Gospel Christians-Baptists
The Gospel Christians -Baptists or Gospel Christians-Baptists are a free church that was formed in Moscow in 1944 under state pressure from the union of the Russian Evangelical Christians and Baptists . Later parts of the Pentecostal movement , the Mennonites and Adventists also joined the Gospel Christians-Baptists.
The church was founded in 1944 as the Federation of Evangelical Christians and Baptists ; after merging with parts of the Pentecostal movement, it acted as the All- Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and, after the merger with the Mennonites, from 1963 also as the All- Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and Mennonites .
The Pentecostal churches that did not want to register and unite called themselves Free Gospel Christians Congregations or Congregations of the Evangelical Faith . Due to the relocation of many Russian-German families to Germany, churches of Evangelical Christians -Baptists or Free Evangelical Christians have also been found in Germany since the end of the 20th century .
history
From the merger to the schism in the 1960s
In Russia and the Soviet Union, several Protestant churches such as the Gospel Christians, Baptists, Mennonites, Seventh-day Adventists and Pentecostal churches developed from the middle of the 19th century. Under Stalinism, however, the churches were exposed to increasing political pressure, so that many church structures came to a standstill. It was not until the Great Patriotic War of 1941 that 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).
The executive committee of the AUR of the EChB consisted of five members: the chairman, two deputies, the secretary and a treasurer. The local congregations were headed by presbyters, who performed their service mostly on a voluntary basis. A senior presbyter (alias superintendent) controlled the work of the local presbyter of a certain area and brought the directives of the AUR to the communities. The government granted registration of a local parish only under the aegis of the AUR. (That is why part of the Pentecostal congregations joined the AUR of the EChB in 1945.) In later years the “Christians of the Apostolic Faith” and the Darbysts also joined the AUR .
It was not until 1963, 19 years after the foundation, that the second Union-wide congress of Evangelical Christians-Baptists could take place. The Russian-German Mennonites had been asked to join the AUR. (A formal agreement to join was concluded three years later.) Accordingly, from 1963 onwards the association acted as the All- Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and Mennonites . Gospel Christian-Baptist representatives also attended Mennonite World Conferences as guests . The conversion of a large part of the Mennonites led to the fact that even today many Germans from Russia of Mennonite origin identify with the Evangelical Christians-Baptists. However, the religious persecution that took place under Stalin, especially during the time of the Great Terror, led to a blurring of the previous confessional and ethnic boundaries within the Evangelical Christians-Baptists. After the traumatic experiences of violence and deportation, the evangelical Christians now gathered across denominational and / or ethnic differences. For many years, the Bund remained the only nationally recognized church fellowship alongside the Russian Orthodox Church . From 1966, individual congregations such as the Mennonite Brethren received at least the right again to assemble under their own name and to use German as the church language.
The split in the All Union Council of Gospel Christians and Baptists
At the time of Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign, the non-recognized Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (Initiativniki) split off in August 1961 .
The history
Since 1949, the registration of new municipalities has in fact hardly been possible. The "Council for Religious Affairs" at the Council of Ministers of the USSR was supposed to decompose the Christian communities from within. Communist ideology viewed the religious worldview as a bourgeois holdover. That is why in 1957 the “League of Militant Atheists” was renamed the “Knowledge” (Znanie) society, which was mainly devoted to the publication of anti-religious educational literature. By 1962, 355 books with anti-religious content had appeared in a total print run of 5,422,000 copies. In 1959, atheistic ideology was introduced in all schools in the Soviet Union and soon afterwards the subject of “Scientific Atheism” became compulsory at universities. In 1960, the Soviet Parliament added Article 142 to the Criminal Code (SGB), which provided for up to three years' imprisonment for violations of the laws on religious cults. The XXII. Party congress of the CPSU in 1961 decided the realization of communism in the Soviet Union by 1980 and in its new party program u. a .: "The party uses the contemporary ideological influence in its work to educate its citizens in the spirit of materialistic philosophy, to free them from religious prejudices and remnants ... It is necessary to conduct a systematic scientific atheist propaganda." In July 1962, Art. 142 of the SGB was tightened by Art. 227, which provided for imprisonment of up to five years for the same offense. In the same year, the Council for Religious Affairs and the “Council on Matters of the Russian Orthodox Church” (ROK) at the Council of Ministers of the USSR were entrusted with criminal powers. In 1966, an authorized representative for religious affairs was appointed in every city in the USSR, whose job it was to work with the KGB to monitor compliance with religious laws.
