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Siberian evangelicals work together

RUSSIAN EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE STRENGTHENED BY REGIONAL CONFERENCES
Meetings renewed on new level
Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, 7 November 2007

"Previously the majority of us were in a single union. However during the time of perestroika our unity fell apart and each confession founded its own union, and we lost one another from view. But now we are faced with the reality that we must again begin cooperating with one another." And this cooperation strengthens and unites us at a new level. This thought resounded as the leitmotif of the welcoming address of the vice-president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the Siberian region, Eduard Adolfovich Genrikh (Novosibirskii Akademgorodik) delivered to the participants in the regional conference of the Russian Evangelical Alliance (REA) that opened on 1 November in Siberia. On 1 and 2 November, about 50 representatives of churches in the enormous territory, from Izhevsk and Omsk in the west to Kemerovo and Krasnoyarsk in the east, from Tomsk in the north to Gorno-Altaisk in the south, assembled in a Novosibirsk resort. Participants in the conference included Adventists, Baptists, charismatics, Pentecostals, Messianic Jews, and Calvinists. Lutherans also took part in the work of the regional conference of REA that was held on 26 and 27 October in Izhevsk, in a Pentecostal church. The Izhevsk conference was also very representative: of 46 participants, 30 represented churches from other cities. These are the first official regional conferences of the national Evangelical Assiance that was founded in 2003.

In Novosibirsk, the senior presbyter of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Alexander Nikolaevich Popov (Izhevsk) reported that in 20 settlements of Izhevsk province local alliances have been organized. At the same time he emphasized: "I each locality where there are several protestant churches there should be its own alliance." Nevertheless, A.N. Popov noted that solidarity is not the only reason for the development of interconfessional relations. When legal problems arise along with questions connected with transportation services, repair of houses of worship, and vehicle repair, interconfessional support is maximally useful. The beginnings of the work of the alliance in Izhevsk go back to 1996. Alexander Pavlovich Alekseev (Novosibirsk), the director of the Siberian affiliate of the "Bible League and chief organizer of the Siberian conference, affirmed:  "Interconfssional cooperation has enormous potential which we still have not employed, and it is lying at our feet."

Ulrich Materne (Wittenberg), a representative of the German Evangelical Alliance and commissioner for Eastern Europe, speaking in Novosibirsk on the question of unity, emphasized that it has already been decided by Jesus. "Where do we get the idea that we have the right to be divided from our brothers? Unity is not a structure that we have imagined that we should create. Unity already exists because Jesus exists." A pastor from Barnaul acknowledged:  "Often we like to condemn one another behind our backs. But the picture radically changes if we become acquainted with one another."

Conference participants openly expressed the fears of their churches with regard to interconfessional cooperation. For example, a representative from Omsk suggested that relationships among people of various confessions may inevitably raise the level of conflict situations. Baptists expressed their fears, for example, that Pentecostals might exploit the authority of Baptists for their own purposes and resolve their own problems at the governmental level. Similarly, several Lutherans expressed suspicions relative to the Baptists. At the same time there also are fears of loosing in interchurch dialogue the identity of their own distinctives of their separate confessions.

In reality, in the course of successful evangelistic activity in Mongolia there actually was a "loss of identity." The interconfessional Bible League operates there very well.  A.P. Alekseev described:  "In Mongolia, to be sure, there are various denominations, although the ordinary members do not know how the confessions are different from one another. Their association strengthens them very much." In the course of the last 19 years, protestant churches have been organized there with 40,000 members and one Russian Orthodox parish. The goal of the protestants is to draw 10 percent of the population of Mongolia (290,000) into their churches.

In the course of further work of the conference, there were discussed questions of the evangelistic ministry in Gornii Altae, where the Bible League and Pentecostals Have sponsored six new local congregations. In this border region of Russia there live representative of ten indigenous nationalities, particularly Mongolians and Chinese. Only a few books of the bible have been translated at the present time into their languages.

In Omsk and Tomsk Christian soccer teams are members of the football league. In Omsk the team of Christian soccer players, as part of their prison ministry, participated in games inside the prison colony with teams of prisoners. In another Siberian region Christians, in defiance of the officially existing prohibition of providing spiritual help in state hospitals, nevertheless, thanks to the personal attitude of the hospital administration, don medical gowns and deliver spiritual healing to patients. In planning the Izhevsk conference, A.N. Popov relied primarily on the examples of the German alliance which were exceptionally useful. This was the primary evidence of what can be done acting in the name of the alliance.

Conversing in the evening after the session of the conference in the Novosibirsk resort, someone joked:  "Perhaps with a temperature of 80 degrees Celsius, conversations about the alliance will become really hot?" Then the men who were participating in the conference continued their exchange of opinions in the sauna.

