
New legislation proposed by the Ministry of Justice on 12 October would require all foreigners active in mission to obtain a religious visa – a visa type often difficult to obtain in the past. Any missionary, including Russian citizens, desiring to preach in public places such as hospitals, orphanages and schools would need clearance from local government authorities. The Orthodox appear to agree in principle with the new legislation. Ilarion is quoted in their press release on the 15 October meeting as stating: “During the preparation of missionaries, it will be necessary to address the matter (of rude attacks on the Church). Mission dare not degenerate into proselytism.”

Yet the Orthodox theologian and priest Andrey Kurayev (Moscow) sees the new draft legislation as a bureaucratic nightmare and demands that missionary activity be precisely defined. “Is not every believer also a preacher?,” he stated. “The grandmother talking to her neighbours on a train could also be called a missionary and preacher. We cannot supply every parishioner with a certificate of clearance. The Apostles were also completely without documentation.”

The RUECB, Russia's largest, unified Protestant church, represents approximately 80.000 adult members in 1.750 congregations and groups.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 16 October 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Release #09-30, 616 words, 4.084 keystrokes and spaces.

Counselling for a Very Special Group of Believers
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A “Centre for Pastoral Support” is to be founded in the coming year

M o s c o w -- „That which occurs in the world, also occurs to a lesser extent among us. We also are subject to temptation.” That is how Pastor Sergey Vladimirovich Babich (Moscow) reacts to the fact that pastors from the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (RUECB) also fall into sin and dependencies from which they cannot liberate themselves without outside support. Pastors are frequently tripped up by issues of family, sexual dependencies, alcohol and financial difficulties – as is also the case among Christians in general. “But pastors are a very special group of believers,” this member of the RUECB’s Pastoral Department adds. “They already regard themselves as educated and experienced in the issues of living. It seems sometimes that they are no longer seeking answers for themselves – they are only giving them to others.”

A new programme envisioned by the Pastoral Department stresses effort in two realms: prevention and rehabilitation. Topics are to include a healthy outlook on life, positive sexuality, marital growth, the rearing of children and the formation of truly spiritual personalities. Pastors desire that their gatherings involve less theory and more practical cues on how best to react to failures, conflicts, disappointment and doubt. During a planned, 10-day course, pastors are to receive daily, highly-confidential and highly-qualified counselling. Time-outs for individual discourse with God and with other pastors in small groups are also planned.

Babich was able to visit German Baptist headquarters in Elstal near Berlin for the first time on 30 June. He met there with pastors Olaf Kormannshaus and Friedbert Neese. Neese is responsible in particular for the well-being of that church’s ordained members. He also met with the Baptist pastor and counsellor Hermann Hartfeld near Cologne. The Russian guest was particularly interested in the forms of “Supervision” prevalent among German pastors. In such sessions, which take place on a regular basis, a circle of colleagues responds to the personal issues and needs described by a pastor who is also present. Not infrequently according to Babich, God then “resolves problems in a miraculous way” through the joint counsel with colleagues.

This Moscow pastor regards prevention as a vital element in the training and development of pastors. According to him, it can no longer be tolerated that “immature or newly-converted persons unprepared for this kind of service be appointed pastors. The brother must be prepared for such a task. Appointment demands that he meet certain prerequisites regarding character and training - and he must be able to obtain that training.” Babich envisions a kind of vicariate lasting from one to three years and involving regular meetings with colleagues, a mentor or a senior pastor (“bishop”).

Regarding rehabilitation, Babich states: “Life must go on for a pastor even after a personal catastrophe or fall. A pastor who truly has given himself to the service of God for many years should not feel himself afterward to be a pariah needed only by God. The breakdown of a pastor’s marriage should not mean that he will be excluded automatically from all forms of church service.” In hopes of greater justice and true help for those involved, the process for prevention and rehabilitation will need to be coordinated and standardised.

Sergey Babich is hoping that the consultations in Germany can soon resume and that he might draw further on the German experience. He is striving along with a team of colleagues to expand this service into as many regions of Russia as possible. He reckons that the “Centre for Pastoral Support” will begin working at a concrete location in the environs of Moscow within the coming year.

Director of the Pastoral Department is Alexey Vasilevech Smirnov, leading pastor of the “Association of Brethren Congregations” (ABC) in Dedovsk near Moscow. The ABC relates closely to the RUECB.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 2 October 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations in the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Release #09-29, 622 words, 3.927 keystrokes and spaces.

Attaining Morality with Immoral Means
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Interview with President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists

M o s c o w – The religious upbringing of children is the task of parents. That was the view of Yuri Sipko (Moscow), President of the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (RUECB), in an interview with the alternative Orthodox “Portal-Credo” news service in Moscow on 9 September. The conversation was brought about by the announcement that a course entitled “Spiritual and Moral Teaching” will be introduced towards the end of the current school year in numerous regions of Russia. Until recently, this programme had been called “Foundations of Orthodox Culture.” It will in any case be strongly influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate.

Yet according to Sipko, the Russian state and society are so strongly mired in dishonesty and corruption, that they are totally incapable of instilling moral values among the young. “We assume our children are able to accept religious mysteries as well as spiritual and ethical norms as their own. But neither their parents nor teachers have ever taken on these norms for themselves. And this also holds true for the servants of the church. When will we stop lying to ourselves?” Today we are our own greatest danger – Russian society is endangered most by its own irreligious and immoral attitude. “Those who write and pass our laws also violate them without consequence.” In addition, virtually all of today’s leaders were raised in the spirit of atheism and Darwinism. Yet “godliness is without morality, it is essentially immoral.”

President Sipko noted that the introduction of measures favouring Orthodoxy infringes upon vital passages of the Russian constitution guaranteeing equal treatment for all religions. “Morality cannot be attained with immoral means.”

The course is to be introduced at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth class. Sipko also regards this as troubling: “It is probably by then too late to accept new views. Twelve-year-olds are fully capable of shamelessly mocking adults – including their parents and teachers.” He believes schools “will be doing to religion what they have already done to communist ideology”. “We remember the games that were played among the Pioneers and Komsomol. Thanks to mass application, an entire, state-run ideology became a laughing-stock demoralising the spirit of our children. Even the religious training of the Tsarist state “awakened in people hatred for religion. In the end, those who had gone through the process of religious education in schools destroyed churches, religious books and even the clergy themselves.”

Yuri Sipko sees the sole solution in parents taking upon themselves the task of religious training for their children. “In our schools I would have preferred a course entitled “Ethics”, he added. “I would have preferred that we uphold the Constitution.” Only in this fashion would the state’s neutrality on religious matters have been secured.

The RUECB, Russia's largest, unified Protestant church, represents approximately 80.000 adult members in 1.750 congregations and groups.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 24 September 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231



Ukrainian Baptists Celebrate in Kiev
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Resurgence and continuity on the 400th anniversary of the Baptist movement

Commentary

M o s c o w / K i e v – Ukrainian Baptists have like no other East European Baptist union made a successful leap into the public limelight. That was apparent during the four-day-long celebrations in the Ukrainian capital marking the 400th birthday of the global Baptist movement. Beginning on 27 August, a consultation involving 250 representatives from 26 countries took place in Kiev’s Central Baptist Church. The most memorable event was a moving, three-hour-long celebration involving 5.000 participants in the state-owned national palace “Ukraine” on 30 August. Even the choir consisted of 370 singers. Eyes moistened as the hosts used multimedia to review the long years of tribulation under communist rule. “Who could have guessed!” exclaimed the Lviv-based Catholic news service RISU. “The world did not reckon that after decades of persecution and repression, that after grave trauma and humiliation, Baptists would arise anew to speak calmly of their faith.”

The Kiev event celebrated both the continuity and resurgence of the Slavic Baptist movement. As had been done at the large youth festival in Odessa a year earlier, the closing communion contained symbolic elements demonstrating the passing of the torch to the younger, post-Soviet generation. In an interview with RISU, Grigory Komendant, the retired President of the “All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists”, stressed continuity. Methods can change, but “the young must understand that they are no pioneers. Principles of faith exist which dare not be revised through a liberal or conservative approach.” Victor Hamm (Winnipeg), an evangelist for the “Billy Graham Evangelistic Association”, added: “We stand on the shoulders of our fathers in the faith, who were here before we were. My father Gerhard Hamm spent entire nights praying with leading non-registered Baptists requesting that the mighty Soviet Union might once again hear loudly-and-clearly the call of the Gospel. That time has come. Let us use the time well to win others for Christ!”

Lubomir Husar of Lviv, Patriarch of the Greek-Catholic church, delivered his greeting in person. But the closing event also included written greetings from State President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and Kiev’s Lord Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky (a Charismatic). The Baptist Alexander Turchinov, First Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister’s right hand, held a speech at the closing festivities. Yuri Reshetnikov, Baptist and head of the once-feared State Ministry for Religious Affairs, called his church the Ukraine’s fourth-largest denomination. Twenty-nine-year-old Pavel Unguryan (see our release of 18.8.2009), Baptist National Youth Director and member of the national parliament, was a primary organiser of the event.

The impression was left that Ukrainians tend to regard themselves as precursors of the Baptist movement among Slavs. In his interview, Komendant commented on the recent visit to Ukraine of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill and stated: “Kirill does not completely understand the Ukrainian nation. Due to the nature of its territory and influence, Russia could be described as a Slavic-Asian entity. Yet Ukraine is by contrast a truly Slavic country.” Reports on the conference stress the participation of Ukrainian émigrés. A Russian reported - without regarding the Baltics - that in matters of religion, Ukraine and Moldova are the most religiously-free countries of the former USSR.

Numbers were lofted with considerable abandon – representatives usually spoke of 200.000 Ukrainian Baptists. In Kiev, Tony Peck (Prague), General-Secretary of the “European Baptist Federation” (EBF), reported that a fourth of Europe’s 800.000 Baptists are Ukrainian. Komendant stated that the Ukrainian union had already in 2002 passed the British one as Europe’s largest Baptist union. Yet the EBF’s handbook for 2009 lists membership for the “Baptist Union of Great Britain” as 136.777; the “All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” – 133.258. Ukraine also has non-registered Baptists and the 10.000-member Baptist “Brotherhood”; yet the United Kingdom also fetes additional Baptist unions and independent Baptist congregations. At the EBF’s all-European anniversary celebrations in Amsterdam in late July (attended by 900), Unguryan had spoken of 40.000 Baptist youth in Ukraine. Yet in Kiev, RISU reported on a youth percentage of 40%, which would be exactly double that amount.

It is stated that total membership of the USSR’s „All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists“ during the 1970s was roughly a million. Yet Yushchenko’s word of greeting on 30 August mentioned that only 3.000 Baptists had survived the era of Stalinist terror. Komendant reported that Ukraine had 90.000 Baptists when its Union became independent of Russia in 1991. Clear is only that significant amounts of growth have indeed occurred.

Matters worthy of consideration on opening day

The necessity of critical self-reflection became apparent on opening day no later than the lecture of Mikhail Ivanov (Moscow), Director of the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” theology department. In his talk he underscored the vital role of freedom of conscience in the formation and thriving of the Baptist movement. He stressed repeatedly that freedom of conscience must be extended to all, including “Pentecostals, Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Krishna and even atheists”. What we demand for ourselves must be extended to others.

Yet this foundation of Baptist theology contradicts the defensive, protective mindset of East European culture. We therefore “are often silent when Charismatic congregations are persecuted” due to the fear that we might subject ourselves to charismatic tendencies. It is much more convenient to reduce freedom of conscience to "freedom for the preaching of the Gospel". Our churches are insufficiently rooted in Baptist teaching. “It is imperative to busy ourselves with the theological consolidation of our congregations, so that we may not even passively continue to support the repression of dissenters.”

The acceptance of alien thinking was mentioned already in the very first lecture on opening day. In it, the Baptist historian and pedagogue Sergey Sannikov (Odessa) described in detail the extent to which the world view and theology of Slavic Baptists at the close of the 19th century were influenced by Prussian Mennonites who had emigrated to Ukraine. The traditional clothing style and the order of church service, church discipline, pacifism, removal from the world and political abstinence are not of Baptist origin, but rather vestiges of Mennonite influence. Sannikov therefore called for shaping a new, decidedly Baptist identity.

Many North American circles would be more than willing to aid the East Europeans in such an endeavour. Yet Rick Warren was criticised by one lecturer for being among the many North Americans who profess a Calvinist understanding of salvation. Eastern Europe has a long tradition of adherence to the Arminian position with its tendency towards “salvation by works”. East Europeans suspect in the Calvinist teaching of unconditional, eternal salvation, which has appeared en force only during the past two decades, a carte blanche for immoral behaviour. This lecturer, Pastor Alexander Sipko from Spokane/Washington, prophesized that persons holding to such a position could experience “a rude awakening“ at the close of their final hours.

In the interview mentioned, ex-President Komendant assured that a „reasonable balance“ between resurgence and tradition could lead to a new consensus between the generations: “Never is only one side guilty.” That left unanswered the difficult question as to the exact point on the value scale at which equilibrium can be achieved.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 18 September 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. Release #09-27, 1.172 words, 7.818 keystrokes and spaces.



Shrinkage – Necessary but Unhealthy
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The future of theological education in Euro-Asia

M o s c o w / O d e s s a -- A US-American active in Russia reports that the Southern Baptist Convention needs only five seminaries to support the ministry of its 16 million members. The countries of the former Soviet Union, which today may have as many as three million evangelical believers, host roughly 150 seminaries and Bible schools. In an interview in Odessa this summer, Dr. Sergey Viktorovich Sannikov (Odessa), Executive Director and founding father of the “Euro-Asian Accreditating Association” (E-AAA), responded: “It’s very clear the number of theological schools will and must decrease. But it would be incorrect to label this process as one of ‘healthy shrinkage’.” Too many careers and patterns of foreign support are on the line – the process can therefore only be a painful one. “There was no strategic plan when these schools were founded – they were spontaneous creations. People were enthusiastic, Western support was available, and so they began.”

Sannikov added that the E-AAA is doing what it can to soften the blows. Extensive discussions on the Internet between leading educators are taking place. “We are encouraging schools to develop their own unique programmes or to merge with other ones. Each institute will need to have its own, distinctive face; each will need to find its own niche.” Diversification is needed – especially when a geographical advantage is not evident.

“Moscow Theological Seminary”, the flagship of the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists”, is one of the institutes actively involved in gathering branch institutes under its umbrella. Sannikov stated: “I think this is a very good development, especially in Russia. The government and economic conditions are putting pressure on smaller schools. Smaller institutions recognise they can work more effectively if they use the teachers and programs of a larger institution. Structural problems are being corrected: Larger institutions can much more effectively organise libraries and other resources and transfer them elsewhere.”

E-AAA’s head, a Ukrainian Baptist, also believes that, at least for the next several decades, the number of interdenominational educational institutions will not grow significantly. “Denominationalism is increasing rapidly,” he warned, “except among some of our youth. It is very difficult to somehow renounce one’s own denomination if one believes it to represent the sole truth.” Even tiny denominations such as the Wesleyans – not a part of the Methodists or Nazarenes – have their own school in Moscow. Moscow’s “Spiritual Academy of the Apostle Paul” also represents a very small constituency. A second, small “Moscow Theological Seminary” headed by Gennady Sergienko closed several months ago. One such interdenominational school is “Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary” (See press release 09-14 from 28.4.2009).