In view of this development, the executive committee of the AUR of the EChB met on December 25, 1959 for a three-day crisis meeting to decide whether the AUR was still entitled to exist. At that time, the AUR 2093 registered municipalities were connected, around 1000 municipalities had not yet received registration and legitimation. About 80% of the members were women, 20% men, 20% of the members were younger than 30 years, 20% were blue-collar workers, 30% farmers, 15% white-collar workers, 30% housewives and 5% pensioners. Under pressure from the CPSU, the Presidium of the AUR passed two documents at that meeting: the ordinance for the EChB communities and the instruction letter to all senior presbyters of the AUR of the EChB . Both documents were sent to the Religious Affairs Council for approval. While these two documents saved the existence of the AUR, they were viewed as apostasy by many Christians . They were disturbed by the following points in these texts:
- The composition of the AUR, which had been in office for 19 years, remained unchanged, although it had not been elected since it was established. According to No. 18 of the ordinance, no federal conferences were planned for the EChB communities .
- The chief presbyter was not allowed to take part in church services in the local congregations, but were supposed to monitor compliance with the directives and ordinances of the AUR.
- Baptism for those between the ages of 18 and 30 should be diminished.
- Only the presbyters, members of the executive committee, and in exceptional cases members of the revision committee were allowed to preach.
- The aim of the services was not to recruit new members, but solely to edify the respective members.
- Presbyters should refrain from calling for penance in worship. Performances by choirs and orchestras were strictly prohibited.
- Worship services should only be allowed inside the four walls of a registered church, never outside.
- Believers who were baptized by persons unknown by name were not allowed to be admitted to the congregation unless they agreed to the regulation for the EChB congregations .
The instruction letter to all senior presbyters of the AUR of the EChB accused the believers of having violated it due to a lack of knowledge of the laws governing the practice of religious cults. Children were admitted to church services and young people were baptized. People in need were supported from the church treasury. People were allowed to recite poems in Bible studies and meetings. There have been meetings for preachers for choir directors. Such violations should not be allowed in the municipalities. The regulation for the EChB communities and the instruction letter to all senior presbyters of the AUR of the EChB caused a wave of protests.
The division within the communities of the AUR of the EChB and its consequences
During the thaw in the mid-1950s, many incarcerated Christians, including Baptists, were released from prisons and labor camps. This gesture was attributed to Nikita Khrushchev and believed that Christians could now live according to their faith. However, this soon turned out to be a fallacy. The hope that the liberated Christians would now join the registered churches was only partially fulfilled. Because many former Christian prisoners joined unregistered EChB communities. They had been “vaccinated” by the prison camps against people who had spied on their fellow inmates and feared that they would encounter collaborators again in registered communities. They were astonished that the AUR leadership was allowed to travel abroad and that Alexander Karew, the general secretary of the AUR, and Mikhail Orlov, the deputy chairman, were recognized by the state for their participation in the Christian Peace Conference . These facts "convinced" them that the AUR had worked with the communist rulers and represented their interests.