As has already become a tradition, for conducting a week of prayer, the forces of the alliance will prepare by the middle of November the publication of a prayer notebook.  Along with the distribution of the notebook for the churches by mail, it will be possible to access the text of the notebook from a web page of the alliance in PDF file form:  www.rea.org.ru.  The regular Russian annual conference of REA will be held on 26 and 27 February 2008 in the Moscow church of the Seventh-day Adventists. At the present time, the provisional leadership of REA is being carried out by a pator of the EKhB church, Alexander Vasilevich Fedichkin (Moscow). Alexander Vasilevichand Ulrich Materne participated in the work of both regional conferences, in Izhevsk and Novosibirsk. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 November 2007)

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Church qualifies its fellowship with non-Orthodox

RUSSIAN CHURCH ADVOCATES RENUNCIATION OF WORD "ECUMENISM"
Interfax, 8 November 2007

The vice-chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, supported the idea of refusing to use the word "ecumenism" in inter-Christian dialogue.

"This word evokes criticism in Orthodox circles since it is too general, and one could understand by it any variety of universalism," the priest declared in the course of his address at the World Christian Forum, which is going on in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi.

Thus, he supported another participant in the event, a Pentecostal pastor from Netherlands, Peter Sleebos, who called for not using the term "ecumenism" in inter-Christian cooperation, noting that it evokes great criticism.

Fr Vsevolod thinks that it is necessary to "define more precisely and clearly the naming of any forms of inter-Christian dialogue so that they will not confuse anybody and not lead anybody to misunderstanding relative to the true goals of this activity."

He also assessed highly the prospects for the World Christian Forum as a fellowship which does not provide formal membership but makes possible "full participation of the followers of churches and organizations representing practically all Christian traditionsÑOrthodox Christians, members of the ancient eastern churches, Catholics, Anglicans, protestants of a variety of confessions, Pentecostals, and Evangelicals."

"We cannot call ourselves one Body of Christ, because our theological differences are too strong, but we can work together in the resolution of many social problems which stand before us, beginning with changing society on the basis of the values of the Gospel," the representative of the Moscow patriarchate emphasized.

Around 250 representatives of Christian confessions are participating in the religious meeting in the capital of Kenya. (tr. by PDS, posted 9 November 2007)

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Evangelicals in central Russia under attack

TULA PROTESTANTS SUFFER FROM ORTHODOX PUBLICATIONS
Slavic Legal Center, 2 November 2007

Pastors of the Association of Protestant Churches of Tula Province say that certain Christian congregations and their houses of worship are suffering from antisectarian articles by associates of the Evangelism Department of Tula diocese.

The Association of Protestant Churches of Tula Province has sent an appeal to the governor of Tula province, Viacheslav Dudka, with regard to antisectarian articles that continually appear in the local press and are distributed by the Evangelism Department of Tula diocese and with regard to the attacks on believers that come after them, the press service of the Slavic Legal Center reports. In particular, according to leaders of protestant churches, a new wave of such articles and attacks on evangelical congregations and believers themselves appeared after the statement by the governor of the province at one of the conferences in August 2007 regarding "intensification of the activity of religious formations of a protestant type whose administrative centers are located abroad," which has been reproduced by "sect scholars."

An associate of the Evangelism Department of the Tula diocese of RPTsMP, Aleksei Yarasov, specifically referred to potential "spies" (in keeping with an article which published the words of Governor Dudka about spies).  Among the "most dangerous sects of Tula" Aleksei Yarasov named the Pentecostal churches "Word of Life," "Holy Trinity," "Tula Christian Center," "Bethany" and others. A representative of the diocese also added:  "They call themselves Christians and protestants. This is untrue."  ("Who is luring Tulans into sects?" Sloboda newspaper, 22-29 August 2007). At the end of the article there is a call:  "Dear Readers! If you or your loved ones have suffered from the actions of sectarians, warn others about this." 

After publication of the press release "Evangelical churches of Tula province are extremely troubled by the unhealthy situation in the regions and are worried about pogroms on the part of Orthodox," Aleksei Yarasov sent a letter to the Slavic Legal Center in which he called all the charges of the protestants lies. We recall that Aleksei Yarasov is the secretary of the Evangelism Department of the diocese and also he is director of the Tula division of the Irenaeus of Lyons Center for Religious Studies Research (headed by A.L. Dvorkin).

The Association of Protestant Churches of Tula Province, as noted in an interview with the press service of the Slavic Legal Center by Pastor Mikhail Andrievsky of the "Holy Trinity" Evangelical Christian church, was officially created specifically in order to defend churches in difficult situations. The association includes about 30 churches of Adventists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and Presbyterians of Tula province.