In a few instances, expansion is still occurring. This is especially true for the Neo-Charismatic movement, which, despite very large number of “students” in congregations, is only now beginning to develop institutes capable of seminary-level training. Citing its geographical advantage, Greater-Europe-Mission-sponsored “Zaporozhye Bible College” just north of Crimea is involved in a major building programme.

Fifty-five of the roughly 150 institutes in the former Soviet Union are members of the E-AAA: 28 of these are in Ukraine, another 15 in Russia (seven in Moscow). One member each is found in Belarus, Moldova, Armenia and Lithuania. The Baptist seminary in Akademgorodok near Novosibirsk and a Baptist school for expository preaching in Samara/Volga are not members. Five to six years ago, the E-AAA listed a total enrolment of 7.000 among its members. Sannikov is unsure as to whether that number has since decreased. Counting enrolment has always been problematic: A Ukrainian school and E-AAA-member which has been teaching by extension for ex. has claimed an enrolment of 5.000. And how long are students to be considered enrolled if they have begun a programme without completing it? Consequently, the E-AAA has recently developed criteria for counting enrolment, hoping it will better reflect the true nature of an institution’s work.

In Central Asia, Tashkent/Uzbekistan has an officially-registered Baptist school; a second one allied primarily with Pentecostal and Charismatic circles is active in Almaty/Kazakhstan. Ukrainian institutions are involved in aiding several unregistered schools in the Central Asian republics. None of these have been accredited by the E-AAA. In addition, not a few future Central Asian pastors come to Russia or Ukraine for theological training.

The E-AAA, which was officially founded in 1997, includes Pentecostal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist and interdenominational schools – Adventist ones are lacking. Though several institutes are located elsewhere, the E-AAA regards itself responsible for Russian-language schools within the area of the former Soviet Union. Director Sannikov is keen to point out that the E-AAA did not develop its criteria for granting accreditation – it is not a state-recognised accreditation - on its own. It is the youngest regional member of the “International Council for Evangelical Theological Education” (ICETE). Founded with the support of the World Evangelical Association in 1980, the ICETE’s seven regional divisions now cover the globe.

The work of the E-AAA is funded by its 55 members. Regular dues are paid; an additional fee is charged for every student enrolled in an accredited programme. Expenses for the visits of E-AAA-delegations to its member schools are also paid by the host. Sannikov points out that the E-AAA does not restrict itself to issues of accreditation. Its research wing, headed by Taras Dyatlik (Rivne/West Ukraine), publishes a paper journal and books as CDs, gathers historical documents and promotes manuals on leadership. It holds conferences and training seminars for teachers; the results of which are often published. One recent project focused on the effectiveness of theological training in Euro-Asia. This research centre is not funded by the member schools – it receives grants from interested foreign agencies and foundations.

Beginnings in Odessa
Dr. Sergey Sannikov has a long history of involvement in Russian and Ukrainian theological education. When the Soviet-era “All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” opened its first seminary for on-location study in January 1991, Sannikov was its rector. But quarters in Moscow’s historic “First Baptist Church” were extremely cramped and a library was virtually non-existent. As a result, the decision was made after one session to transfer to Odessa, where a regional Bible school founded in 1989 had sufficient room. In two years, after the logistic issues were solved, the seminary was to return to Moscow.

Yet the liquidation of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and the splitting up of the “All-Union Council” shortly thereafter created a completely new setting. Initially Odessa remained the seminary of the new Ukrainian Union; a second seminary was opened in Moscow in 1993. The focal centre of Ukrainian seminary training is now located at Irpen just west of Kiev.

For political reasons, Sannikov believes it wise that the old Baptist Union was divided. It was not politically expedient to answer to Union headquarters located in a foreign country. “We do not need organisational unity to express the unity we feel in Christ,” he explained. “I do not suffer because of our separation.” But he admitted that spiritual costs are involved: “There is a certain nationalist movement in our congregations, and it has a negative influence on the life of the church and our relations with one another. One group stresses the Russian, another, the Ukrainian. I cannot say that one side is guiltier than the other, but every congregation has people who place too much stress on issues of nationality.”

But the E-AAA-Director believes Ukraine will remain a bridge between East and West for the foreseeable future. “Ukraine will not be pressing as hard as Georgia to enter the European Union. We are not Russian – we have a different mentality. We played a role in the middle between the 16th and 18th centuries. Perhaps we will always be in the middle – neither Europe nor Asia. But that is really quite OK!”

The address of the E-AAA’s Russian-language website is: “www.e-aaa.org”.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 22 August 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. Release #09-26, 1.288 words, 8.417 keystrokes and spaces.




A Baptist with Two Careers
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The Ukrainian youth leader Pavel Unguryan

M o s c o w / A m s t e r d a m -- “Baptists in Western Europe are growing weaker - the global Baptist movement is moving eastward and southward. Baptist youth of today live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We, the young Baptists of Ukraine, want to be a strategic platform and springboard to support these developments.” That was the assessment of 29-year-old Pavel Unguryan (Kiev), National Youth Director of the 133.000-member “All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christian-Baptists”, in a conversation at the European Baptist Federation’s “Amsterdam 400” celebrations on 26 July.

Yet the beginnings are modest: In January, his youth department sent two missionaries to the Central Asian republics of the former USSR. Two families are scheduled to follow in September. Others have been active longer in Kazakhstan. The Youth Director reported: “I am very pleased that many Ukrainians have left for missionary service in Russia, including Siberia, the Far East and the extreme North. Our union also has workers in Moldova, Romania, Belarus and Armenia.” A Baptist leader in Kiev, Viktor Kulbich, reported in 2004 that 450 Ukrainian Baptists were active as missionaries in Russia. An additional 38 were serving in countries as far away as Australia, Afghanistan, Israel, Portugal and Canada. Ukraine, the Soviet Union’s “Bible Belt”, is today home of the largest Baptist Union on the European mainland.

Unguryan, who grew up in Odessa, continued: “The missions explosion of the 1990s occurred in a state of initial, general euphoria. But today the young are leading the way, we are now the avant-garde. And older members are beginning to support us.” He believes the movement is now in need of greater institutionalisation: “We must organise things step-by-step. We need to get into the budget of every congregation. Many are beginning to understand that we need one or two missionaries from every congregation, and they need to be financed. Our Union has 2.800 congregations. If we had two missionaries from every congregation, then that would be a great army. Our Union has 40.000 young people. The work within Ukraine may be our right hand, but our left hand is the work elsewhere.”

The Youth Director stressed that his department’s ties to the Russian Union’s youth department, which is headed by Rev. Evgeny Bakhmutsky (Moscow), are intimate. A major highlight for both was a convention of 3.000 young people from 19 countries in Odessa. The joint struggle for mission is a glue cementing the ties between the national youth movements. It has at times been rumoured that the Moscow-based “Euro-Asian Federation of Unions of Evangelical Christians-Baptists”, which unites most of the countries of the former Soviet Union except for the Baltics and parts of the Caucasus, was nearing the end of its usefulness. Yet he believes Russian-speaking youth are capable of injecting this Federation with new blood and vigour.

Pavel Unguryan believes that East European events such as the Odessa youth conference of August 2008, which occurred only weeks after the Baptist World Alliance’s global youth conference in Leipzig, dare not be interpreted as competing, parallel occurrences. “It’s really good that we have these two blocs of activity,” he insisted in Amsterdam. “They reflect Baptist diversity. Many young people have neither the funds nor visas necessary to attend events in the West. The Odessa conference was prepared by the young and united them across borders in a dramatic way. Events such as this one are truly a gift from heaven.”

He does not believe significant theological differences still exist between the Baptist youth of East and West. But he conceded that “cultural and psychological differences” remain. “We have differences in mentality. We in the Russian-speaking world grew up in a region in which Christians had long been subjected to pressure. We still have conservative positions on outward issues such as clothing and forms of worship. Our understanding of certain democratic values differs. We nevertheless must always search for that which unites.”

What must still change among Ukrainian Baptists? “We must change our understanding of the times,” Unguryan responded. “We now have very unique opportunities and we must strive daily to comprehend and use them well. We must also change our view on Ukraine. We have become a bridge between East and West; we must take the new global role of Ukraine seriously. We are now in a position to prepare missionaries for all the territory east and south of us.”

The Youth Director’s job during the week
Pavel Unguryan, a lawyer by profession, added that he is Youth Director only on weekends. After serving on Odessa’s city council, he was elected a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the “Verkhovna Rada”, in September 2007. He, three other Baptists and one Pentecostal belong to the ruling party, the “Bloc Yulia Timoshenko”. One-hundred-fifty-five of the parliament’s 450 members belong to this party. The dean of Baptist politicians in Ukraine, the economist Dr. Alexander (or Oleksandr) Turchinov, is Unguryan’s party colleague. Turchinov has been an associate of Prime Minister Timoshenko since 1993 and is now serving as her First Deputy Prime Minister. The 1964-born economist became famous during his stint as the first-ever civilian head of Ukraine’s security service SBU (once KGB) from February to September 2005. Unguryan adds that many Baptists are active as village mayors; others serve as deputies on local and regional councils.

Does Unguryan regret that all Baptists in parliament belong to the Bloc Timoshenko? “It would be better if Baptists were active in different political parties,” he answered. “But unfortunately, only one political force is willing to accept Baptists. The other parties do not have Baptists and do not want any.” Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is known to cater to the Kiev-based Orthodox church; the pro-Russian “Party of Regions” headed by Viktor Yanukovich is beholden to the Moscow Patriarchate. Unguryan failed to add that in 2004 many Baptists initially supported Viktor Yushchenko. Kiev’s mayor, the businessman and Charismatic Leonid Chernovetsky, is an ally of Viktor Yushchenko. Chernovetsky remains a member of the "Embassy of God" congregation founded by the Nigerian Sunday Adelaja. Until recently, the “Embassy” claimed to have 25.000 members in Kiev alone. Adelaja’s involvement in a Ponzi scheme and other charges of fraud have led to downturns in attendance during 2009.

Despite the very reserved position of his own Union’s leadership, Pavel Unguryan takes a gracious stance regarding the Nigerian pastor. “It’s good that Sunday Adelaja is in Ukraine. Until he came, the face of Ukrainian evangelicalism had always been European and white. He is a teaching and admonishment for us. But he has tended to exaggerate his successes - that leaves the impression of being frivolous. His claim to have masterminded the Orange Revolution did not resound well. It would be much better for him to cooperate with us Baptists and the evangelical movement in general. Then the people would say, ‘fine’.”

How do Ukrainians in general react when meeting a Baptist politician? “Many people are dumbfounded, others are pleased. But we have no unified position in our congregations either. Some Baptists still believe political involvement to be unnecessary. But I believe we must be involved in the attempt to create a new quality of government. We Christians are called on to help change society.” This politician is an optimist. When asked if the political involvement of Ukrainian Baptists will create greater distance between them and the Baptists of Russia, he responded: “I believe the same thing will yet happen in Russia.”

At the moment, Pavel Unguryan cannot be reached for further comment: He was married on 15 August 2009!

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 18 August 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. Release #09-25, 1.246 words, 7.833 keystrokes and spaces.

Some Kazakh Evangelicals Seek Unity
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Report on a Country with Christian Roots

M o s c o w – The ethnic-Kazakh evangelicals of Kazakhstan sometimes describe their conversion as a return to the roots. They cite the fact that the Turkic peoples in today’s Kazakhstan were largely of the Assyrian Coptic faith from the 2nd century until the forced introduction of Islam by the conqueror Tamerlane (or Timur) in the 14th century. The Kazakhs of today reject Jesus as a Russian god – the god of the colonizers. Yet the Turkic peoples of this region were mostly Christian for well over a 1.000 years - long before the conversion of the Russians in the 10th century. Vestiges of the Christian past remain within Kazakh culture: The death of a person is still mourned for three, seven, and then 40 days. “There is no such tradition within Islam,” one Kazakh evangelical notes.

Yet the programme of Islamisation was thorough and when Kazakhstan regained independence in 1991, the country had no more than 40 evangelical Kazakhs. By then Russian Baptists had been residing in Kazakhstan for over a century – ethnic-German Lutherans and Mennonites even longer. Why had these Christians not been zealous in their efforts to win Kazakhs for the faith? “Russian Baptists did not understand anything about Kazakhs – our cultures are totally different,” a Kazakh states. But the conversion of Kazakhs was a highly-dangerous undertaking also during communist times.

Yet the scores of missionaries which began arriving in 1991 made up for lost time. As many as 100.000 Kazakhs were converted. Due to emigration and unwillingness to count the costs, only 15.000 of these remain active believers in Kazakhstan today. Protestants in the country number roughly 70.000 in 1.000 registered and even more small, unregistered congregations. Most ethnic-Kazakh congregations remain unregistered. The registered Baptist Union of Kazakhstan is one of the few denominations with both Russian and Kazakh members: Of this Union’s 12.000 members, 1.500 are purported to be Kazakh. Approximately 67% of the country’s 16,4 million citizens are Kazakh, another 21% are Russian. Following India and Argentina, Kazakhstan is the world’s 9th-largest country.

Present struggles with the state
Muslim and Russian Orthodox forces have jointly undertaken three campaigns to overturn the tolerant laws on religion as stated in the Kazakh constitution of 1995. The last attempt ground to a halt when President Nursultan Nazarbayev courageously refused to sign legislation in December 2008. The still in-force constitution of 1995 grants equal rights to all religious communities. A leading Kazakh evangelical states categorically: “We believe this original constitution follows the Bible on all points.” The charter of an interdenominational society to which he belongs even states that its members are required to adhere to this constitution.

Therefore, Kazakhstan remains significantly more tolerant than its immediate Central Asian neighbours. Still only 10 members are needed to legally register a congregation – in Kyrgyzstan it is now 200. In Uzbekistan, only one Bible is permitted in one’s own residence; all other religious literature must be kept on church premises. Turkmenistan is considered the least tolerant of the Central Asian republics.

In Kazakhstan, Protestants are accused of sewing discord within the citizenry; a possible civil war between Muslims and Christians similar to the Indonesian one is invoked. The Russian Orthodox and Sunni Muslims have stated openly that they will not do mission among each other’s followers – it is the evangelicals who are refusing to respect existing holdings and boundaries. Most of the country’s 20 Protestant seminaries and Bible schools should be closed by the end of this year. The government is refusing to recognise the degrees of faculty members.

Nevertheless, some evangelicals insist that repression remains subtle and is directed above all at ethnic-Kazakh converts to the Christian faith. Ethnic-Kazakh pastors cannot receive government recognition; converts in general have no chance of obtaining government employment. Their congregations are under police surveillance. Rigid censorship is in place: All imported books must be proven to contain nothing terroristic. It has for ex. also become very difficult to find burial space for a deceased convert in public cemeteries.

One pastor is driven to prove to the leaders the loyalty and dedication of evangelicals to the national government and describes Protestants as vehement defenders of the existing Kazakh constitution. They see themselves as upholding the constitution in the face of local officials acting outside the law. “Government-run newspapers and journals sometimes attack evangelicals. That the government cannot do – it is breaking the law.” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientologists and Mormons are also defined as “Protestants” in public media. The pastor states: “The Jehovah’s Witnesses have become a heavy burden for us.”

This same pastor adds: „Our biggest problem is not the government – we can deal with that. Our problem is above all the persecution that believers experience within their own families. Families are very close in our culture. We were under Russian rule for 300 years and the only way for us to survive as a culture was to close ranks within our families.” Converts to Christianity are usually ostracized by relatives – a highly painful matter for Kazakhs.

