Church of the Last Testament

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The Church of the Last Testament is a new religious movement that was founded by Sergei Torop (Wissarion) in 1994 as a religious association, initially under the name “Community of the Unified Faith”. The religious organization is registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation under the name “Church of the Last Testament”.

history

Vissarion delivered the first public sermon on the so-called “ Last Testament ” on May 14, 1991. On August 18, 1991 in Minussinsk he announced the establishment of the “Unified Religion of the Earth”. From late 1992 to early 1993, the first supporters began to gather in Minusinsk. The first religious association of Vissarion's followers was registered on June 24, 1994 under the name of the "Community of the Unified Faith" with its seat in Minusinsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory (document No. 105).

In the second half of 1994, an initiative group of Vissarion's supporters moving to permanent residence in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, consisting of engineers, teachers, farmers, artists, specialists in traditional and non-traditional medicine, and craftsmen, approached the municipal authorities to establish an experimental ecological settlement in the area of Kuragino County in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, near Lake Tiberkul. The county government allocated 250 hectares of land to the Vissarion-controlled company TABRAT for the construction of a settlement in the area of ​​the Sukhaya Mountains and Lake Tiberkul. In 1995, Wissarion and his followers founded the "Tiberkul Ecosphere Settlement" there.

Wissarion also found followers abroad, including in Kazakhstan, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Australia, Germany and the USA. For coordination purposes, the local Churches of the Last Testament established a central religious organization in May 1998, which was re-registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in 2000 under the name “Church of the Last Testament”.

Settlement area

The settlement area of ​​the Church of the Last Testament is in the Krasnoyarsk region, there in the Kuragino district in the Taiga of southern Siberia on the edge of the Sayan Mountains . There the followers of the church settled in already existing villages, u. a. in Petropavlovka (Петропавловка), Cheremshanka (Черемшанка), Tjuchtjata (Тюхтят), Tajata (Таяты), Guljaewka (Гуляевка), Sharovsk (еремшаровка) and Sharovsk (всрава) The number of Vissarion's followers in this settlement area varies between 3,000 and 6,000. In addition, a new settlement was built in the middle of the taiga (officially part of the village of Sharovsk), popularly known as the “City of the Sun”. The official name used by the Church of the Last Testament is “Abode of Dawn” (Обитель Рассвета).

Doctrine of faith

The basis of the doctrine of the faith is the teaching of Vissarion, called The Last Testament .

Church life

Church life is expressed in liturgies , which are usually held twice a week. Spiritual songs written by members of the Church are sung. Wherever there are priests appointed by Vissarion , liturgies are conducted by them; otherwise only spiritual songs (without connecting words) are sung. The following church festivals are celebrated throughout the year:

  • Vissarion's birthday on January 14th.
  • On March 3, the "Day of Joy" is celebrated as a reminder of the inauguration of the first chapel of the community in the village of Gulyaevka.
  • A spring festival is celebrated on April 14th.
  • The "Festival of Good Fruits" on August 18th commemorates the first public appearance of Vissarion in 1991.
  • At the end of the harvest season, a harvest festival is celebrated.

Official publications

  • The “ Last Testament ” was published in book form and on the Internet: in the original Russian text (on the official website of the Church of the Last Testament) and in excerpts in German translation (on the website of the German-based Förderverein Ökopolis eV).

Film reports about Wissarion and the Siberian church fellowship

  • Bells from the Deep (Original title: Bells from the Deep - Faith an Superstition in Russia ), documentary by Werner Herzog , 1993.
  • In Search of the Vissarion - The Second Coming of Christ by Benjamin Wigley, 2009,
  • The Second Coming , Documentation from National Geographic, 2010
  • I Am Jesus is a 75-minute documentary by Fabricia Production (Italy / USA) from 2010
  • Jesus of Siberia , documentary by VICE TV (USA), 2012
  • Jesus of Siberia , Documentation from 16: 9 TV (Canada), 2012
  • Jesus of Siberia , documentation by SBS Dataline (Australia), 2013
  • Christmas with Christ , documentary by Norwegian photographer Jonas Beniksen, broadcast on NRK TV (Norway) in 2017
  • Searching for meaning in Siberia: the born again Jesus Christ , report by arte, 2019

literature

in Russian language:

  • EG Balagushkin: Non-traditional religions in modern Russia: morphological analysis . Institute for Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 1999 (Chapter V: Church of the Last Testament (Syncretic Christianity of Vissarion) , pp. 160–223).
  • MV Vorobyeva: Art. Church of the Last Testament . In: Christian Diversity. An encyclopedia . SPB, Saint Petersburg 2004.
  • DA Golovushkin: Appendix: Modern New Religious Movements . In: A.Yu. Grigorenko (ed.): Religious Studies for Students of Pedagogical Universities . SPB, Saint Petersburg 2008, ISBN 978-5-91180-866-2 .
  • DA Golovushkin: Church of the Last Testament . In: A.Yu. Grigorenko (ed.): Religions of the World. An encyclopedia . SPB, Saint Petersburg 2009, ISBN 978-5-388-00466-6 , pp. 383-384.
  • Alexander L. Dworkin: Contributions to the History of the Ecumenical Orthodox Churches . Christian Library, Nizhny Novgorod 2006, ISBN 5-88213-068-9 (Chapter 19: Sect of Vissarion - Community of the Unified Faith - Church of the Last Testament ).

Left

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Indication of the official website of the community: http://vissarion.ru/church
  2. ↑ a b c d Certificate of State Registration of Religious Organization No. 575 of December 21, 2000, Paul Stoljarow, Church of the Last Testament (Vissarion) / / Center for Apologetic Research, 2000
  3. ↑ Church of the Last Testament / / SI Ivanenko, Religious Associations of the Russian Federation: Directory / Organ of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Analytical Administration / under the General Editing of MM Prusak, V. v. Borshchev .; Analytical Messenger № 24th special edition - M .: Republic, 1996. - 271 pages - ISBN 5-250-02609-5 .
  4. ^ Ökopolis eV: location and climate of the settlement area. In: The Community of Vissarion. 2010, accessed February 7, 2019 .
  5. ^ Ökopolis eV: dwelling place of the dawn. In: The Community of Vissarion. 2010, accessed February 7, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Church of the Last Testament, Dwelling of Dawn. In: The Community of Vissarion. 2010, Retrieved February 7, 2019 (Russian).
  7. ^ Ökopolis eV: Spiritual life, liturgies. In: Vissarion and the Last Testament. 2010, accessed February 7, 2019 .
  8. Jump up ↑ Church of the Last Testament, Festivals. In: The Community of Vissarion. Retrieved February 23, 2019 (Russian).
  9. ↑ Wissarion: The teaching of Wissarion. In: The Last Testament. Last Testament Church, 2010, Retrieved February 7, 2019 (Russian).
  10. ^ Ökopolis eV: The teaching of Wissarion. In: The Last Testament. 2010, accessed February 7, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Werner Herzog: Bells From The Deep ,. Werner Herzog, 2003, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  12. ^ Benjamin Wigley: The Second Coming of Christ. artdocs, 2009, accessed on February 6, 2019 .
  13. ^ The Second Coming ,. National Geographic , 2010, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  14. ↑ I Am Jesus. Fabricia Production, 2010, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Jesus of Siberia. VICE TV, 2012, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Jesus of Siberia. 16: 9 TV, 2012, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Jesus of Siberia. SBS Dataline, 2013, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Jonas Beniksen: Christmas with Christ. NRK TV, 2017, accessed February 6, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Re: Search for meaning in Siberia. Jesus from the taiga and his disciples. Retrieved December 28, 2019 .