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

gical worship), seen as deviation from the clear biblical message. Instead, baptistic communities offered a focus on repentance and holy, sinless living,” which quickly became the marks of the new movement. 1 Eg. Polunov draws a bleak picture of moral state of Russian society and Orthodox clergy in the second half of the 19" century. (“Church, Regime, and Society in Russia (1880-1895),” pp 33-53). 2 Nicolay Leskov, Schism in High Society: Lord Radstock and His Followers, Translated by James Yeoman Muckle (Nottingham, Bramcote, 1995), pp 100-101 (The original was published in Russian under the title, Velikosvetskii Raskol. Lord Radstock i Ego Posledovateli [The Schism in High Society. Lord Radstock and His Followers] (St. Petersburg, V Tushnov, 1877). 3 V Kotle Rossii, p 56. 4 Although | have already addressed the importance of the Orthodox theological and ecclesial context, it might be necessary to mention that themes of repentance, prayer and holy living, 55 Obviously, a wave of evangelical groups needed some coherence in teaching and practice. In April 1884 Vasilii Pashkov tried to organise a conference which was supposed to bring together representatives from the baptistic communities from all across the Russian Empire (the police had forcefully stopped the meetings). The agenda included questions on the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, and Ordination. As Puzynin noted, ‘Pashkov believed that when the Bible is read in a spirit of mutual love, then the community of people from various backgrounds will inevitably come to a common understanding of Scripture on all the question.’*° Despite the opposition of the authorities, at the end of the same month another meeting was held in Novo-Vasilievka, a little Ukrainian village. It was ‘the first Russian which became very prominent in baptistic ecclesiology, were not an exclusively baptistic concept. For example, G. P. Fedotov noticed that repentance was of extreme importance in the Orthodox tradition, whilst tears during repentance were seen as confirmation of its integrity. He also pointed out that a moral way of life was seen as more important for salvation than ‘sacramental sanctification.’ (The Russian Religious Mind (I): Kievan Christianity. The 10" to the 13” Centuries, Vol.3, (Belmont, Massachusetts, Nordland Publishing, 1975), pp 382- 389). Addressing some of these issues Miriam R. Kuznetsova wrote, ‘If the author had to choose one word to describe the religious aspirations of the soul of Russian Christians, the word would be blagochestie “piety”.’ (“Early Russian Evangelicals (1974-1929): Historical Background and Hermeneutical Tendencies Based on |. V. Kargel’s Written Heritage,” PhD Dissertation (University of Pretoria, 2009), p 57). Another important source of convictions that, in many ways, gave shape to the baptistic movement, were Molokans, an indigenous Russian evangelical movement that appeared in the late 18" century. The Bible w