The attempted solution
Outside of the country’s constitution, President Nazarbayev has defined four religious communities as the traditional religions of Kazakhstan: Sunni Muslim, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant. “Protestantism” is defined as Lutheran and Russian Baptist.

An interconfessional society recognised by the government has been formed. It now consists essentially of those Protestant groups who are neither Russian Baptist nor Lutheran. It consists of 100 congregations. Its hope is that within three years, 600 of the country’s 1.000 registered congregations will have become members.

The society’s immediate goal is that one of the two recognised Protestant denominations take them under its wing and represent them to government authorities. Its leadership has given up the hope that Russian Baptists will take on this task. Franz Thiessen (or Tissen), who has headed the Baptist Union of Kazakhstan since 1993, is described as a “godly man”. One society representative states: “His congregation in Saran near Karaganda has 2.000 members and is still growing. That indicates for me that he is a man of God.” Yet Thiessen’s Union broke its ties with international Baptist bodies in 2006 and is not close to North America’s conservative and independent “Southern Baptist Convention”. His primary ties are to several former-Kazakh, Russian-German “Aussiedler” groups in Germany. Reports confirm that Thiessen also rejects the theologically-conservative, 1846-founded Evangelical Alliance movement as “ecumenical”. The most memorable event for Kazakh evangelicals ever was the international conference organised by “Global Mission Fellowship” and others in Almaty in September 2006. It brought together pastors and mission workers from 48 countries and resulted in the first-ever, upper-level meetings with government officials. The country’s Baptist Union chose not to attend.

Rare among registered Baptist Unions is that Thiessen’s Union retains strong ties to the unregistered Baptist movement and has defended it in its altercations with the state. Recently, several of its pastors were fined for holding unregistered religious services. Yet no easy resolution is possible, for the unregistered “International Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” would not want government registration even if it were offered. Essentially, the IUCECB rejects that which hundreds of Kazakh congregations desire most: government recognition.

Consequently, hopes remain that Yuri Novgorodov (Astana), Bishop of Kazakhstan’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church since 2005, might take on the cause of his country’s unrecognised evangelicals. Yet his church has come into close contact with the separatist, St. Louis-based “Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod”, which also is not a part of Lutheran, mainstream international organisations. Kazakh Lutherans have become very cautious regarding other evangelical groups – charismatics in particular.

A charismatic congregation in Almaty headed by Maxim Maximov has over 2.000 members. Its “CNL” TV-network plays a major role among Christian broadcasters in the Russian-speaking world. It is part of the “New Life” movement founded by Ulf Ekman of Sweden. In Kazakhstan it follows a course highly independent of other evangelical denominations.

The interconfessional society believes the government responds favourably to its efforts, for it would rather negotiate with one or two evangelical bodies than with hundreds. It believes one united evangelical seminary might yet be able to fulfil the sharp demands on accreditation being made by the government.

But the hurdles remain formidable - Kazakhstan still has hundreds of tiny, unregistered denominations and many of their founders do not regard interconfessional cooperation as a priority. Korean believers for ex. remain active in Kazakhstan and there are said to be over 100 Presbyterian denominations in South Korea alone.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 06 August 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. Release #09-24, 1.375 words, 9.164 keystrokes and spaces.

RUECB Considering Membership in the Conference of European Churches
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RUECB present in Lyon

M o s c o w / A m s t e r d a m -- The Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ (RUECB) Department of External Church Relations plans to recommend to its Union Council that the church rejoin the Geneva-based “Conference of European Churches” (CEC). This is one result of the CEC’s 13th assembly, convening in Lyon/France from 15 to 21 July. This was the first time the RUECB has participated in a major CEC conference after a break of approximately a decade. The RUECB has attended European Ecumenical Assemblies in the recent past, the last of which took place in Sibiu/Romania in September 2007. Yet these are not CEC events in the strict sense, for they also involve Catholic sponsorship.

The RUECB’s delegate at Lyon was Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, its Director of External Church Relations. Following the conference he stated: “The CEC is a good platform for us to dialogue with other churches. We need to hear about the winds of change and current trends. We need to know how other churches are thinking and hear their feedback on the Russian situation. Russia indeed remains a part of Europe and we must express our interest and concern for developments within the European community of churches.”

Vlasenko regretted the absence of the “Russian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate” in Lyon and expressed the hope that it will yet return to this 1959-founded, all-European forum of churches. In-depth conversations did take place between him and the representatives of other Orthodox churches. Conversations with West European Baptists and with Dr. Edmund Ratz, the Petersburg-based Archbishop of Russia’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church (ELCROS) were also very helpful.

Open discussions tend to be tedious – 306 church delegates were present at Lyon. Yet Vlasenko noted that much can be learned from CEC as how best to organise transparent and democratic church structures.

In Amsterdam following the Lyon event, Vitaly Vlasenko stated: “I believe we shall move forward and propose to our Council next spring that we again become a member of CEC.” On paper, the “Euro-Asian Federation of Unions of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” remains a member of CEC. Yet the Federation remains inactive within the CEC and it is assumed that the RUECB would – if voters agree – simply inherit this membership. Vlasenko also believes the Russian Orthodox need to be asked about their opinion regarding CEC-membership on the part of the RUECB.

Vlasenko attributes the ongoing reluctance of Russian Baptists to join inter-confessional bodies to the fear of a possible loss of identity. Outside influences might steer the Union in directions which its leadership would not desire. “We must be very patient and take time for discussion,” he stated. “We are for dialogue, acceptance and peacemaking, but we are still a bit afraid of losing our borders and our distinctions.” After the decades of forced, involuntary unity during communist rule, it will take some effort to bring Russian Baptists back into communion with other church bodies in Russia and beyond. In any case, as a full member or otherwise, RUECB-involvement in CEC will remain moderate for the foreseeable future.

Dr. William Yoder
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 31 July 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-23, 810 words, 5.139 keystrokes and spaces.

 Uzbek Baptist Children’s Camp Endangered
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Criminal proceedings have been started in Tashkent

M o s c o w -- Just in time before the start of summer holidays, Uzbekistan’s Baptist children’s camp, “Radost” (Joy) in the mountains outside the capital city of Tashkent has been closed. Its director, the Baptist lay minister and businessman Dmitry Pitirimov, was interrogated by police on 7 July. Criminal proceedings have started. Founded in 1996, the camp has in recent years been holding eight summer sessions for as many as 70 children per session. Total children participating per summer has hovered at 500.

The campaign against “Joy” began on 15 June in the magazine “Horizont” with an article entitled
“The Sad and Criminal Deeds of ‘Joy’”. It was followed by articles in other periodicals and media. The article in “Horizont” cites the case of a 5th-grader who had participated in a camp session last summer. According to his parents, he began to exhibit strange behaviour afterwards. Regarding himself to be a sinner, he lost his usual cheerfulness, attempted to pray prior to meals and read continually from materials he had apparently received at camp. “He has suffered a psychological trauma, the remains of which will stay with him for the remainder of his life,” the writer concludes. The article finds it incredulous that Uzbek citizens would voluntarily place their children at the mercy of a Baptist pastor. “Has the son become a sectarian?” the article asks. “Horizont” accuses the camp of sowing discord within Muslim families and knowingly turning minors against their parents. The article also cites the suspiciously low prices at the camp: approximately $5 US per week. It repeatedly states that this “free cheese” has strings attached and is only free at first glance.

Dmitry Pitirimov responds that no children arrive at the camp without their parents or guardians having signed the proper release (putyovka). He can also produce the release which the child’s mother, Raissa Aslonova, signed for her son and a sibling. All releases state clearly that “Joy” is a Baptist camp and describe what Baptists are. Children are even invited to bring along a Bible. The camp’s purpose is listed as “spiritual edification” and parents sign on the line where it states: “The essence of this recreational zone is known to me, I am familiar with the security regulations and in agreement with the conditions for residing there.”

The camp’s director assures that nothing was done covertly – a list of participants was handed to the militia weekly. He also claims that the camp does not use religious literature and that it is not distributed to camp participants. Instead, many positive films of a family nature are shown. “Our assemblies are always interesting. They offer games, sketches and songs accompanied by much joy and laughter.”

The initial article claims the camp’s sanitary conditions are in a “sorry state”. But Pitirimov responds: “Our sanitary conditions are no worse, and often better, than those of neighbouring recreational zones.” After minor repairs, the camp had received sanitary clearance last summer.

Is Uzbekistan Muslim?

Uzbekistan’s population of 27,7 million is purported to be 89% Muslim. Yet Dmitry Pitirimov, an ethnic Russian born in Uzbekistan, insists that Uzbekistan is not a Muslim country. It still has a secular constitution guaranteeing equal treatment to the believers of all religious communities. “We have no conflict between Muslims and Christian believers,” he states. Referring to Muslim groups not allied with the government, he adds: “Muslims here are subjected to more persecution than are Christians.” Uzbekistan essentially has a conflict between a militantly secularist government and believers. He regards the media flurry as part of a state campaign to besmirch the Uzbek Union of Baptists and get their camp closed. “Yet the country never has had Muslim summer camps for children.” Despite its avowedly secular stance, recent Uzbek legislation defines proselytism and missionary work as a crime punishable with up to three years imprisonment.

After an exodus to Russia and the West, only 2.700 believers in 60 congregations and groups remain in the Uzbek Baptist Union. Most of these only became Christians after 1990. Ethnic Uzbeks who convert to Christianity today usually do so in secret. The largest Protestant congregations are Charismatic ones; the majority of Uzbekistan’s remaining Christians are ethnic-Russian Orthodox.

Dr. William Yoder
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 15 July 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-22, 695 words, 4.389 keystrokes and spaces.

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Our Expectations were Not Fulfilled

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Baptist Reponse to the Moscow visit of Barack Obama

M o s c o w -- “Our expectations were not fulfilled.” That was the response of Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, Director of External Church Relations for the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (RUECB) following the first official visit of Barack Obama as US-President to Russia on 6 and 7 July. Despite conversations in the days prior to the visit, the US-President did not meet with any representative of Russia’s roughly one million Protestants. Obama did meet with Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate. His spouse, Michelle Obama, was hosted by an Orthodox nursing order, the “Saint Dimitry Sisters of Compassion”. Yet in the area of substance abuse for ex., Protestants play a significant role in Russia.

“It’s strange that President Obama would meet with the political opposition, but not with us,” added Vlasenko. “We certainly are not a political opposition, but we are a vital segment of Russian reality. Any view of Russia is lopsided if it ignores our country’s many non-Orthodox faiths.”

Richard Nixon broadcast important signals by participating in a worship service at Moscow’s historic Central Baptist Church on 28 May 1972 during his sole visit to Russia as US-President. A case could be made for the claim that “”important signals“ would now also have been in order. In a statement from Istanbul on 7 July, the President’s final day in Russia, Patriarch Kirill admonished foreign religious organisations active in Russia to respect and obey Russian law. He thereby addressed not only his local Muslim listeners: “In 1990, literally entire regiments of missionaries from America, Western Europe and South Korea appeared in Russia intending to teach our people how to pray. But we responded that we already know how to pray to God. For a thousand years, Orthodox Christians and Muslims have been practicing that.”

“But the day is not over,” Rev. Vlasenko added. “We have hopes that the US-President will visit us Protestants next time. We remain deeply convinced of the need for greater understanding between East and West and are glad that Dr. Obama was here. We sincerely pray for good relations between our two countries.”

Baptist to serve on government commission

Rarely are all developments on the church scene negative: On 23 June, Vitaly Vlasenko was cordially hosted by Marina Belogubova in the Moscow offices of the “Central Federal District” (TsFO), a large administrative region outside of Moscow city limits. Ms. Belogubova is head of the TsFO’s Department of Management. Vlasenko reported that significant headway was made in resolving points of contention. One involved the painful conflict of last August, when local officials attempted to close the Protestant “Little Creek” children’s camp west of Moscow just as the RUECB’s biannual conference was beginning. (See our release 8-34 from 2 August 2008.)

Towards the end of the session, Ms. Belogubova even invited the Baptist pastor to serve as an expert within the TsFO’s “Commission on Interethnic and Interconfessional Relations”: As a regional body, its work does not have the overarching significance of a federal government ministry. Yet Vlasenko is willing to serve this commission as needed.

The Russian population of 142 million includes 20 million Muslims and 275.000 Jews.

The RUECB, Russia's largest, unified Protestant church, represents approximately 80.000 adult members in 1.750 congregations and groups. Its President is Yuri Sipko.

Dr. William Yoder

Department for External Church Relations, RUECB

Moscow, 09 July 2009

baptistrelations@yandex.ru

“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”

Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-21, 542 words, 3.451 keystrokes and spaces.

Russia - a Dying Nation?
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A conversation with educator and trauma specialist Marilyn Murray

M o s c o w -- “Russia is a deeply troubled country and is literally becoming a dying nation.” That was the conclusion of Marilyn Murray, a US-American psychotherapist and educator specialising in the long-term consequences of childhood trauma and abuse, during a meeting in Moscow on 23 June. Ready proof is the on-going demographic nosedive of the population of Russia. That view was seconded by her host, Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, Director of External Church Relations for the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists”. Ms. Murray, who has been working half-time in Russia since 2002, described “fear and resentment” as two of the sentiments most prevalent within this nation. “Cycles of abuse and pain prolong themselves if there is no intervention.” She writes on her website: “Because the major emotional wounds of the population were not acknowledged and addressed, many Russians have learned to bury their pain and anesthetize their psychological trauma with addictions.” These addictions can consist of substance abuse, overeating, ‘workaholism’ or be of a sexual nature.

The 72-year-old educator – she is a guest lecturer at Moscow State University of Psychology and Education – reported that Russia today reminds her of US-society during the 1980’s. “Before that, we Americans did not speak openly about our own experiences with sexual abuse, addiction and violence. Today I have a strong sense of déjà vu.” Because Russia signed the “European Social Charter” on 20 May, its schools will now be under pressure to begin with sex education in a systematic way – despite protests from Orthodox and conservative circles. She stated, “On this topic, Russia is years behind. Conservatives say children need to be given sex education by their parents – yet no more than 5% of all parents in Russia do so.” The “Moscow Times” wrote on 11 June: “Explicit descriptions of sex are ubiquitous in tabloids and on late-night television shows. But the focus is on titillation, not information.”

Ms. Murray believes that persons with a Protestant upbringing are by no means immune to the general dangers and hurts of Russian society. At the Moscow meeting she stated: “There is an enormity of pain behind a Christian smile.” Followers of Christ are still far removed from any level of perfection. All of us “have holes or hollow places” in our past. No upbringing is perfect, for no parents are perfect – they are, after all, only humans. Many of these “holes” or hurts, can only be filled by having Christ and we ourselves as adults working together to fill those empty places – no other person can do that. Children have a very simple and very injurious way of thinking, she added: “They think good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.”

Shifting and Balancing

But there is hope - Marilyn Murray dreams of a “paradigm shift” within Russian society. By that she means a shift away from the Soviet dogma where a person had no value except to support the government, into a position which cherishes the worth of every individual. “You are valuable and worthy of love and respect simply because God chose to create you,” she stated.

That shift though must be accompanied by “balance”. Russian society has long tended to meander between extremes. The highly-repressive era of the 1940s and 50s contrasts with today’s period of hedonism and indulgement. Parents and grandparents who had experienced an economically-barren childhood often are now “spoiling their kids”.

This trauma specialist hopes to help turn things around through a programme of education and training. With the support of her Scottsdale/Arizona-based foundation, “Health Restoration International”, she has already held training sessions for 1,600 health professionals and clergy from 177 cities within the former Soviet Union. Her “Murray Method” training seminars have five basic levels, plus an additional two levels for future instructors. Approximately 100 persons have taken courses to become instructors prepared to “train the trainers”.

