Towards Understanding of the Practice of Proclamation: The Core Element of Russian Baptist Worship, Timofey Cheprasov, 2015

eign faith.“ Unlike preaching in contemporary Baptist churches in Russia, that simple communal study of the Bible produced a significant impact on the way people built their lives and perceived their identity in the turbulent years of social reforms of the second half of the 19" century.” *! Margaritov, Istoriia Russkikh Misticheskikh i Ratsionalisticheskikh Sect, p 211. ” Rozhdestvenskii, Yuzhno-Russkii Stundism, p 251; see also Margaritov, Istoriia Russkikh Misticheskikh i Ratsionalisticheskikh Sect, p 166. 13 See R. Ignashev’s positive evaluation of Pashkov’s simple proclamation of the biblical message, which although did not contain ‘any theological intricacies,’ influenced the way people perceived their lives and faith. (R. Ignashev, “Pashkovtsi-Baptisti v Peterburge” [“Pashkovites-Baptists in St. Petersburg”, in Istoricheskii Vestnik [Messenger of History] (St. Petersburg, 1909), p 185). “ Doronitsin, Materiali Dlia Istorii, pp 67-68. * This fact is admitted by all their Orthodox opponents as a positive impact of these “sects.” (e.g. Kushnev, Nemetskiie Very, p 11; Doronitsin, Materiali Dlia Istorii, pp 228-229). E.g. see 222 Of course, | am far from idealising either preaching of the early baptistic communities in Russia or any other aspect of their life and practice. Inevitably, there were various conflicts and struggles. Some of them were a direct result of the misuse of the Scripture.’° However, the recognition that no practice is immune to a fall should serve as yet another reminder that the practice of preaching always has to be placed within a wider cluster of practices of reading the Bible, which includes the development of peoples’ critical and analytical skills, by encouraging them to receive quality formal theological and secular education, as well as through the offering of informal educational opportunities through church-based Bible study groups.”’ To sum up, it is possible to say that the beginning of the Russian Baptist movement was a successful experiment in communal hermeneutics. The practice of “multiple preaching” of primitive baptistic congregations led to the emergence of a clearly defined ecclesial identity, distinct from the dominant Orthodox culture, which eventually led to the appearance of such groups as Baptists and Evangelical Christians. The absence of rigid church doctrines, traditions, leadership, and worship practices allowed preaching to be a truly communal practice of discovery of biblical narrative and of turning that narrative into the life story of the church. Jenniffer Hedda, His Kingdom Come: Orthodox Pastorship and Social Activism in Revolutionary Russia (DeKalb, Ill., Northern Illinois Univercity Press, 2011, 2008), pp 46-47 and 88-89 and Ivana Noble, Tim Noble, Parush Parushev, and Katerina Bauer with an Introduction by John Behr, Wrestling with the Mind of the Fathers in (Post-) Modern Orthodox Theology (Yonkers, N.Y., St Viadimir’s Sem