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

Scriptures was tremendous. During 30 years of this ministry they sold and distributed over 1.5 million copies of the New Testament, including 150 thousand copies distributed in the Asian part of the Russian Empire. Many of these books were distributed by special people — colporteurs, full-time travelling distributors of Bibles and other spiritual literature. They walked through towns and villages, carrying the books and the Good News — sales were always coupled by simple preaching. *® 1.2 The Stundist dissent: a case study Now | would like to turn to one of the main centres of evangelical revival in Russia — to the first peasant Stundist communities in Ukraine, looking at their beginning, characteristic features and practices, which caused their excommunication from the Orthodox Church. This was accompanied by persecutions from both the clergy and the Russian state and led to the eventual formation of a new denomination. In this short study | am deliberately omitting the Stundist movement among German colonists. Rather my focus will be on the first known communities of Ukrainian Stundists, because there is much evidence that they appeared without direct German influence. Obviously, it will not be possible to provide a comprehensive picture of the Stundist movement - it was not coordinated, and had various leaders with different agendas and doctrines. Nonetheless, 37 Vv. Reshetnikov, S. Sannikov, Obzor Istorii Evangelskogo - Baptistskogo Bratstva Na Ukraine [The Overview of the History of the Evangelical-Baptist Brotherhood in the Ukraine] (Odessa, Bogomislie, 2000), pp 68-69. 38 Robert G. Torbet, Albert W. Wardin, Sergey N. Savinskii, A History of the Baptists (Odessa, Bogomislie, 1996), p 321. Also Viktor Dick, Svet Evangeliia v Kazakhstane: Istoriia Vozvessheniia Evangeliia i Rasprostraneniia Obshin Baptistov i Menonnitov v Kazakhstane (pervaia polovina XX veka) [The Light of the Gospel in Kazakhstan: The History of the Proclamation of the Gospel and the Spreading of the Baptist and Mennonite Communities in Kazakhstan (first half of the XX century)] (Samenkorn, Steinhagen, 2003), p 67. 23 there was one feature that characterised every single community or group called Stundists — communal preaching, a simplistic reading of the Bible with its subsequent application to the immediate life situation led by various members of their communities. The first community of Ukrainian Stundists was formed in 1862 in Osnova, a village in the southern Ukraine. The group met in the house of the village elder (starosta) Mikhail Ratushnii for prayer, Bible study and singing.’ Due to the numerous similarities of this group with German Stundist practices,*° these Christians were labelled as “Ukrainian wAl Stunda.”” Yet, the report of the local priest to the Archbishop claimed neither that the peasants were visiting “the German churches” nor that “the German pastors” preached among them.” Therefore, th