“Health Restoration International” puts major effort into the training of pastors. Ms. Murray notes that in village settings pastors are often expected to “fix” most anything and everything – spiritually, emotionally, and issues within troubled relationships. Yet such pastors have rarely been trained to counsel others. In addition, most pastors have never addressed their own matters regarding the coming of age under the Soviet system. Many come from alcoholic and abusive families. She also notes that pastors rarely “have boundaries around their time”. Their time is taken up addressing the problems of others – very little time remains for one’s own personal health or that of one’s wife and children.

Two Baptist pastors are among the leading assistants: Roman Popov (Ryazan) is Director of Pastoral Care and gives seminars for pastors in locations as far away as Yakutsk and Tajikistan. Vladimir Radyabov (Krasnodar) gives training seminars in the Caucasus region and in Dagestan.

Marilyn Murray knows how to think big: She dreams of a nationwide, inter-religious campaign promoting the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual well-being of all. She has already counselled prominent Americans including the highly-troubled, world-famous ex-boxer Mike Tyson. He now is one of her strongest supporters and has visited her in Moscow.

She states that God is daily opening doors and allowing her as an educator to share his love with people who ordinarily would not be reached by pastors or missionaries. She is able to begin her classes by reading Scripture, even in secular settings such as Moscow University and when training prison psychologists. She states that Muslim students are also eager to hear God’s word. “Miracles are happening – Russia is not dying.”

Ms. Murray is a member of Scottsdale Bible Church in Arizona, a congregation seriously invested in international mission. Her organisation’s Russian website is: “www.murraymethod.ru”. Her US-based website has the address: “www.hriltd.org”.

Dr. William Yoder and Marilyn Murray
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 27 June 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-20, 944 words, 6.040 keystrokes and spaces.

Turning Swords into Children’s Camps
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„Children’s Healthcare Centre Zhemchuzhinka” has much to offer

Report

M o s c o w – Near the White Russian village of Imenin seven kilometres north of the Baptist stronghold of Kobrin, a sword has been transformed into a children’s camp of impressive dimensions. After two years of reconstruction, the „Children’s Healthcare Centre Zhemchuzhinka” (Little Pearl) was officially opened on the site of a former missile base on 3 June 1995. “Our government was hard-put to find takers on unused military bases and our Baptist Union was willing to take them up on the offer,” reports Ivan Gritsyuta, this major project’s Deputy Director. Soon, the goods of both military blocs were mixing with each other when the late Helmut Sonnenberg (Wernigerode), a German Baptist, began to ship in equipment once belonging to the armies of NATO.

By now, more than 14.000 children and youth from throughout the country have passed through its gates; the Centre’s primary service remains the summer camps. Only half of the children come from Baptist families; the Centre’s publications state that more than 5.000 made a decision to begin a life with Jesus. This summer, Zhemchuzhinka intends to use its 230 beds for four 15-day camps with 190 children each time. An eight-day camp for youth and a six-day camp for children suffering most acutely from the aftermath of Chernobyl are also scheduled. During the camps, children will be given a thorough medical examination including, of course, the thyroid. Medical examinations are also given to adults; 41.000 of them have already been checked-out at the premises. A polyclinic and dental practice are part of the repertoire – all services being offered without any government funding. Thanks to the camp’s abundance of both nature and rooms, at least 12 conferences and five weddings are to be held there this year.

But the Centre has much more in mind: An impressive, reconstructed building with 28 rooms for the elderly is to open its doors in the foreseeable future. In a forest opening at the appropriate distance of five kilometres from the camp a drug rehabilitation centre is in the making.

One could ask whether the project is too large for a 13.500-member Baptist union to digest and whether it is consuming too much of the scarce financial resources available. That question is nearly impossible to answer objectively – and perhaps the general public only notices Protestant projects when they are of a size such as this one.

Particularly convincing regarding the project is the fact that the Centre is taking initial steps towards financial independence. Several greenhouses are in operation and the farming of open fields is starting up. To this end, additional acreage has been bought – the entire campus now totals 40 hectares (89,5 acres). Clients from the drug rehabilitation centre are to receive their occupational therapy there. Warm biscuits are probably in demand everywhere: A bakery is to be installed in the former officers’ sauna. Staff were puzzled by a visiting US-American some months ago who was interested almost strictly in the camp’s electricity bills. But his questioning was not in vain, for he ended up buying the Centre three new, Belarusian-produced, medium-sized wind turbines. Very soon they are to provide the camp with the electricity it requires. Zhemchuzhinka should be only the third wind park in all of Belarus. Deputy Director Gritsyuta admits: “That’s something we never would have thought of on our own. But who could be against a project such as this one?”

A project as big as this Centre is in need of virtually everything: furniture, motor vehicles, spare parts, farming implements, bed linen, clothes, kitchen equipment – without even beginning to mention the needs of the still-empty home for the elderly. For the present, the camp’s living quarters are barely useable during the winter. There, where heating systems are already in place, the problem of heating costs arises.

Human volunteers are of course also needed. carpenters, construction workers, vehicle drivers, cooks, teachers, doctors, nurses and farmers. Is there a retired baker willing to pass on his expertise to younger persons? Could Western missions teams also lend a hand? One of the major past donators was the medical ministry of the State Baptist Convention of Missouri. Initially, Russian-German missions from Germany such as “Logos” and “Friedensstimme” (Voice of Peace) were also involved. One of the still-active donators is “German Baptist Aid”.

What should keep Western groups from holding a conference in the greenery of western Belarus? The Centre reports that health ministry officials in Minsk are appreciative of the contribution being made to the general health of the young. Consequently, Zhemchuzhinka is in a position to insure that interested parties receive the letter of invitation necessary for non-tourist visas as quickly as possible. Costs remain modest: A train trip the whole breadth of Poland presently costs as little as 16 euros ($22 US). The distance to Kobrin from the Polish border at Terespol/Brest is only 45 km.

Yet camp leadership admits that contacts with Poland remain minimal. The “Schengen Wall” – the European Union’s outer border – has arisen between them and even Baptists on the western side of the barrier prefer to gaze in the direction of the setting sun.

Barely believable but true: Belarus could compete with Switzerland in terms of public tidiness. Its streets are virtually free of rubbish. But is Caesium-137 peeking through all the green? There are doubters who claim all of Belarus has been contaminated by the atomic catastrophe of 1986 and that any serious camp recuperation programmes for children can only take place outside the country. Yet staff members such as Ivan Gritsyuta insist that Imenin receives excellent ecological marks on par with those of the West.

The Director of Zhemchuzhinka is Vladimir Vandich, a Baptist pastor. The Centre remains exclusively the property of the Minsk-based “Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the Republic of Belarus”. The Centre can be reached via the address of: „kobrincamp@mail.ru“. A Russian-language webpage can be found under: „www.campkobrin.org“.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 19 June 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-19, 977 words, 6.131 keystrokes and spaces.


Reasoning Diametrically Counter That of the Nationalists
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Orthodox, government and Baptist officials meet in Voronesh

M o s c o w -- Meetings of a Baptist delegation with government and Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) officials in Voronesh on 4 June proved once again the unique status of interconfessional relations in this western Russian city. Rev. Vitaly Vasenko, Director of External Church Relations for the Moscow-based “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (RUECB), reported afterward: “Our discussions were hearty and friendly. In Voronesh we have had very good relations with the Orthodox. There, our two churches have never combated each other.” He added that Sergii (surname: Fomin), the kindly Metropolitan of Voronesh and Borisoglebsky, had supported the Finnish-sponsored “Power of Change” evangelistic media campaign when it was held in Voronesh from April to May 2006. The programme, which has been carried out in 20 Russian cities since 2003, is presently confronted with strong Orthodox resistance in Saratov (Volga).

The Metropolitan, who also heads the ROC’s “Department for Social Services and Charity”, was instrumental in forming an anti-narcotic campaign in Voronesh in November 2005 – a project that involved cooperation with Baptists. Perhaps most importantly of all, Sergii helped found a rare “Interconfessional Council” in Voronesh on 8 December 2005. The Council covers six faiths, including Jews and Muslims. At the time of its founding, the Metropolitan stated: “Our Council is not only inter-faith – it also involves local politicians. I think this will be a successful experiment.“ The Council is headed by a politician, but his two deputies are the Orthodox Diocese Secretary Andrei (Tarisov), and Oleg Alekseev, Senior Pastor of Woronesh’s largest Baptist congregation.
Russian Nationalists believe religious pluralism weakens the nation by destroying its unity. Yet the thinking of the Voronesh Council runs diametrically counter. An article on the Council in a regional edition of “Komsomolskaya Pravda” from 22.4.2008 is entitled: “Interconfessional Cooperation – A Foundation for the National Security of Russia”. A booklet published by the Council in the same year states: “Interconfessional Peace in the Country – An Important Factor for the Stabilisation of Society.” A subheading in “Komsomolskaya Pravda” states: “All are different – all are equal.”

Vlasenko reports that Pastor Alekseev is highly-respected in Orthodox circles and has been – or will be - the recipient of more than one government medal. “Alekseev has a highly-unique relationship with the Orthodox. He is very careful not to criticise and his relationship with them is very good.”

Yet the Council distinguishes between “traditional” and “non-traditional” faiths and does not give a blank check to Protestant evangelistic efforts. It states in a report for ex.: “Representatives of one transoceanic faith engaged in missionary activity under the guise of teaching English in a local kindergarten. . . . Government departments should play an active role in resolving such matters.”

Baptist ranks are nevertheless growing. At a meeting of Voloshin and Vlasenko with the Baptist pastors on 5 June, they reported on 24 Baptist congregations within the Voronesh region. “Seventy-percent of our pastors are working in new congregations,” Vlasenko stated: “Twenty years ago there would have been only two or three. The ROC has 400 congregations in the region, but not all of them are active.”

Additional News

1. On 25 May, RUECB-President Yuri Sipko was invited along with Vitaly Vlasenko and other representatives of Protestant churches to attend a reception with the ROC-Patriarch Kirill (or Cyril) on the occasion of “Saints Cyril and Methodius Day”. It was their first meeting with Kirill since his enthronisation on 1 February. Vlasenko quotes him as having said: “’Brethren, I am so glad to meet you. I am so happy that you have come!’ He assured us that all interconfessional projects, including the Orthodox-Catholic-Protestant ‘Christian Inter-Confessional Advisory Committee’ (CIAC) remain clearly on track. The Patriarch has cancelled nothing.”

2. Russian Baptists are hoping to construct a church in the war-devastated city of Tskhinvali/South Ossetia. Vitaly Vlasenko reports that his department is reticent about beginning a building programme immediately. “We must first of all consult with the Baptists in Georgia proper. They also regard this to be their territory and we must be very sensitive and considerate.” Georgia considers the break-away region of South Ossetia to be a part of its own country.

3. Roughly 55 Ukrainian, 45 Russian and ten Belorussian Baptists are planning to attend the “Amsterdam 400” anniversary celebrations, 24 to 26 July. Those hoping to attend include the Russian “Logos” choir and the Russian-Ukrainian music group “Zhivaya Kaplya” (Living Drop). (Space remains in Amsterdam for additional guests from East and West.) A smaller anniversary event for 250 participants is planned for Kiev from 27 to 29 August.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 11 June 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-18, 748 words, 4.935 keystrokes and spaces.

Generous Orthodoxy in Minsk
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The Baptists of Belarus are optimistic

Report

M i n s k -- Minsk’s “Good News” (Blagovestie) Baptist congregation at Ulitsa Chaikovskogo 37 in the north of the city has made great progress. What had begun in 1990 with a handful of believers stemming from the unregistered Baptist movement has blossomed into Minsk’s second-largest congregation belonging to the Belarusian (White Russian) “Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists”. “Good News” has baptised 500 new believers in the past 19 years and has even founded two daughter congregations. In 2007 it sent out 100 of its members to form the “New Earth” congregation. Just this year it parted with 70 more in order to found “Light of Hope”. The three congregations have a combined Sunday-morning attendance of 500-600, rivalling that of the city’s most senior Baptist congregation, Golgotha.

“We have had a wonderful time the last 7-8 years,” reported Senior Pastor Dmitry Lazuta on 27 May. “We have baptised 40 new believers annually and are growing new church leaders.” A two-year evening programme attended by 25 young persons, all of them former university students, is offering a hands-on course on mission and church work. But the pastor cautioned: “Crowds are not showing up. We have to fight for every convert. So we must be very professional in our efforts. But I remain very optimistic. It is a good time for the church.“

“Good News” never was simple regular fare within the Baptist movement. It began with the fact that Pastor Lazuta initially wore a beard. His congregation was probably also the first Baptist one in the country to permit drums; young people and the absence of a dress code are also obvious. Today, the two daughter congregations are undoubtedly the loudest Baptist congregations in Minsk. Lazuta reported: “Thanks to the Pentecostals, we discovered that services might also be joyful – that it is not a sin to celebrate God. His congregations are also the first Baptist ones to utilise women as small-group leaders. He sees beauty in diversity: “I believe God uses the different streams of Christianity to make us richer.”

What must change within the Baptist movement? “We most promote the value of tolerance,” he responded. “We need to emphasize that our Union has many things in common, but we differ in methods and style. Only now is our leadership beginning to recognise that we have no future unless we accept our differences.” Though the Minsk pastor has reservations regarding the theology of the US-American Brian McLaren, he loves the title of his 2004 book: “A Generous Orthodoxy”. “That’s what we need!” he exclaimed. “We dare not declassify a worship service as a ‘funeral’ or ‘discotheque’. That’s an insult and we must fight against that. Generous Orthodoxy is the only way to go. We must study the changing times and communicate the unchanging truth with changing methods.”

How are relations with other congregations within the Belarusian Union? “Some are for us, some are not,” Lazuta answered. The pastor remains a part-time instructor at the Union’s Minsk seminary and heads a church-planting programme sponsored by the 1933-founded “Slavic Missionary Service”.

Why did “Good News” bother to join the Belarusian “Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” a decade ago? “We had limited fellowship with others, “ the 1998 graduate of Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia explained. “We wanted to be open for new experiences and ideas. We were self-sufficient in many things, but not self-sufficient in terms of fellowship.”

Congregational Beginnings

Dmitry Lazuta reported that in 1989 a kind of second split occurred within the non-registered Baptist movement in Belarus. Initially, this Baptist movement had broken off from the Soviet Union’s “All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” in 1961. Twenty-eight years later, its Belarusian branch demanded a re-registration of its members. “At that time this church had a procedure for purifying itself, called a confession. Every member was required to stand before the congregation and confess his or her sins. My circle of friends and I felt this to be appropriate only if it were voluntary. So we and hundreds more left the denomination.” He added: “There are many good things I learned from them, like faithfulness and commitment.” To this day, he remains a pacifist. But Lazuta also regards that denomination as legalistic and judgemental: “Spiritual pride is a problem for them.”

Now known as the "International Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists" (IUCECB), the one-time "Initiativniki” still enjoy a relatively strong presence in Belarus with as many as 4.000 members and strong congregations in Minsk, Brest, Gomel and Mogilev. Their world membership is roughly 78.000; perhaps half of them still reside in the countries of the former USSR.

The further division of Baptist groupings within Belarus has indeed not yet come to a halt: In 2008, 16 congregations with approximately 300 members broke with the official Belarusian Union. The group’s leader is Viktor Nemtsev (Minsk), a former professor. The break is attributed more to leadership than to issues of theology. One worker for the official Union states: “Our greatest problem today is the lack of unity.”