In many places, EChB communities began to split off from the AUR. Thereupon suggested Gennadij Kryuchkov (1926-2007), presbyter of the unregistered EChB congregation of the city of Uslowaya , in the spring of 1961 to convene an initiative group to prepare an all-union congress of the EChB. In its first open letter, the initiative group challenged the AUR leadership to move away from the biblical principles of church building, to appoint clergy without the consent of the respective congregations, to have provoked the division into registered and unregistered congregations, not to legitimize them through election by the congregation delegates and to make common cause with the communist authorities against the communities. This attack on the AUR was massive, and quite a few Baptists, especially those from the registered EChB churches, found it difficult. Alexander Karew was a hero to many, he too had been in prison. Should he now be a stooge of the communists? At the plenary meeting of the senior presbyters from November 29th to December 2nd, 1962, the activities of the initiative group were not approved. But that Karew equated the rejection of the "instruction letter" with the rejection of the government was - to put it mildly - unfortunate, insofar as such a statement gave the authorities cause to defame the opposition to the AUR as anti-Soviet elements.
On February 25, 1962, the initiative group was renamed the "Organizing Committee for the Convening of the All Union Congress of the EChB". Members of this committee were, besides Kryuchkov, AF Prokofiev (1915–1995), GP Vins (1928–1998), AA Schalaschow (1880–1963, he died in prison) and NG Baturin (1927–1988). The AUR of the EChB and the Organizing Committee were irreconciled. In a letter to all registered EChB congregations on June 2, 1962, the AUR called the work of the “Initiativniki” or the organizing committee an “inspiration from the enemy” or the devil. The reaction of the organizing committee was foreseeable. A meeting of delegates denied the AUR and some senior presbyters the right to lead church services, preach and represent the congregations. In addition to Karew, this affected the chairman of the AUR, Jakov I. Schidkow (1885–1966), IG Iwanow (1898–1985), II Motorin (1895–1974) and AI Mizkewitsch (1901–1988), who himself in the years 1934 to Served as a Christian in prison in 1937 and 1942 to 1946. In August 1963 the organizing committee of the EChB wrote to Nikita Khrushchev asking him to mediate in the conflict between the AUR and the organizing committee. It was believed that the members of the AUR were controlled by the Council on Religious Affairs and the KGB, and so turned directly to the General Secretary of the CPSU with a request to approve a Baptist Congress under the direction of the Organizing Committee. At the same time, the AUR asked the government to grant a congress under its leadership. This request was granted: the AUR Congress could meet in 1963.
Since the organizing committee did not recognize the authority of this AUR congress, it elected a council of churches. The division of the EChB congregations was thus also institutionally sealed.
Many older Christians were appalled at the hostility between the camps, both of which appealed to the Holy Spirit. It cannot be that the Holy Spirit moves Christians to speak out against one another. This led to the emergence of autonomous (“neutral”) EChB communities.
By 1966, 155,000 Christians are said to have joined the “Initiativniki”. The authorities could not come to terms with this. The church services in the unregistered EChB congregations were closed by the police, and many parents lost their children who were placed in orphanages and brought up atheistically. Between 1961 and 1970, 524 Baptists were arrested and sentenced to various prison terms. 48 Baptists were arrested in 1971, 53 in 1972, 70 between 1973 and 1975. 49 Baptists were in custody in January 1980 and 108 in May 1982.
In 1963, non-registered EChB founded the magazine Vestnik Spasenija (Messenger of Rescue), which was renamed Vestnik Istiny (Messenger of Truth) in 1976 and is still published today. In 1966, the EChB Church Council turned to the government with a futile request to allow 10,000 Bibles and 5,000 songbooks to be printed. Thereupon the publishing house Christjanin printed half a million New Testaments in the underground in twelve years in Russian, Ukrainian, Ossetian , German and in other languages as well as the brother paper , the magazine messenger of truth and the bulletin of the council of relatives of imprisoned EChB . The secret service only discovered the first print shop after three years on the Latvian Ligukalis homestead. The next printing house was discovered in Ivangorod in 1977 . In January 1980 the Starye Kodaki printing works in Ukraine were blown, in June 1980 those in Glivenki near Novorossiysk and in 1982 those in the city of Tokmak in Kyrgyzstan. All employees were sentenced to three years imprisonment, including Georgi Vins, who coordinated printing work in the USSR in 1974. In 1979 he was deported to the USA with other political prisoners in exchange for two Soviet agents. His mother, Lydia Mikhailovna Vins, became foreign secretary of the Council of Relatives of Imprisoned EChB .
