Lessonists
Stundists ( Russian штундисты Schtundisty ; Ukrainian штундисти Schtundysty ) is the common term for free church communities in Russia and Ukraine .
etymology
The term hourlists is derived from the German word hour , which can be found in many event offers of pietistic or free church groups. Examples of this include the children's hour, women's hour, youth hour, prayer hour, congregation hour, mission hour and Bible study . The church service is also often referred to simply as the hour .
The term hourlists corresponds to the Swiss-German term hourly . It was first used as a swear word and later as a self-name.
history
The stundist movement arose, among other things, through the contact of Orthodox Russians and other Slavic peoples with German immigrants who were influenced by Pietism, especially in the south of Russia such as among the Bessarabian Germans or among the Russian mennonites in the Ukraine . As seasonal workers in these colonies, they came into contact with the Bible and Prayer Hour , the central weekly meeting of Russian Germans , and adapted them .
In the Russian home villages the prayer hours led to violent conflicts with the Orthodox clergy, so that the hourlists were excluded from the Orthodox communities.
The exclusions were followed by the rejection of the Orthodox liturgy and tradition on the part of the Stundists. The Bible was the only valid guideline for life and teaching for them. The singing of the psalms , the interpretation of the Bible and free prayer played a prominent role in the meetings of the Stundists.
meaning
The Stundists are considered to be the oldest free church community in Russia, consisting of Russians. While foreigners and colonists were granted religious freedom by the tsarist side early on , Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and other Slavic peoples in tsarist Russia were forbidden to belong to any church other than the Russian Orthodox until the Edict of Tolerance of 1905 .
The Evangelical Free Church of the Evangelical Christians , founded in St. Petersburg in 1909 , brought together many Stundist congregations. In the Soviet era these had to unite with the Russian Baptists , Mennonites and Pentecostal churches to form the Evangelical Christians-Baptists . With the return of Germans from Russia at the end of the 20th century, corresponding communities also emerged in Germany.
literature
- Hans-Christian Diedrich: Settlers, Sectarians and Stundists. The emergence of the Russian free church , Berlin 1985