Pastor Lazuta is also the only Union pastor who has preached at Minsk’s controversial, charismatic “New Life” congregation. He explained: “I wanted to express my respect for what they are doing as an officially underground church. I respect their courage.” Meeting in a former cattle barn on the Western outskirts of the city, the 1.000-member congregation is known for the highly-confrontational style of its negotiations with the government. These included a 23-day hunger strike in 2006 and a petition with 50.000 signatures delivered to Brussels EU-offices in March 2008.

Yet Baptist tent evangelism remains active and the Baptist Union’s “Zhemchuzhinka“ (Little Pearl) children’s camp and social programme in Kobrin near Brest continues to enjoy solid relationships with the Minsk-based government. In a conversation with this press service, “New Life’s” lawyer, Sergey Lukanin (Minsk), conceded that conditions have improved since 2007, when three of his church’s pastors were jailed for brief periods. Problematic remains in any case the large areas of legal grey: Many practices (and buildings) deemed illegal by legislation continue to be tolerated by the government of President Alexander Lukashenko. “New Life” was last ordered to vacate its highly-unusual church building as of 1 June 2009.

Lazuta concluded: “I am grateful to God for situation we have today. I wish we had more freedom, but we in any case have much more freedom than we had 20 years ago. We should not be complaining – we still have great freedom to witness to our neighbours and relatives. And that remains the primary source of growth for our church. Our government may be authoritarian, but it certainly is not totalitarian. We are somewhere in the middle between democracy and totalitarianism. We were spared the economic shock treatment meted out by the Russian government under Boris Yeltsin, and many observers feel that decision was very much to the benefit of our country. We are still very hopeful about the possibility of continued change and improvement.”

The “Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the Republic of Belarus” has 13.500 members gathered in 290 congregations. Its President is Nikolay Sinkovets (Minsk). Roughly 100.000 (1%) of the country’s 9.8 million citizens are Protestants.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Minsk/Moscow, 3 June 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-17, 1.188 words, 7.509 keystrokes and spaces.

Cooperation between the Orthodox and Baptists of Russia Will Continue
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Initial meeting with the new Chairman of External Church Relations

M o s c o w -- The high-level and long-standing cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (ROC) and the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB), strengthened through the efforts of Kirill, the present “Patriarch of Moscow and All of Rus”, will continue. That was solid conclusion of Vitaly Vlasenko, the RUECB’s “Director of External Church Affairs”, following his first-ever meeting with Hilarion Alfeyev on 15 May in Moscow. The 42-year-old Hilarion (also known as Ilarion), Archbishop of Volokolamsk located 130 km west of Moscow, succeeded Kirill in early 2009 as head of the ROC’s Department of External Church Relations.

Rev. Vlasenko described his new counterpart as “a very wise and godly man. I am impressed by his view of the Bible. He is highly-educated and knows the history of Baptists well. I really enjoyed meeting with him and believe we could have a wonderful relationship in the future.” Hilarion, who already has a long history of work in international ecumenical and Orthodox-Catholic relations, served as Bishop of Vienna and Austria from 2003 to 2009. He expressed strong interest in continuing the work of the “Christian Inter-Confessional Advisory Committee” (CIAC). This committee of Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants met last 2 October following a hiatus of nearly seven years. Protestants are represented on the committee’s three-man leadership team by Rev. Vlasenko. A convinced advocate of bilateral relations, the Archbishop also spoke out in favour of a continuation of theological consultations between the ROC and RUECB. He believes the appointment of a rabid nationalist priest, Alexander Dvorkin, to oversee the Justice Department’s “Commission for the Implementation of State Expertise on Religious Science”, does not need to cast a shadow on Orthodox-Baptist relations.

The Moscow-born Hilarion, an Archbishop only since March, has criticised Western Protestantism as “Christianity light” in view of its lack of apostolic succession and dearth of dogmatic teachings. Yet both he and Vlasenko see the consensus between Russian Orthodox and Baptists on moral and family issues as a strong basis for cooperation.

The Archbishop, a person of wide scholarly interests, has authored 30 books and over 500 articles. At least four of his monographs have appeared in English. He is even active as a composer – his “Christmas Oratorium” was first performed in Vienna last December.

Baptist visits Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On the previous day, 14 May, Vitaly Vlasenko was hosted by Oleg Vasnetsov, a Vice-President of the foreign ministry department responsible for relations with Russian civic organisations. One concern was that fact that it is no longer possible for church representatives to receive an official visa to Russia on short notice. Until a year ago, Russian Protestants had been able to receive from their foreign ministry, often within 24 hours, the invitation necessary to apply for official visas. Today, that procedure can last as long as a month. Vasnetsov promised to pursue the matter; Vlasenko noted that a conversation with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could be essential.

Vlasenko commented after the session: “It was a good meeting and the people were very open. They did not know much about Protestants and were surprised to hear that around a million of their citizens are Protestants. This shows again how vitally important it is that we seek and cultivate relations with the political authorities of our country.”

RUECB Visits EBM in Switzerland

This year, the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists was officially present at the annual conference of the European Baptist Mission (EBM) for the first time. It took place from 7 to 9 May in Bülach near Zurich. After the visit, the RUECB’s delegate, Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, reported: “It was a wonderful visit. I enjoyed hearing the mission reports from Africa, South America and India. But now I must consult with my colleagues in Russia - Russian Baptists are already active in India Foreign mission societies from North America would also like to cooperate with us and we must decide what will best further the work of Christ both in our congregations and in foreign settings.” This will require much consultation with Ruvim Voloshin (Moscow), the RUECB’s Director for both home and foreign mission. Vlasenko added: “I do not believe that a decision can be made prior to the inauguration of our new Union President in March 2010.” The new President will be Viktor Ryaguzov, Senior Presbyter (Bishop) in the Samara region.

The EBM, formed in 1954, was joined by MASA (Mission Activities in South America) in 1979. The mission works closely with the Prague-based “European Baptist Federation” and has its headquarters on the Baptist campus in Elstal near Berlin. Its General-Secretary is a German, Rev. Christoph Haus (Elstal). The 18 member unions of EBM now include Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Western Cuba. The EBM’s address is: “ebm-masa.de”.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Odessa/Moscow, 23 May 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
“www.baptistrelations.org” and “www.baptist.org.ru”
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-16, 754 words, 4.783 keystrokes and spaces.

Legal Nihilism is Russia’s Greatest Problem
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Yuri Sipko laments the failure of a worthy dictatorship

M o s c o w -- In an interview with his own Baptist press service on 4 May, Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptist (RUECB) President Yuri Sipko portrayed his church as the champion of state constitutionality. He lamented the total failure of a worthy dictatorship proclaimed by President Vladimir Putin early in his presidency: the dictatorship of the law. Sipko also agreed heartily with the assessment of Dimitry Medvedev, the present President, that legal nihilism is the Russian society’s greatest problem. In contrast to Orthodox claim that the Russian nation is - at least potentially - morally superior to its Western counterparts, Sipko surmised that Russia, in view of the arbitrary nature of its judicial system, might be a 1.000 years behind. But he did suggest in this context that the Marxist heritage be sent back from whence it came: to Western Europe.

According to the Baptist leader, the downward spiral began with the passing of the “Law on Religion and Freedom of Conscience” by the Duma in June 1997. It had set a dangerous precedent by installing a hierarchy among Russia’s hundreds of religious groupings. It made the “traditional” religions – primarily Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism - more worthy of state recognition than others. He pointed out that this law is in itself already unconstitutional, for it destroys the constitutionally-anchored equality of all Russian religious communities.

Sipko described the Justice Department’s creation of a “Commission for the Implementation of State Expertise on Religious Science” in March of this year as a logical consequence of nihilism and the legislation of 1997. This highly-controversial committee responsibility for assessment of the religious community consists primarily of rabidly pro-Moscow Patriarchate laity and is headed by Alexander Dvorkin, a firebrand Orthodox cleric and self-proclaimed specialist on the cults (See the press release of 13 April on our two websites).

As a partial solution to legal anarchy, the Baptist President proposed that Russia’s civil servants be returned to the school bench to become acquainted with the constitution they are called on to defend. The scholars would need to include Alexander Konovalov, an Orthodox cleric and, since May 2008, Russia’s Minister of Justice. Sipko believes every higher-level politician should be required to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution: “Everyone is called to serve the Fatherland – not one’s own boss.”

The RUECB’s President compared the worthy government to the ethic of medical doctors. When a patient falls ill, the doctor does not interpret the patient’s complaints as an attack on his professional authority. Instead, the doctor will do all he can to quickly alleviate the suffering of his patients. In the same sense, state authorities “should react immediately to restore a citizen’s freedom and human rights. Only unworthy politicians regard protest as an attack on their authority.” He added: We Russians “must learn how to respect, uphold and love each other”. Russia has so few people. “People with a free conscience are the true bearers of Russian sovereignty.”

Pointing to its survival during the decades of massive repression, Yuri Sipko does not regard the forward surge of Orthodoxy as a real danger to the Baptist movement. “I believe the present campaign to reduce our country to a sole faith will only stimulate the longing of our people to be civil citizens and free. In such circumstances, Baptists supporting freedom of conscience for all will receive major reinforcement. Thanks be to God!”

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Kiev/Moscow, 15 May 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptistrelations.org and www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-15, 574 words, 3.656 keystrokes and spaces.

Are We a Hyphen or an “And”?
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Who are the Evangelical Christians within the RUECB?

Report

M o s c o w – Who precisely are the “Evangelical Christians” within the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (RUECB)? We Baptists ourselves sometimes add to the general confusion. The Russian portion of the webpage of the RUECB’s Moscow seminary (www.moscowseminary.org) for ex. refers correctly to “Evangelical Christians-Baptists”, but the English portion of the site is entitled “Union of Evangelical Christians and Baptists”. Is our denomination a hyphen or an “and”? Are we one joint hybrid confession, or are we two distinct confessions? We are probably misnamed, for the several leaders I asked believed “and” was a more appropriate description. Dr. Alexei Bychkov (born 1928), General-Secretary of the “All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” from 1971-1992 and a Baptist church pastor after that, again describes himself as an Evangelical Christian. “I initially understood myself as an Evangelical Christian. But as leader of the entire Union, I lost that identity.”

Evangelical Christians and Baptists never merged into a signal denomination until 1944, when – under less than voluntary circumstances – the “All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” was formed. During the years of repression after 1944, the relationship of the two confessions could perhaps most readily be described as a hyphen. Yet in the years since Perestroika, an awareness of confessional distinctiveness has gathered new strength. Numerous groups distanced themselves entirely from the All-Union Council. Two of the 10 denominations now making up the “Public Council” of Baptist-style churches label themselves “Evangelical Christian”. Generally, Evangelical Christians have tended to be more urban, better-educated, more socially-minded and more ecumenical than their more-numerous Baptist compatriots. Yet the Baptist Alexander Tsutserov, now Rector of “Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary”, defines Evangelical Christians simply as “theologically conservative. They support verbal inspiration and the infallibility of Scripture.”

Evangelical-Christian history is closely tied to the personage of Ivan Prokhanov (1869-1935), who grew up in a Molokan family in Vladikavkas and joined the Baptists in 1887. He later moved to St. Petersburg, joined the Evangelical Christians and headed the movement from 1908 to 1928. He struggled unsuccessfully to unite the Baptists and Evangelical Christians; the unity of all evangelicals was a constant theme of his work. He is known for sayings such as: "In essentials unity, in secondary things freedom, and in everything love." He even went beyond the evangelicals in his search for Christian unity. After the imprisonment of Patriarch Tikhon in 1922, he reached out to and expressed solidarity with his former oppressor, the Russian Orthodox Church. For a limited period prior to 1928, Prokhanov even promoted a form of Christian socialism.

Yet today, this movement’s profile is diluted and its name may on occasion serve simply as an escape route for Protestant groups no longer willing to call themselves “Baptist”. Another example of the same phenomenon is the tendency of Pentecostal churches to label themselves “Evangelical”. This often occurs to the dismay of neighbouring Lutherans. Even though the fundamentalist and separatist theology of many ethnic-German Baptists from Russia now living in Germany – the “Aussiedler” – places them far from the native-Russian, Evangelical Christian camp, some have resorted to calling themselves “Evangelical Christians” (Evangeliumschristen). This is done largely to avoid confusion with native German Baptists, whom the Aussiedler regard as theologically liberal. Tsutserov claims there may now be only within Russia as many as 20 confessional groups calling themselves “Evangelical Christian”. Obviously, “Evangelical-Christian” is both a specific denomination as well as a generic term roughly equivalent to the adjective “Protestant”.

“Evangelical Christians” have suddenly become visible in Russia. A life-long Baptist until February 2008, Moscow businessman Alexander Semchenko held a conference with nearly a 1.000 attendees in a Moscow hotel in late April 2009 celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Prokhanov-headed “All-Russian Evangelical Christian Union”. Semchenko can be readily accused of using the Evangelical Christian name as an excuse and lever to create organisations parallel to those of the RUECB. Yet he is more entitled to the term than many, for he was named Bishop of the tiny “Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians” last year.

Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary

Initially, I thought I had picked the wrong address for gathering information on the Evangelical Christians when I visited “Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary” in the north of the city. Despite its name, its Rector informed me at the outset that his institution had always been an interdenominational one. Their website (www.moscowseminary.ru) also stresses the ecumenical nature of its student body. Its 80 students (35 of whom study full-time and on-location) are 40% Baptist, 32% Pentecostal/Charismatic, 15% Evangelical Christian, 6% Methodist and 3% both Nazarene and Presbyterian.

Thanks to financial support from the Greenwood/Indiana-based “OMS International” mission, Alexei Bychkov and Vitaly Kulikov (1936-2007), editor of the now-defunct “Bratsky Vestnik” magazine, were able to found the seminary in 1993. Bychkov stresses that the institution had strong Orthodox ties from the outset and calls the Orthodox visionary Alexander Men – who was murdered in 1990 - one of the institution’s founding spirits. Four Orthodox professors have served on staff up to the present.

The interdenominational thrust builds a strong supporting column in this seminary’s bid for survival. Tsutserov calls his school Moscow’s sole interdenominational seminary and states: “We propose that denominations such as the Baptists come join us. We believe 70% of our teaching is truly interdenominational in character, and we are very willing to let instructors from the various denominations teach the remaining 30% to their own students. There is no need to waste funds and add a fifth wheel – we can supply the basics. Everything is in place. We have gone to all the trouble and obtained permits for everything including the fire code and hygiene. We have paid all taxes. It would be a win-win situation for everyone. The beauty is that we do not attempt to ‘convert’ anyone; small churches feel free to entrust their students to our care.” Obviously, the seminary does not teach adult baptism to Presbyterians or Lutherans. But the question of who-whom still remains regarding the unavoidable and painful process of shrinkage: Which seminaries will be closing their doors to help the remainder to survive?

It is not coincidental that I have used the term “ecumenical” in this text. It is precisely the word Pastor Bychkov chose to describe the orientation of his seminary. And this is where “Moscow Evangelical Christian Seminary” indeed does reflect the Evangelical Christian heritage: its profound interest in fraternal, interdenominational and ecumenical relationships.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow/Berlin, 28 April 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptistrelations.org and www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-14, 1.057 words, 7.183 keystrokes and spaces.