After perestroika , the Council of Churches was renamed "International Union of Churches of the ECB" (IUCECB). He gave the number of its parishes as of January 1, 2008 with 2964 and that of the members with 68,000, of which around 20,000 in Russia. After the death of President Gennady Kryuchkov in 2007, Nikolai Antonyuk was appointed to this office, and Gennady Yefremov became his deputy.
present
The Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists , which emerged from the All Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in 1991, is the largest Protestant church in Russia with around 80,000 members. The relationship with the IUCECB has improved, but reunification is not in sight.
National congregational associations of Evangelical Christians-Baptists also exist in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. Many of them work together internationally in the Euro-Asian Association of Gospel Christian-Baptist Unions .
The Federation of the Euro-Asian Association of Gospel Christians-Baptists Unions comprises the following church communities of Evangelical Christians-Baptists:
- All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
- Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
- Union of Churches of Gospel Christians-Baptists of Moldova
- Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Belarus
- Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Kazakhstan
- Georgian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
- Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Armenia
- Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Kyrgyzstan
- Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Azerbaijan
- Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan)
- Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Tajikistan
Since the end of the 20th century, congregations of Evangelical Christians or Evangelical Christians-Baptists have also been founded in many German places through the return of Germans from Russia to Germany . Some of the new congregations created here have come together in congregational associations such as the Association of Evangelical Christians -Baptists in Germany eV , the Brotherhood of Free Evangelical Christian Congregations or the Working Group of Evangelical Congregations. A part is connected with German Baptists through the working group of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches Congregations or is affiliated with Mennonite Brethren Congregations in the Federation of Baptist Congregations . There are also municipalities outside of municipal associations.
During the global Covid-19 pandemic , which is also rampant in Germany , two church services took place in a congregation of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Frankfurt am Main in May 2020 , during which the participants sang and did not wear mouth and nose protection . Some of them have become infected, the exact number cannot be determined; A total of 180 people from 120 households are said to have participated, but not all of the participants were infected. By the end of May 2020, the number of resulting infections was over 200.
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).
- Johann Pritzkau: History of the Baptists in Southern Russia. Logos Verlag, Lage 1999, ISBN 3-927767-52-2 .
- Johann Wiens: Church history under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The BFECG - a Russian-German Pentecostal movement , Trossingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-0471-40-7 .
Web links
- Euro-Asian Association of Evangelical Christians-Baptist Unions (Russian and English)
- Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
- Brotherhood of the Free Gospel Christian Churches
- Association of baptismal congregations
- Bibelseminar Bonn of the Association of Baptized Churches
- Association of Evangelical Free Churches
- Christian Diakonisches Hilfswerk Stephanus, Speyer
Footnotes
- ↑ Esther Loosse: Between leaving and exclusion. Exclusion and distancing from evangelical congregations of Russian-German emigrants . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2011, ISBN 978-3-86219-184-0 , pp. 61 .
- ↑ Esther Loosse: Between leaving and exclusion. Exclusion and distancing from evangelical congregations of Russian-German emigrants . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2011, ISBN 978-3-86219-184-0 , pp. 61 .
- ^ All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, accessed December 21, 2009 .
- ↑ Esther Loosse: Between leaving and exclusion. Exclusion and distancing from evangelical congregations of Russian-German emigrants . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2011, ISBN 978-3-86219-184-0 , pp. 61 .
- ^ Communist Party of the Soviet Union: Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, decided by the XXII. CPSU party conference on October 31, 1961 . Foreign Language Literature Publishing House, Moscow 1961.
- ↑ Bratskij Vestnik (Bruderbote) No. 5–6 / 1958, pp. 35–36. The Bratskij Vestnik was the organ of the AUR.
- ^ Adventist Press Service, June 1, 2008.
- ↑ FAZ.net May 26, 2020: For the free work of spirit and virus
- ^ Medical journal: [1]