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

unity is more than a sum total of the individuals who combine this whole. It is unity which is possible because of the shared spirituality, and is based on love, and the Church is something which makes such unity possible.*° This unity is an unavoidable part of Christian faith. Georges V. Florovsky argues that ‘nobody can be a Christian by himself, in seclusion, in privacy. To be a Christian means ‘to be in the Church’.”** Since being outside of the Church, the person is capable to grasp neither the Scripture nor the works of God, yet it becomes possible in the Church, because God’s Spirit and God’s grace is present there.>” Therefore, the role of the church is paramount. The concept of sobornost implies that the importance of the Church cannot be stressed enough, since outside of the Church there is no salvation, no place for Scriptural reading or its interpretation. Hence no critique of the Church is even possible, 9 Aleksey S. Khomyakov, “Opit Katechezicheskogo Izlozheniia Ucheniia o Tserkvi,” in Polnoie Sobraniie Sochinenii, [“An Example of Catechetical Presentation of the Teaching of the Church” in Full Collection of Writings], Vol. 2, 3 ed., (Moscow, 1886), p 3. 3° Pavel Florenskii, “Poniatiie Tserkvi V Sviaschennom Pisanii,” in Bogoslovskiie Trudy, [“The Concept of the Church in the Holy Scripture” in Theological Works], Vol. 12 (Moscow Patriarchy, 1974), pp 81-82. 31 Georges Vasilievich Florovsky, Dukhovnie Razmishleniia [Spiritual Reflections], accessed on 19.05.2010, from http://www.pravbeseda.ru/library/index.php ?page=book&id=783. 2 Khomyakov, “Opit Katechezicheskogo Izlozheniia Ucheniia o Tserkvi,” p 7. 39 But wisdom, which lives in you, is not given to you as a person, but to you as a member of the Church. It is also given in part, without fully destroying your personal lies. Yet the Church has the fullness of wisdom without a trace of lie. For this reason do not judge the Church, but obey her, so that your wisdom is not taken away from you. Anyone who seeks the proof of the Church truth shows his doubt and therefore, excludes himself from the church...°? Henceforth, individual convictions or opinions have no role in the church. They are dismissed as irrelevant, since faith is not something personal, but a result of corporate experience — it is about being united to Christ.°* Alexander Popov argues that one of the negative aspects of sobornost is its presupposition of ‘complete dilution of individuality 5 Dealing with the theme of biblical interpretation in inside the sacred congregation. Russian Baptist churches, he offers helpful insight into what sobornost means for preaching and biblical interpretation, In preaching, sobornost implies the equality or even the identity of preachers and parishioners. It supposes that preachers are just the mouth of the congregation. In the opinion of Orthodox Christians, a priest’s words cannot come into contradiction with t