Authorising the Donkey to Guard the Vegetable Patch
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Alexander Dvorkin heads the Justice Department’s new commission on religion

M o s c o w -- On 3 April, Alexander Dvorkin, the Russian priest most famous for the defamation of religious groups not belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox faith, was elected Chairman of the Justice Department’s “Commission for the Implementation of State Expertise on Religious Science”. This committee had been officially founded a month earlier on 3 March. Dvorkin, a US citizen and according to some reports a 1983 graduate of Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood/New York, is a self-avowed specialist on the cults. He is known for the broken glass and other acts of vandalism committed against religious buildings following in the wake of his public appearances across Russia. The result of his election was a vociferous and immediate outcry from academic experts on religion and others acknowledging the multi-ethnic and multi-religious character of Russian society. Citing Russian literature, the religion expert Michael Sitnikov compared Dvorkin’s election to “authorising the donkey to guard the vegetable patch”.

This commission has replaced an earlier government one of academic experts created in June 1998 to advise it on issues of religion. This committee, which prided itself in its doctrinal neutrality, had played a role in blocking the registration of business interests attempting to enter the market under the guise of a religious organisation. Yet only this new committee operating under auspices of the Justice Department will have extensive powers to introduce and enforce legislation on religious organisations. The sociologist Sergey Filatov concluded: “The state now gets to answer for all the hate and slander spouting forth from Dvorkin.”

Russia‘s Minister of Justice since May 2008 is the lawyer Alexander Konovalov (born 1968), described by some as an Orthodox monk. He is in any case a devoted follower of the 1955-born Dvorkin and was obviously responsible for bringing his former teacher into the Department of Justice. One Commission Vice-Chairman is Roman Silantev, known for his rude insults directed at Russia’s 20 million Muslims. Another Commission member is the journalist Yevgeny Mukhatarov, who – along with Dvorkin – has frequently attacked Pentecostals and Charismatics. One particularly prominent member is the official chief ideologist of the ruling “United Russia” party: Ivan Demidov. Demidov, also a well-known TV showman, is a supporter of the anti-democratic ideology of “Neo-Eurasianism”. Only one member of the original academic committee remains. Roman Lunkin, a Research Fellow for the Russian Academy of Sciences, describes the Ministry of Justice as “on the warpath”. The Justice Minister has replaced the original commission of academic experts with an “Orthodox fighting brigade” of non-experts.

The Response of the Non-Orthodox

In an interview with the dissident Orthodox “Portal-Credo” news service, Yuri Sipko, President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB), reacted with despair. He decried the inability of the Russian state to defend its own legislation and asked: “To whom are we to turn if even our Constitutional Court is not concerned about defending the Constitution?” He cited humour as perhaps the most appropriate response to current developments. According to him, the government has been involved in a concerted, long-term effort to greatly restrict the freedom of religion in Russia.

His deputy, Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, the RUECB’s Director for External Church Relations, was more optimistic. He – as Michael Sitnikov had also noted – believes that not all government ministries need to follow the strange leading of its Ministry of Justice. “Maybe this has only been a big mistake,” Vlasenko added. “We are not alone in our opposition and we hope the new commission will be expanded to include the voices of Protestants and other faith communities representing the full breadth of Russian religious life.” The Baptist also is concerned about spiritual ramifications. “I fear for the witness of the Russian Orthodox Church. A Christian inquisition would be much more damaging to our testimony than the atheistic one of old could ever have been.”

Perhaps the most convincing Protestant argument was stated by Sergey Ryakhovsky, Bishop of the “Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith”. As a member of Dmitry Medvedev’s “Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Organisations”, he is known to defend Protestant causes by appealing to patriotism. He accuses Dvorkin, who spent the 20 years prior to 1990 in the US, of importing discord and destabilisation to Russia. “Freedom of conscience and human rights are matters of national interest affecting the security of the Russian Federation. When destabilisation occurs, the state is thereby also destabilised, for it affects millions of citizens.” Essentially, both Ryakhovsky and Dvorkin accuse each other of being American.

Ravil Gaynetdin (Kazan), the Grand Mufti of Russia, reported that the new commission will, due to its lack of an academic expert on Islam or any claim to objectivity, be without any use or authority for the Muslims of Russia. He added: “In view of its scandalous aura, I will not bother to comment further on this organ of government.”

If Russian courts cannot be expected to act impartially, Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights can reckon with an even greater backlog of cases stemming from further east. Moscow’s “Slavic Centre for Law and Justice” has already begun to re-create the commission of experts on religion disenfranchised by the Department of Justice. The Centre has close institutional ties with the Strasbourg-based “European Centre for Law and Justice”. Both are affiliates of the Washington/D.C.-based “American Center for Law and Justice”. Roman Lunkin reports that the Justice Department is setting its sights initially on Moscow’s “Russian Bible Society”, which it accuses of being a non-religious organisation. Though largely Protestant in orientation, the Society avidly distributes the officially-canonized Orthodox version of the Holy Scriptures.

Why do many of the younger players in Russian politics go to such lengths to antagonise the non-Orthodox? The political scientist Anastasia Mitrofanova points out that many of them grew up in secular households with ties to the communist party and were brought up to think dogmatically in terms of black-and-white. Not converted to Christianity and baptised until their adult years, fresh converts such as these tend to be “more papist than the Pope”.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 13 April 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231
www.baptistrelations.org, www.baptist.org.ru

Unless otherwise mentioned, all persons listed in the article are residents of Moscow.

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-13, 1.004 words, 6.590 strokes and spaces.

Using a Great Opportunity for the Cause of Christ
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Russian Baptist leader visits the government of Chechnya

M o s c o w -- Chechnya and its capital Grozny are being rapidly rebuilt, and Baptists need to be a part of that rebuilding process. That was the conclusion of Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko (Moscow), Director of External Church Relations for the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB), following a visit to the once war-torn capital from 3 to 5 April. Vlasenko visited Grozny at the invitation of Sultan Mirzayev, the Chief Mufti of Chechnya, whom the Baptist had befriended at a joint government studies programme in Moscow. In Grozny, Vlasenko and his wife Yana also visited Ramzan Kadyrov, the 32-year-old strongman and President of the Chechen Republic.

Vlasenko reported later in Moscow: “The Chechen government has promised to support us in our efforts to rebuild, and I believe it is proper for us to accept the invitation. We must use this great opportunity for the cause of Christ. We must send a full-time pastor there very soon to re-establish our congregation. It would be impossible to achieve very much from the outside.” Until the outbreak of the first Chechen war in December 1994, 450 Baptists had resided there. Now, probably only a few elderly women, whom Vlasenko unfortunately was unable to locate, remain. During the period between the two Chechen wars (1996-99), the destroyed Baptist house of prayer had been partially rebuilt. But the work stopped and has not been restarted; the structure has a new roof, but windows and all insulation are still missing. Its legal ownership is also unclear.

The second Chechen war ended in late 2000. Pastor Vlasenko was astonished by the speed of reconstruction and the positive spirit now apparent in the Chechen capital. “People are working day-and-night to rebuild their houses and city. The streets are spotless; war damage is evident only on the edges of the city. There are children everywhere and even smaller children are going to school without being accompanied by adults. The new mosque in the centre of Grozny, which has become a focus point of the Chechen life and nation, is truly an impressive structure. The rebuilt Russian Orthodox church will be reopened shortly and Russians are heartily invited to return. There is even talk of rebuilding the Jewish synagogue.” In a private conversation, a leading Chechen politician assured Vlasenko that the Chechen government desires a secular state open to believers of all faiths – not an Islamic one. But he is unsure to what extent this politician can speak for the government in general.

President Kadyrov’s father, Akhmat Kadyrov, had served as the unofficial and later official head of Chechnya from 2000 until his assassination in May 2004. Ramzan Kadyrov has been President since February 2007. Both had fought against the Russian army during the first Chechen war. In conversations now with his Baptist guest, Ramzan Kadyrov attributed his family’s change-of-heart at the outset of the second war to the realisation that Russia was resolute about keeping Chechnya within the Russian Federation. The freedom which the people of Chechnya desired could also be obtained from within the Russian Federation. In addition, the people of Chechnya had become aware of their need for protection from the increasingly radical – and often foreign – Islamic extremists in the region. The present President harbours deep gratitude towards now-Minister-President Vladimir Putin for his unwavering support and loyalty.

In view of the Kadyrov family’s negative international reputation, Vitaly Vlasenko concedes that he did not have the opportunity “to check behind the nice facade” during his short stay. The Baptist is convinced that Christians dare not gloss over the crimes that have been committed on any or all sides. “Some say the war is over and that we must for the sake of peace let bygones be bygones. But a stable and lasting peace can only be founded on the truth. Lawyers must be given the freedom to pursue their task of investigation. The facts must be found out and the guilty brought to justice.” The pastor adds that the efforts of the Kadyrov family have brought the region an initial phase of peace and stability - two values of major significance. He states: “I am so glad the war and insurgency are finally over and that people can start to rebuild their dreams.”

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 07 April 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231
www.baptistrelations.org, www.baptist.org.ru

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-12, 701 words, 4.289 strokes and spaces.

Viktor Ryaguzov Nominated to Succeed Yuri Sipko as RUECB-President
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Results of the Union Council’s spring sessions

M o s c o w -- The Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ Union Council will nominate Viktor Ryaguzov to succeed Yuri Sipko as RUECB-President at the next Convention slated for Moscow, 23 – 25 March 2010. The term will last four years. This was a primary result of the twice-annual Union Council sessions (Soviet Soyuza) which ended on the campus of the RUECB’s Moscow seminary on 27 March. The Convention (Syezd), the RUECB’s highest legislative authority, meets only once every four years. It last met in connection with the large Congress in Bryansk in August 2006, which itself meets every second year. In Bryansk the Convention had elected Yuri Sipko for a second four-year term.

Viktor Semyonovich Ryaguzov (born 16.10.1951), Pastor of the 800-member „Preobrazhenie" (Transformation) congregation in Samara/Volga, has served this congregation since 1980. He has been “Bishop” (“Senior Presbyter” in Russian) for the regions of Samara and Ulyanovsk since 1992. He is also one of the RUECB’s seven Regional Vice-Presidents and is now responsible for the entire Volga region. In contrast to his older brother, Dr. Vladimir Ryaguzov, until 2006 Rector of “Moscow Bible Institute” and well-known to Baptists in Germany and California, the Presidential candidate has not mastered a foreign tongue.

A matter of continuing dialogue at Union Council sessions is the issue of Calvinism, in particular its teaching of eternal security. The issue has also involved Viktor Ryaguzov, for the Samara preachers’ institute majoring in homiletics is supported by John MacArthur’s decidedly-Calvinistic “Grace Community Church” in Sun Valley/California.

Vitaly Vlasenko (Moscow), Director of External Church Relations, reports that the Union restructuring initiated at the Council sessions last October is making good headway. The five Bishop-headed committees (Church Service, Mission, Education, Media and External Relations, Finance) created to supervise the work of the RUECB’s national offices are up-and-running. “People are excited; our Bishops are now more involved in the life of the national Union. They are observing the work of the various departments and making proposals for the future.”

Other issues elsewhere

1. On 12 March, the Russian Ministry of Justice announced plans to create legislation to further restrict the activity of foreign missionaries. The new laws are to be in their final form by no later than December. In an interview with the newspaper “Gaziety”, the Ministry’s Sergey Milushkin stated: “Current law stipulates that foreigners can only engage in a preaching activity at the invitation of a domestic religious organisation. But this requirement does not function in practice. We are therefore going to propose that foreigners who preach in Russia with nothing more than a tourist visa in their pocket can expect not only expulsion from the country, but also additional punishment.”

Protestants present at a roundtable discussion in the State Duma on 19 March protested vehemently against the planned measures. Konstantin Bendas, Senior Vice-President of Sergey Ryakhovsky’s “Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith” retorted: “Existing legislation is quite capable of protecting citizens from encroachments into their private lives. If illegal preaching has gone unpunished, then that was due to the low level of education among law-enforcement bodies and the judicial community on religious matters – not because of legislative holes.”

Lawyer (banister) Anatoly Pchelintsev from Moscow’s “Slavic Legal Centre” pointed out in his organisation’s own press service that such legislation would infringe upon international standards on the observance of religious freedom. He labelled such attempts to restrict missionary work “a recurrence of Soviet thinking”.

2. Baptists do on certain rare occasions receive funding from Russian government sources. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov announced in late March that during 2009 the city would be giving 182 million roubles ($5.352.941 US) for the restoration of 17 historic religious structures: 15 Orthodox, one Muslim and one Baptist. The building in question is the home of the 1.700-member “Central Baptist Church”; for decades during Soviet times the sole officially-registered Protestant sanctuary in Moscow. 5,5 million roubles ($161.765 US) have been allocated for 2009, during the past two years the city had subsidised the building with a total of 5,2 million roubles. The municipal and national governments have spent many millions of roubles for the restoration of Moscow’s Lutheran St. Peter-and-Paul-Cathedral over the past 15 years.

The RUECB, Russia's largest, unified Protestant church, represents approximately 80.000 adult members in 1.750 congregations and groups.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 31 March 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231
www.baptistrelations.org, www.baptist.org.ru

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-11, 706 words, 4.758 strokes and spaces.

A Renewed Division of Europe?
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An appeal for church congresses on Ukrainian soil

A Commentary

M o s c o w – European Baptists want to be together. One clear indication is the fact that the Russian “Logos”-Choir hopes to send 40 singers to the festive conference celebrating the 400th anniversary of the European Baptist movement in Amsterdam this summer. But a certain parallelisation is occurring. Following the Baptist World Federation’s youth convention in Leipzig/Germany at the beginning of August 2008, a Russian-speaking youth event followed at the end of the month in Odessa/Ukraine. In Leipzig, 6.300 youth from throughout the world gathered; in Odessa, there were no less than 3.500. “Amsterdam 400” will take place from 24 to 26 July 2009. An East European conference commemorating the same anniversary is scheduled for Kiev from 27 to 29 August.

It would be unfair to complain about the Russian or Ukrainian Baptists in this context. High prices and the extremely restrictive visa policies of the states belonging to the Schengen Treaty have made all-European events on West European turf nearly impossible. The team preparing the Amsterdam conference is opening its arms wide to guests from Eastern Europe, but the number of guests who arrive will in the end not be determined by the committee. Friends in the USA claim that a global church conference is no longer possible in North America. (The Mennonite World Conference 2009 will take place in Paraguay.)

An additional reason for the rise of parallel events is the matter of language. Russian remains the “lingua franca” of Eastern Europe; in the West it is of course English. The issue of differing styles of worship in East and West is, I believe, of less importance.

In mid-March 2009, a tour of Germany scheduled for late April by the Ukrainian music group „Zhivaya Kaplya“ (Living Drop) was nixed by the Germany embassy in Kiev. Staff of Germany’s “Federation of Evangelical-Free Churches” in Elstal near Berlin had done their homework. Virtually all conceivable documents had been sent, including a listing of the location and dates of all concerts. The Kiev embassy gave no reason, adding hat it would take six to eight weeks to respond to the official protest issued by the group immediately following the denial. Any clarification by phone is virtually impossible. Until now, this legally totally “clean” group has gotten no further westward than Estonia.

Back in May 2007 when the Baptist bike expedition left Varel/Germany for Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, cyclists with Ukrainian passes were not able to participate until the tour hit Brest on the border in Belarus. This was also true for “Zhivaya Kaplya”, which took part in that tour.

Apparently no official delegate of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) has yet been able to receive a multiple-entry, six-to-12-month visa to enter the Schengen zone. Which means that every single journey involves major red tape. This is less of a problem in the USA, where foreign church representatives are frequently issued one-year visitors visas.

