Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

n Evangelical Christian-Baptist (ECB) church life since the 1960s, which saw Khrushchev’ atheistic campaign and its devastating effects on churches. However, a closer look at the situation shows light at the end of the tunnel for believers. In the 1970s an evangelistic thrust touched almost every Esto- nian Evangelical Christian-Baptist church. Local churches, acting semi- illegally, attempted to revive children’s and youth ministries. The number of typewritten Christian publications and books increased. The 1985 Senior Presbyter’s report® stated that from 1978-1985, ECB churches in Estonia baptised 570 young people between eighteen and twenty-five years of age, including 220 “brothers”. The report added, “Youth are active and the working capacity of our brotherhood has increased, though member- ship numbers have decreased.”’ The “evangelistic situation’, limited as it was, was partly due to the fact that a new generation of Estonian youth, disillusioned by the hollowness of Marxist propaganda, became increas- ingly interested in the religious message. This paper analyses the response of Estonian ECB churches to this situation. Peaceful Resistance: Aid to “Underground Believers” and Self-study Efforts In spite of the fact that by the 1960s, “the church had lost its traditional role of maintaining morale and balance in the everyday routine of Estonians’,* * Philip Walters, “A Survey of Soviet Religious Policy’, p. 24. * Jaanus Plaat, Usuliikumised, kirikud ja vabakogudused Lddne- ja Hiiumaa: usuiihenduste muutumisprotsessid 18. sajandi keskpaigast kuni 20. sajandi lépuni [Religious Movements, Churches and Free Churches in West Estonia and Hiiumaa Island: Transformational Proc- esses of Religious Entities from the mid-18" Century to the End of the 20" Century] (Tartu: Eesti Rahva Muuseum, 2001), p. 215. ° “Senior Presbyter” was a title introduced during Soviet years for the leaders of the ECB unions in the Soviet republics or for regional leaders in Russia or the Ukraine. Local church leaders were called “presbyters”. Today Estonian Evangelical Christians-Baptists prefer the title “President” for the leader of their union and “pastor” for a local church leader. ” Logos [Estonian samizdat publication], no. 2 (1985), p. 29. * Mati Laur et al., History of Estonia (Tallinn: Avita, 2000), p. 304. l44 it has been argued by some Estonian historians that the church, nonethe- less, “remained practically the only public institution in the Estonian SSR [Soviet Socialist Republic] that was not entirely subjected to the control of the regime in power’.’ Research usually refers to the Lutheran Church, as the majority church in Estonia, but this statement is applicable also to ECB communities and some other free churches, such as Methodists. Traditional Baptist theology and Soviet ideology were fundamentally irreconcilable. Even if church members did not publicly protest the athe- istic Soviet system, their