According to Pastor Andrievsky, in addition to articles in the Sloboda newspaper there have also been many different attacks on protestant churches, from articles in the Internet sect studies publications to antiprotestant leaflets which have been distributed in the province. Arson, broken windows and other attacks on evangelical houses of worship often have not been registered. As Andrievsky stressed, "We Christians are a patient people and we try to endure whatever happens. When believers call the police, agents of law enforcement say that we should investigate it ourselves since these are our own internal disputes."

In Mikhail Andrievsky's opinion, the task of "sect scholars" is to besmirch non-Orthodox Christian churches and Yarasov is a clear representative of the diocese, according to the pastor, "one of those 'D-students' who enter a diocese and become Orthodox 'warriors,' in order to give out information about 'sects.'" Andrievsky noted that in antisectarian articles incitement of inter-religious strife is visible to the naked eye; protestants are accused of deceiving people so that people supposedly wind up in psychiatric hospitals, and so forth. However, according to the pastor, "sect scholars" are clever and often do not say concretely which churches they have in mind when they talk about "the most horrible destructive and totalitarian sects, but they still mention us, too, in the articles."  Representatives of protestant churches have appealed to both the diocese and the Tula Informational Consultative Center on Questions of Sectarianism but there has been no response other than to say that the protestants themselves are guilty of inciting strife.

According to Mikhail Andrievsky, the words of the governor about "spies," disseminated by the "sect scholars," are understood by many as a command, including in the first place the Evangelism Department of the Tula diocese itself. Evangelical believers have been called "spies," "prowestern," and "unpatriotic." This is reflected in the relations of the local authorities toward specific churches.

The protestant association wrote a letter to the Sloboda newspaper, Governor Viacheslav Dudka, and the head psychiatrist of the province requesting a clarificaion of the situation with "sectarians who are dangerous to health." As Pastor Alexander Karavaev of the "Loza" church of Evangelical Christians stated in an interview with the press service of the Slvic Legal Center, the churches have not received a single response.    After the antisectarian articles by the Evangelism Department of the RPTsMP diocese, windows were broken in churches in Novomoskovsk, Uzlovaia, and the Tula Christian Center, where security cameras have been installed, but law enforcement agencies have taken no actions, Alexander Karavaev emphasized. Pastor Karavaev himself sent a letter to Russian President V.V. Putin and the directorate of the FSB for Tula province.  (tr. by PDS, posted 2 November 2007)

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Antisemitism in Ukraine

JEWISH SCHOOL BURNED IN KIEV
Religiia i SMI, 1 November 2007

On 31 October at approximately 2:45-3:00 p.m. in the Dneprovsk region of Kiev, at the address of 22b Gen. Vatutin Prospect, unknown juveniles (according to eyewitnesses there were three) threw some kind of object through the window of the "Simkha" Jewish school, after which fire immediately broke out.

All of the first floor burned and almost all of the furniture, and the telephone and electrical wiring was harmed completely. Rabbi Mordekhai Levengarts said that a senior school was located in this building (there is a junior school located in the same premises but on the other side) and "praise God that all the children are now on vacation and thus miraculously none of the children were injured."

Police arriving at the site immediately made an attempt "to persuade" the victims that they "not disturb the evidence in the area" and they said that the flame spread to the school supposedly from trash burning nearby, showing thereby another case of their intention to categorize the incident as vandalism and not as an antisemitic action, ForUm reports.

As workers in the school note, a week before the incident notes of antisemitic contents with threats and the phrase "death to zhids" were thrown into the school.

According to people's deputy of Ukraine Feldman, he would take personal special oversight of this incident. Appropriate appeals to the president and chief of the Ukrainian Security Service, which has a special subdivision for combating xenophobia by presidential order, have already been prepared.

"If the police of the region try to present this incident as 'an electrical fire' and try to misrepresent the antisemitic subtext of this action, then the guilty parties will remain unpunished," Feldman declared.  (tr. by PDS, posted 1 November 2007)

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Dukhobors went to Georgia in 19th century; return to Tambov in 21st

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT ALLOTS 200 MILLION RUBLES FOR RESETTLEMENT OF DUKHOBORS FROM GEORGIA INTO RUSSIA
Portal-credo.ru, 1 November 2007

The government of the Russian federation has allotted 200 million rubles for the years 2007-2008 for resettlement of representatives of the Russian Dukhobor community from Georgia to Tambov province, Interfax-Religiia reports, citing the press service of the government of RF.

As the press service of the Russian government reported on 31 October, Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov signed an order directing the Ministry of Regional Development and the administration of Tambov province, in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Finance, to confirm the list of residences, objects of health care, education, and culture, and the engineering infrastructure which will be built to conduct the resettlement of the Dukhobor community.

The delivery of a subsidy for the budget of Tambov province for construction of such objects will be conducted from the account of means for the "migration policy" subdivision of the federal budget in the amount of 71 million rubles in 2007 and 127 million rubles in 2008. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 November 2007)