It would actually make sense to transfer all-European church congresses – and Christian pop concerts! - to Ukrainian soil. Prices there are reasonable and entrance is visa-free for the citizens of virtually all European and North American countries. Christian music groups from Eastern Europe should not attempt to tour the West – their fans with Western passes should rather be coming to them. What else can be done? Because of the nine-day tour that had been scheduled for April, German Baptists are considering a protest addressed to their foreign ministry.

Despite rumours to the contrary, the Russian government continues to liberally issue tourist visas for up to 30 days. At present, one can enter Russia for several days without a visa at all when arriving on a ferry at a Baltic port. But things do get complicated when the entry of humanitarian goods is involved. In June of last year, the Baptist congregation in Krefeld/Germany presented its partner congregation in Ulyanovsk/Volga with a mini-bus boasting a hydraulic lift for the transport of invalids. Now, after being in storage in Russia for a half year, the 1992-built bus with 74.650 miles on its tachometer is back home in Germany. Customs hat demanded a fee of 9.000 Euros ($12.280 US), yet the bus has a present market value of not more than 7.000 Euros ($9.511 US).

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 23 March 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-10, 702 words, 4.315 keystrokes and spaces.

One More Dot on the Russian Church Map
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Developments among Russian Baptists since February 2008

A commentary

M o s c o w -- It’s been 13 months since Alexander Semchenko gave up his leadership role in the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists” (RUECB). It’s been a long year, for this Baptist philanthropist left behind a large financial hole when he departed. Renovation of the RUECB’s Moscow headquarters was only one of the many projects he had financed. As a relatively progressive leader, Semchenko (born 1948) has in recent times done something to help move Russian Baptists onto the stage of contemporary Russian society. His loud-and-lively Easter concerts have presented a dynamic, happy picture of Russian Protestantism very different from the stodgy stereotypes of the Soviet era.

Thanks to his underground “samizdat” work, his career as a publisher began with a stint behind bars in 1982. But his monthly “Protestant”, which was founded in 1989, initially took off like a rocket. Hitting a peak of 170.000 subscriptions, it was for a time available even in countryside kiosks. Though no longer an RUECB-paper, it remains today with its circulation of 12.000 Russia’s highest-quality Protestant newspaper. His publishing house has actively produced Christian literature; one of his own periodicals rightly labels him a “pioneer”. Yet it was his metamorphosis from dissident publisher and youth leader to millionaire businessman which made much of his church work possible. His “Teplo-Technika” construction firm has produced heating systems for more than 100 Moscow buildings or building complexes – including renovation of Moscow’s renowned “Bolshoi Theatre”.

In print, Alexander Semchenko attributes his departure from the RUECB to a “conflict with the President” (Yuri Sipko). The other side reports of Semchenko’s expectation that he as a holder of non-elected, honorary positions within RUECB-leadership be given the right to authorise significant decisions. It also cites differences regarding the relationship of Baptists to the government. The departed leader describes that he had in the 1980’s “taught young people how to best resist the godless state authority”. Yet the constraints of being a successful businessmen have pushed his thinking in another direction. The relationship between the RUECB and its primary Russian donor always was a tedious one, for the two sides had differing strengths. Semchenko had financial power, RUECB leadership had the power of wide Baptist approval.

Semchenko thinks result-oriented, he’s committed to doing what “works”. It is said that he is not afraid to try the untried – hardly a common trait among Russian Protestants. The businessman wants another church: innovative, modern in style, open and committed to the present Russian government. One observer claims Semchenko is eager to send the RUECB’s 55 Senior Presbyters – or “bishops” – into early retirement. His allies are found in the younger crowd. Two of his most important workers are Leonid Kartavenko and Simon Borodin - both former heads of RUECB’s missions department. Semchenko’s break with the RUECB is for some an expression of the tension between modernizers and traditionalists. For others, he is simply a seculariser.

After the parting in February of last year, Alexander Semchenko immediately continued the process of instituting parallel Baptist structures. What had until then been independent branches on the RUECB-tree, developed a life of their own. Though most of Moscow’s Protestant seminaries are hard-pressed for students, Semchenko is attempting to found an educational programme including an institute for homiletics. His news service (www.protestant.ru) hopes to compete with “Invictory”, the Charismatic, Internet-based agency located in Kiev and seen as the most-popular, Russian-language, Protestant news service.

Though not regarded as a theologian, Semchenko was named bishop of the 26-congregation-strong “Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians” last year. This grouping, constituted in 1992, is also known as the “Prokhanovtsy” after the Russian Baptist leader Ivan Prokhanov (1869-1935). This parallel movement’s crowning event should be a conference on Prokhanov scheduled for a prominent Moscow hotel in late April. Insiders claim the conference will cost a hefty seven million roubles ($200.000 US) – roughly the price of five annual National Prayer Breakfasts.

Observers note that these events do not indicate the movement’s complete break with the RUECB. Some Baptists work for both and the borders remain fluid. But when Semchenko pays, his own projects are expected to have priority. Since the break, it is no longer possible to work strictly for the RUECB while receiving a salary from Semchenko.

Cooperation with Sergey Ryakhovsky

Semchenko is aware that he cannot do everything alone. The process of joining forces with that segment of the Charismatic movement particularly loyal to Sergey Ryakhovsky, Bishop of the 2.000-congregation-strong, loosely-structured “Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith” (ROSChVE in Russian), is gathering momentum. One initial sign for the coalescing of their forces was a statement on 28 August 2008 supporting Russian recognition of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The statement was signed by the two of them along with Seventh-Day Adventist President Vassily Stolyar.

Indeed, it can be maintained that Semchenko is repeating what Ryakhovsky had done before. In 1998, Rhakhovsky broke with the traditional Pentecostal “Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith” – now headed by Pavel Okara - to organise a second association of churches more contemporary and Western in style. Both are now somewhat alienated from the denominations out of which they came.

Both Ryakhovsky and Semchenko recommend themselves to the government as more loyal than others. Semchenko’s media repeatedly applaud and encourage Russian military service. Ryakhovsky has criticised present Ukrainian interpretations of political events during the Soviet period and the Estonian decision to remove the Soviet-era war memorial in Tallinn. The two of them and the Adventist Stolyar are the sole Protestant members of the “Council for the Cooperation with Religious Organisations at the Seat of the Russian President”, which on the basis of a meeting in Tula on 11 March is becoming closely allied with the Moscow Patriarchate and President Medvedev itself. Though they had helped bring the National Prayer Breakfast into being, none of the three Protestant leaders chose to attend this annual Moscow event six days later.

Despite celebrating independent church leaders in print, Alexander Semchenko also expresses his concern regarding the disunity present among evangelical Christians. An indication of that concern might be his newest parallel organisation: the ”All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians” (VSEKh in Russian). It is a kind of second “Public Council” hoping to unite Baptist-oriented denominations under one umbrella. Yet VSECh exists almost strictly on paper and the businessman admits that the road to its general acceptance is long. The hope of uniting all by splitting off from an existing church and creating an additional one committed to unification is by no means new.

Undoubtedly, the efforts of Alexander Semchenko can create an additional dot on the Russian church map, but they cannot unite the whole. They will more likely contribute to the atomisation of the evangelical movement. Neither Ryakhovsky nor Semchenko could be described as spiritual authorities - they are above all church diplomats committed to achieving specific church and political ends. One observer labels Semchenko’s efforts a unique kind of unification – driven by monetary rather than spiritual concerns.

Some RUECB-leaders assure that Semchenko has done commendable work and remains a brother in the faith. The businessman himself rarely polemicizes publically against the RUECB and admits that not only his own, tiny new denomination may regard itself as heir to the Prokhanov legacy. The hope for reconciliation and renewed cooperation is weakening, but it is still alive.

Dr. William Yoder
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 20 March 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

This report intends only to inform and lays no claim to representing a unified, single position of RUECB-leadership. May be published with permission. Release #09-09, 1.215 words, 8.095 keystrokes

Parents are to Blame for the Sorry State of Youth
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Ninth National Prayer Breakfast held in Moscow

M o s c o w – Russia is wasting its greatest wealth of all – its youth. That was the opinion of Yuri Sipko, President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB), at the National Prayer Breakfast in Moscow’s government-run President-Hotel on 17 March. He added that the sorry state of Russian youth is not the fault of the youth themselves, but rather of their parents. “What happens here in our house is a result of our own carelessness, arrogance and dishonesty.”

This 9th National Prayer Breakfast since 1995 was dedicated to the issue of youth. Alarming statistics were mentioned: More than 900.000 persons find themselves behind bars in Russia; two million (1,5% of the population) are addicted to drugs. The consumption of pure alcohol per capita is listed as 16 litres per year. (In the USA consumption is only half as high.)

Konstantin Bendas, „Manager of Affairs for the Executive“ for the Charismatic “Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith” (ROSChWE in Russian), expressed the view commonly held by Protestants. He stated that all Christians and well-meaning persons in general must join forces to combat the country’s social needs. Only a few days before, the journalist Roman Lunkin had confirmed in the oppositional Orthodox news service “Portal-Credo” that Protestants indeed have earned the right to express their views on social issues: “Protestants frequently are more active in working with drug addicts, street persons and the down-and-out than are representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate or Muslims.”

In a private conversation following the event the ambassador of a Western European country stated: „I enjoyed it very much. One did not skirt the real topics – which is often the case at state-run events. There was a clear and straightforward language here. I want to be sure and come again next time.” Foreign ambassadors were invited to the event for the first time this year; US-Ambassador John Beyrle was among the several who attended.

Hearty wishes for further expansion of the movement were expressed by the Prayer Breakfast’s long-time supporters. Alexander Torshin, Vice-Chairman of the Council of the Russian Federation (Upper House), who addressed the assembly with “Brothers and Sisters”, had visited Washington D.C.’s National Prayer Breakfast with its 2.800 invited guests on 5 February. He consequently wished the Russian version a similar success curve. He expressed the distant hope that the State President and other leading government representatives might attend the 10th Prayer Breakfast next year. Another friend of the Prayer Breakfast and supporter of the concept of a pluralistic Russian society, Vladimir Lukin, the government’s Commissioner for Human Rights and Russian Ambassador to the USA 1992-93, expressed similar desires. Rabbi Yitzhak Kogan, Director of Moscow’s Bronnaja Synagogue Agudas Chasidei Chabad, also celebrated the Prayer Breakfast movement.

Though attendance remained stable at 350, spirits were dampened by the fact that important guests were missing. For the first time in years, the Moscow Patriarchate refused to send a delegate to greet the assembled. Despite the enthronisation of Patriarch Krill, who has a reputation for being cosmopolitan and open, six weeks ago, the Moscow Patriarchate appears to be strengthening its attempt to monopolise church-state relations. According to “Portal-Credo” in its report on the meeting of top government and church representatives in Tula on 11 March, the “Council for the Cooperation with Religious Organisations at the Seat of the Russian President” is to be transformed into a factual “Council for Cooperation with the Moscow Patriarchate”. The agency writes: “The position of all Russian religious organisations, except for the Moscow Patriarchate, will be weakened significantly.”

Internally, the Russian Prayer Breakfast movement must also contend with a few negative crosswinds. Many representatives of the Charismatic ROSChWE attended this year’s Prayer Breakfast, but their Bishop, Sergey Ryakhovsky, was made highly conspicuous by his absence. One is told it might take effort to halt a splintering of Russia’s small Protestant movement with its total membership of less than one million. At debate are issues of leadership and the proper amount of political distance to the Russian government – not theology.

Moscow’s National Prayer Breakfast has been meeting annually since 2002; National Prayer Breakfasts are now taking place in more than 60 countries. Board Chairman of the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation is Baptist pastor Vitaly Vlasenko, who also serves as the RUECB’s Director for External Church Relations.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 19 March 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-08, 714 words, 4.702 strokes and spaces.

All persons mentioned reside in Moscow.


The Public Council has a New Head
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Pastor Alexei Smirnov elected Secretary

M o s c o w – At a meeting in Moscow on 23 February, Alexei Vasilevich Smirnov was elected Secretary and head of the “Public Council”. Though Smirnov is a pastor in a congregation belonging to the “Association of Brethren Congregations” (ABC) in Dedovsk near Moscow, he has also served as Director of the “Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists’” (RUECB) Pastors Department since 2006. This makes him particularly well-suited to lead this umbrella organisation of 10 church unions of Baptist tradition - most of whom departed from the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists following the USSR's demise. At the same meeting on 23 February, Vera Yurevna Katko, who stems from the underground “Initiativniki” movement, was named the Council’s first-ever Secretary for Communication.

Smirnov stressed that even though the official structures will remain at a minimum, these 10 churches will strive to present a unified form and appearance to the outside world. Valentin Vasilizhenko (Moscow), who had served as the Council’s Secretary since its inception in 2006, explained after the meeting: “We in the Council will be speaking of each other as brothers, for we are not adversaries. We form a common front and accept each other just as we are.” The Public Council sees itself as a common platform for dialogue and for achieving consensus, which is badly needed among these churches.

Pastor Smirnov announced the expansion of the Council’s work in two directions. He called the initial one “the enlightenment of society” – precisely for this reason a Secretary for Communication has been named. These small, Baptist-minded denominations must expend much greater effort in introducing themselves and the life-saving values they represent to society in general. Council and agreement on legal issues are also greatly needed. General practices should be developed for unresolved matters. The Council will need to take on the “unspiritual” tasks which these churches have until now attempted to avoid.

The second direction involves theology. Smirnov stated: “We have never seriously dealt with theology. Our theology has often been homespun and primitive. We will not be able to created a joint seminary, but we do want to agree on a “unified concept” of evangelical teaching. “There can be no binding law for us all, but we want to at least offer a general course of direction.” That which we jointly conclude must become of increasing significance.
Vasilizhenko supports the belief that agreement would be much more difficult “if our theologies were different”: “A discussion on Calvinism would be a pure waste of time among us. We agree on all of the major issues. Our differences in opinion only regard form and practice. There are also administrative issues involved – how we for ex. react to state pressure.” He explained further: “Our form of clothing does not determine whether we are conservative or liberal.” The length of dresses or the wearing of pants by women “are not an expression of liberalism, but rather of fashion. We respect each other and accept each other as we are.”

The Public Council is also considering a geographical expansion of its work. Pastors in remote parts of the far-flung country are especially in need of dialogue with other Baptist-minded pastors. Yet for now, the rhythm will remain four meetings per year in the Russian capital. Vasilizhenko reported: “We have agreed that church members can be given a letter of recommendation when they move elsewhere.” They should be equally welcome in any Baptist-minded congregation.

The Ukrainian pastor Valentin Vasilizhenko himself emigrated to the USA along with his wife Svetlana and their five, mostly-adult children on 25 February. They will reside initially in Columbus/Ohio.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 27 February 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-06, 593 words, 3.760 strokes and spaces.



Fake “Baptist” Newspaper Surfaces in Smolensk
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Mayoral candidate attacked as supposed Baptist

M o s c o w -- In the Western Russian city of Smolensk, forces allied with the powers ruling in Russia have discovered a new means of eliminating formidable opposition candidates: simply label them Baptists. A fake newspaper using the logo of the evangelical, once-Baptist periodical “Protestant” and featuring mismatched names and faces surfaced in the city in mid-February. On its front page, Yuri Sipko (Moscow), President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB), appeals to the citizens of Smolensk to elect the Baptist “brother” Sergey Maslakov mayor. Yet Maslakov, a father of six and the head of a stock-held firm offering housing and communal services, has no known connection with Baptist circles. The rouge newspaper appearing in Smolensk mailboxes claims to have a circulation of 70.000. RUECB-circles are convinced that Maslakov’s chances of election on 1 March (he is running for a minority party) have been nixed by this campaign.

