Gospel Christians
The Gospel-Christian or Evangelical Christians are an early 20th century from the Russian Stundism resulting Evangelical Free Church . In Soviet time Gospel Christians, united Baptists and later Pentecostals and Mennonites to government pressure to the Evangelical Christians-Baptists .
history
As early as the 19th century, the first indigenous Protestant congregations were formed in Ukraine and Russia under pietistic influences, and they were collectively referred to as Stundists. German preachers such as the Lutheran theologian Eduard Wüst or the founder of German Baptism Johann Gerhard Oncken were also involved in the development of the Stundimus. In April 1884, representatives of several Protestant groups finally met in Saint Petersburg to discuss cooperation, but this failed due to differing positions on baptism and the Lord's Supper . A month later, the Baptist Union of Congregations of Believersly Baptized Christians was founded in the Mennonite settlement of Molotschna in Ukraine . A Mennonite community association had already been founded in 1883. The two unions lasted until 1926 (Mennonites) and 1935 (Baptists).
The work of evangelical groups in Tsarist Russia at the end of the 19th century mostly took place on the edge of illegality. It was only with the Russian Edict of Tolerance introduced by Tsar Nicholas II in response to the revolution of 1905 that more open work became possible. On the initiative of the Russian engineer Ivan Prokhanov , the Union of Gospel Christians was finally founded in Saint Petersburg in December 1909. Prochanow, who was able to establish contacts with German Baptists and Mennonites and receive further theological training during his flight to other European countries in 1895, became chairman of the newly founded federation. In its early years the covenant was strongly evangelistic . At the second congress in 1911, the statutes of faith formulated by Prokhanov were adopted. Among other things, the gospel Christians committed themselves to the baptism of the confession , which brought them closer to the Baptists. As a result, they were also accepted into the Baptist World Federation . In the same year, however, the freedoms granted by the Edict of Tolerance of 1905 were restricted again for the first time. A congress planned for 1912 could no longer take place. The Bible School of the Evangelical Christians, which was founded in Saint Petersburg shortly before the First World War, was closed again in 1914, publications were banned and many Evangelical Christians were arrested and deported. It was not until 1917 that the Federation of Gospel Christians was able to work openly again. In May 1917 a federal congress was held for the first time in Petrograd . At the same time, negotiations began about a possible union with the Russian Baptists, but these failed because of the conflict over the ordination of preachers. In 1923, conflicts with the communist rulers over participation in military service and internal conflicts overshadowed the federal government. Nevertheless, numerous mission projects could still be initiated inside and outside the Soviet Union . The number of Gospel Christians as well as Baptists in the Soviet Union grew from 150,000 to 500,000 between 1917 and 1928.
The last federal congress with over 500 representatives took place in Leningrad in November 1928 . From April 1929 the work of the federal government was increasingly hindered by the Soviet side. In the years that followed, federal work finally collapsed completely. The previously existing community structures were completely destroyed. Many gospel Christians have been arrested or deported.
With the Great Patriotic War of 1941, a change in state church policy began. Under pressure from the state, evangelical Christians and Baptists united in Moscow in October 1944 to form the Union of Evangelical Christians and Baptists (EChB), based in Moscow. A year later, parts of the Russian Pentecostal movement also joined and the Bund changed its name to All Union Council of Evangelical Christians -Baptists (AUR of the EChB). With the merger with the Mennonites from 1963, the new church was sometimes referred to as the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and Mennonites .
literature
- Heinrich Löwen jun.: Russian free churches. The history of the evangelical Christians and Baptists until 1944. Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-926105-48-8 ( Missiologica evangelica, Volume 8).
Footnotes
- ^ Klaus Fitschen: Protestant minority churches in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-374-02499-5 , p. 173.