Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

t much of Oncken’s harvest was among these German-speaking groups, rather than the native Russian population. Oncken’s influence, combined with the classic Pietistic preaching of the Mennonite communities, led to the formation of the Mennonite Brethren.’ The idea of annual conferences was passed on from the Germans to the evangelical communities within Russia. This was certainly not unique to the German Baptists - the Evangelical Alliance had long practiced annual conferences as a place to exchange ideas, give reports and scout for potential leadership — but the whole-hearted endorsement of the Germans certainly added credibility to the new organisations in Russia. Both Mennonite Brethren and Russian Baptists held conferences on the German model. St Petersburg In August 1874, Kargel finished his studies in Hamburg and returned to his ministry in Poland as pastor of the Soroczin Baptist church and itin- erant evangelist and church planter. He was thoroughly convinced of what he had learned in Hamburg. After working in rural western Poland for several months, his colleagues in Hamburg asked him to temporarily fill the position of pastor in the small German Baptist church in St Petersburg, which had been founded in 1855. He ministered among the Germans in St '? Cited in “Mission in Germany’, Baptist Missionary Magazine [American Baptist Mission- ary Union, Boston], vol. 49, no. 2 (July 1869), p. 278. '’ Another group tracing its roots to Oncken and German pietism are the communities we call “Stundists”. As the Gospel message spread from the German colonists into the Russian population, the Russians formed house church groups, called “Stunda’, from the German Stunde, meaning “hour’. The Stundists have a history of their own, because for legal reasons, they could not have fellowship with the German communities. The Stundists suffered under harsh measures of persecution from the Russian Orthodox Church, and were considered the most dangerous sect in nineteenth-century Russia by the secret police. The Stundist groups would eventually become affiliated with either the Russian Baptist movement or the Evangelical Christian movement. 77 Petersburg for five years, building the congregation on the German model, and saw membership grow from thirty-four in 1876 to sixty in 1880." Kargel was the first person to register a religious body in Russia under a new law in 1879 allowing “corporation rights and state recognition” to foreign congregations.’ He continued to tie the St Petersburg congregation to the Hamburg conferences, where he was often the centre of attention as word spread of his success in Russia.'® Beginning in 1876, Kargel received financial support from the American Baptists through the German Baptist Union. This also happened to be the period of the evangelical revival in St Petersburg among the Russian aristocracy, instigated by the preaching of the British evangelist Granville Waldegrave - L