On the opening page, Sipko “lauds” Maslakov for helping to bring “more than 2.000 brothers and sisters and their children” to the faith during the past year. More than once, the paper and Maslakov express the hope that Smolensk will become a major centre of Baptist influence in Russia. To this end, missionaries from Siberia and the West are being delegated to Smolensk. Though Maslakov is completely unknown to foreign and the overwhelming majority of Russian Baptists, Sipko is quoted as saying: “The Baptists of Russia and abroad are all agonizing with Sergey Vasilevich and hoping for his victory.” The paper adds in Sipko’s voice: “Probably Maslakov will become the first Baptist mayor in Russia.”

The paper describes Baptists as a loose-living, libertarian group denying the reality of sin and attributes globally-known, non-Protestant cases of sexual sin among single clergy and marriages with juvenile girls to Baptists. The mayoral candidate supposedly responds: “That is all untrue. But you have no right to stick your nose into our affairs. Give Baptists the right to live in peace as they wish!”

Equally ludicrous is a contrived interview with President Sipko on finances. In it, he concedes that massive financial dependency on the US-dollar will remain unavoidable “because of the grand tasks at hand”. Ignoring the group of powerful Russians who indeed do possess Swiss bank accounts, “Sipko“ states: “All Baptists pay money into our account in Zurich. But that is still much less than the amount paid by Western churches.” The fictive Sipko concludes: “The dollar was, is, and for a long time probably will remain the primary helpmate of the Russian Union of Baptists.” All Baptists express gratitude for the donations of Western supporters – “including the American government”.

Noting that the new Russian Patriarch, Kirill, was Metropolitan of Smolensk from 1991 to 2008, Vitaly Vlasenko, the RUECB’s Director of External Church Affairs, describes the bogus publication as a “nasty farewell” and “grevious insult” to the Patriarch. “Kirill was and is a man of dialogue and interconfessional peace.” The phony paper besmirches that which it intends to defend: the Russian Orthodox Church. “Political con-artists are trying to turn the respected, 140-year history of Baptists in Russia into a horror story in hopes of helping and hurting certain political parties. They are sowing hatred between the confessions. Do they not understand that thousands will be hurt by this pitiful rag? This is ugly and totally unacceptable.”

Vlasenko also expresses profound disappointment in the apparent inability of Smolensk law officials to identify the culprits. Baptists have appealed to various offices of the State Attorney and the administration of the Russian President. But the attack on Maslakov is not limited to Baptist-bashing. Citing “copyright infringement”, the candidacies of Maslakov and another politician were declared illegal on 19 February. Maslakov is appealing the ruling.

Rev. Vlasenko is requesting the advice of experts in Russia and elsewhere on how churches can best to respond to their misuse during election campaigns.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 23 February 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-05, 638 words, 4.100 keystrokes and spaces.



Get Moving for Christ
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The RUECB is back on the road again

M o s c o w -- After a break of nearly a year, the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) Moscow offices are back on the road again with a motorised, missionary expedition. A 10.000-kilometre-expedition entitled “Many-Coloured Russia” departed from Moscow on 12 February headed for Kyzyl in central Siberia just north of Western Mongolia. The expedition’s intention is to meet migrant workers and many of the country’s ethnic minorities, which consist of 182 distinct language groups. Congregations visited are also to be schooled in working with such minorities.

The expedition will head eastward through Perm and Yekaterinburg before proceeding on to Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. It will then return westward via Chelyabinsk just west of the Urals and end in Ufa on 8 March. The group is led by Rev. Ruvim Voloshin, the RUECB’s Director of Missions, and consists initially of seven workers in one vehicle.

At the RUECB’s remarkable annual youth leadership conference, the “All-Russian Conference of Youth Leaders”, held this time at a church camp in Ramenskoe near Moscow from 5 to 8 February, a group of 10 young adults also decided to “get moving for Christ”. This spring they are planning to begin walking the 1.050 kilometres (653 miles) from St. Petersburg to Kiev. The RUECB-Youth Director Evgeny Bakhmutsky explains: “I hope they can get there by the end of summer. The Ukrainians are planning to meet us once we enter the country. I think the movement will grow and involve a lot more than just 10 people.” Further developments will be posted on the youth department’s website: “www.baptistyouth.ru”.

Bakhmutsky adds that this year’s conference had to cut off registration after the first 500 because of limited space. The event might become the longest weekend youth conference in Russia ever. It began with consultations by 10 regional youth coordinators working on issues of strategy on 1 February and will only close on 20 February after nearly two weeks of additional schooling at the RUECB’s Moscow seminary. Over 700 youth leaders participated during the course of the event, arriving from as far away as the Baltic states, Belarus, the Central Asian republics and Russia’s Pacific Coast.

The youth director describes the present trend of Russian youth work as “back to basics – preaching the Gospel and proclaiming the truth”. “We need a paradigm change,” he adds. “For at least the last 15 years, we have understood evangelisation as special events and programmes. So our churches have ceased to live and breathe evangelism. It is no longer a part of our daily lives, and teaching within church walls will not suffice. But I remember when we used to approach people on the trams.” Text messages sent back to the conference from trains by youth workers returning home indicate that the lesson is being learned. Bakhmutsky explains: “This is a reformation - not a revolution attempting to destroy something. It is a return to basics. Remember that the spiritual awakening in Russia a century ago was led by young men such as Ivan Prokhanov (1869-1935) and Ivan Pavlov (1883-1936).”

Evgeny Bakhmutsky adds that his union is thinking of organising new congregations aimed particularly at persons too young to have been shaped by the socialist system. These persons lack the socialist identity of earlier times. They are more Western in their thinking than traditionally Russian “and have not yet been able to find themselves”. The pastor concedes that not all Baptist congregations are ready to accept a large inflow of younger persons and that some older church members are more connected with the Soviet past than with Russia’s present and future.

Yet Bakhmutsky believes much youth work is functioning well and denies any jealousy regarding congregations such as Moscow’s “Word of Life” church. This Charismatic congregation of 4.000-plus members, led by the Swede Matts-Ola Ishoel, consists primarily of young people. “I would claim that we have more young people than the Charismatics do,” he states. “We have over 20.000 young people in our congregations.” Only a portion of these are baptised and can therefore be included among the RUECB’s official membership of nearly 80.000.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 16 February 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. It is informational in character and does not express a sole, official position of RUECB-leadership. May be published freely. Release #09-04, 677 words, 4.206 keystrokes and spaces.


Christians Do Not Take Things Away from Each Other
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Resolution to the struggle betweens Baptists and Orthodox in Lipetsk foreseeable

M o s c o w -- “Christians should not settle their problems with each other in court.” Quoting from Matthew 7:1, Nikon, the Orthodox Bishop of Lipetsk and Yelets added: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” The occasion was the first visit of an official delegation of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) to the Bishop in Lipetsk on 9 February. The issue at hand is whether the city’s “Trinity Church”, which was restored by Baptists and has been under their care since 1989, should be returned without compensation to its original owners.

Delegation head Vitaly Vlasenko (Moscow), Director of the RUECB’s Department of External Church Affairs, reported afterward: “I cannot confirm that the court case has been called off, but it is our sincere hope that all on-going proceedings will be dropped and the case settled out of court.” Rev. Vlasenko added: “The Bishop was very positive and cordial. I appealed to the cause of Christian solidarity and he agreed that it makes a very bad impression when Christians take things away from each other. We must think about our long-term relationship and how things will look in the eyes of unbelievers. I assured Nikon that the world will believe if they see that we have love for each other. Our spiritual concerns must take precedence over material ones. The Bishop responded positively and said he will try and do his best to find a good place for the Baptists to worship.”

Lipetsk, a provincial capital located 235 miles (373 km) southeast of Moscow, has long been a focal point of tension between Orthodox and Baptists. As early as 1993, city officials had reversed their ruling and decreed that Baptists return the building for appropriate compensation. (The value of Baptist investments was given as 22 million roubles ($53.000 in Dec. 1992.) The position of the 100-member Baptist congregation has been that it will return the building for monetary compensation or for usage of a building of similar value and size. In April 2008, the court decreed that Baptists must give up the building without compensation and even dissolved the congregation’s legal status. (See our press release of 11.11.2008.) Baptists are for the first time very hopeful that legal registration will be restored and a new place of worship found – the congregation continues to meet in “Trinity Church”.

Other members of the RUECB delegation on 9 February were Valentin Vasilizhenko (Moscow), Secretary of the Baptist "Public Council" (Obshestveny Soviet), and Sergey Khokhlov, the pastor of a Baptist congregation in Bryansk.

The RUECB, Russia's largest, unified Protestant church, represents approximately 80.000 adult members in 1.750 congregations and groups.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 13 February 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-03, 437 words, 2.714 keystrokes and spaces.


The Orthodox Leader Most Familiar to Russian Protestants
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Metropolitan Kirill elected as Russia’s new Patriarch

M o s c o w -- Russian Baptist leadership believes the election of Metropolitan Kirill as “Patriarch of Moscow and All of Russia” in the Russian capital on January 27 can be interpreted as a clear vote for openness and dialogue. The Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (ROC) has chosen as its new head the leader best-known – and most-criticised - for his openness to other confessions. Vitaly Vlasenko, Director of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ (RUECB) Department for External Church Relations, states: “I am very optimistic. Kirill is the ROC’s most brilliant metropolitan. In our short personal meetings he has always been very kind and respectful. Most top-level Protestant contacts with the Moscow Patriarchate have occurred through him.” He is the major Orthodox leader with whom Russian Protestants are personally most familiar.

Kirill has been active in interconfessional bodies such as the Geneva-based World Council of Churches since 1971. RUECB-President Yuri Sipko points out that he is therefore also the Russian Orthodox leader best-known to the world church community in general. Kirill has headed the ROC’s Department for External Church Relations since 1989. Sipko describes him as a “very creative, highly-educated and highly-organized leader. He is a very vigorous and patriotic servant of his church. I am convinced that our relationship with him will continue in a spirit of brotherly love and respect.” In a congratulatory letter addressed to the new Patriarch Sipko writes: “We highly appreciate the huge contribution you have made in the development of interconfessional and interreligious dialogue.”

Pastor Vlasenko notes that Metropolitan Kirill has been instrumental in the creation of two interconfessional bodies of vital interest to Russian Protestants. Though presently inactive, the reconvening of the Orthodox-Protestant-Catholic “Christian Inter-Confessional Advisory Committee for the CIS-Countries and Baltics” (CIAC) in Moscow on 2 October 2008 after a hiatus of seven years was due largely to the efforts of Kirill. Orthodox-Baptist consolations on moral values - the third and most-recent sessions were held in February 2007 - would also have been impossible without the Metropolitan’s vital support. Russian Baptist leaderships hope both of these gatherings will be resumed in the foreseeable future.

Yet Dr. Peter Mitskevich, Rector of Moscow Theological Seminary and the RUECB’s Senior Vice-President, cautions that one should not expect a quick resolution of on-going differences. “The new Patriarch will remain dependent upon the opinions and convictions of his colleagues elsewhere in Russia.” Both Mitskevich and Sipko speak of continuity. Sipko believes that Patriarch Alexei II, who died last December 5, had already started down the road towards dialogue and fraternity with Russia’s Protestants. He states: “I am deeply convinced, that Kirill’s term as head of the Russian Orthodox Church will be a continuation of that good tradition put into place by Alexei II.”

Despite his openness to interconfessional relations, Kirill, born in Leningrad as Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev in 1946, is clearly a moral and theological conservative - also the case among Russian Baptists. After Kirill had criticised the Ecumenical movement and appealed for a revival of Western conservatism and the Christian state at the European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu/Romania in September 2007, it was the Russian Baptists who came to his defence. Vitaly Vlasenko stated at that time: “For European society we Russians are still strangers – and that includes me.” (See our press release from 13.9.2007.)

Kirill, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad since 1991, will be enthroned as Patriarch on 1 February. A festive reception will take place the following day. RUECB-leadership has been invited to attend these events.

Though regular attendance is low, as many as 100 million of Russia’s 142 million citizens may consider themselves Orthodox. The RUECB, Russia's largest, unified Protestant church, represents approximately 80.000 adult members in 1.750 congregations and groups.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 29 January 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-02, 615 words, 4.128 keystrokes and spaces.


Our Historical Friendship Remains in Place
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Russian Baptist visits Western Ukraine

M o s c o w -- "Our historical friendship remains in place, even if our political authorities tend to dislike each other." That was the conclusion of Rev. Vitaly Vlasenko, the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists' (RUECB) Department Director for External Relations, following a private visit to the extreme west of Ukraine from 2 to 11 January. After preaching at a large Seventh-Day Pentecostal congregation in Polyana and a Baptist one in Mukachevo very near the borders to Slovakia and Hungary, Vlasenko reported: " My Russian friends had warned us that it would be dangerous to visit Western Ukraine. But we were received very heartily in both of these congregations. Perhaps things are more nationalistic in a region such as Lvov, but in this area people were very cordial wherever we went. I preached there that politics cannot divide us believers, and that message was received warmly. Our political assessments may differ, but they dare not destroy our love and respect for each other."

One point of contention between Russians and Ukrainians has been the "Golodomor" ("Holodomor" in Ukrainian). It stems from the assertion that the Soviet, Stalinist government requisitioned food supplies in 1932-33 for the express purpose of eliminating large segments of the Ukrainian population. This is difficult for Russians to accept, for millions of Russians also died during those years of man-made starvation. Vlasenko commented: "I cannot prove that the Soviet government did not intend to
harm the Ukrainians in a special way."

Vlasenko reported that the recent gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine caused puzzlement among Western Ukrainans. "The church people to whom I spoke felt innocent of any wrongdoing. They have been paying for every cent of the gas they use and any who did not pay their bills promptly have had their gas cut off within only a few days. Our governments must learn to find solutions to problems before they escalate into standoffs."

For the Baptist Director of External Relations, disenchantment regarding Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004-2005 is one indication more that Christians should not place their trust in fellow humans: "The Bible is true - we must place our trust in God." The matter of trusting humans also involves Sunday Adelaja, the embattled Nigerian charismatic and pastor of Kiev's 20.000-member "Embassy of God" congregation. He is regarded as co-responsible for the failure of the "King's Capital" investment company. In a letter of 29 December, Ukrainian Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders officially distanced themselves from him, accusing him in part of the love of money. Vitaly Vlasenko added: "Sunday Adelaja has mixed material gain with the Christian faith. I am deeply grieved when such developments damage the good name of the Christian church. I hope very much that the men and women in his congregation will
remain strong in their devotion to Jesus Christ. I pray that Sunday will repent and that soon conditions in his congregation might return to normal."

The two Ukrainian Baptist unions belonging to the European Baptist Federation have a combined membership of 145.000; RUECB membership totals nearly 80.000. Ukraine is one of the few countries on earth which both Russians and most Westerners can visit without needing to obtain a visa.

William Yoder, Ph.D.
Department for External Church Relations, RUECB
Moscow, 23 January 2009
baptistrelations@yandex.ru
www.baptist.org.ru
Tel/fax: 007-495-954-9231

A release of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. May be published freely. Release #09-01, 526 words, 3.304 keystrokes.