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

It must be recognised that such a merger caused many difficulties for congregations, which were somewhat different in their theology and practice. Hence, at present there is a diversity of opinions on the appearance of the AUCECB through such forceful integration of various congregations and denominations into one entity. However, as A. Popov notes, ‘The unity which was offered by the All-Union Council of the ECB was what they needed in those circumstances. The forces that pushed them [various ecclesial groups] to unity were seen as stronger than their differences!’ (A. Popov, “The Evangelical Christians-Baptists...,” p 2). ™ “Istoriia Ob’edineniia Evangelskikh Khristian i Baptistov v Odin Soyuz” [The History of the Merger of Evangelical Christians and Baptists into One Union], accessed on 01.06.2015 from http://baptist.org.ru/read/article/117007. "6 Lev N. Mitrokhin, Baptism: Istoriia i Sovremennost (Filosofsko-Sotsiologicheskiie Ocherki) [Baptist Movement: History and Contemporary situation (Philosophical-Sociological Articles) ], (St. Petersburg, Rossiiskaia Khristianskaia Gumanitarnaia Akademiia, 1997), pp 42-62. 84 intimidation of children and young people from Christian families in schools, at the same time imposing restrictions and limitations on all church activities related to youth work."’’ The authorities also attempted to discredit Christians by closing any access to advanced education. University training was made unachievable for believers. Hence, it was impossible for them to work in such spheres as medicine, education or art. What was left for Christians (and representatives of other religions) was manual labour in construction, agriculture or factories.’”® Alexey V. Sinichkin, one of the leading voices in the area of Russian Baptist history, highlights a number of ways the Soviet Government attempted to discredit the Church through various policies it enforced on the Baptist Union through its governing body (AUCECB and senior pastors), which included prohibition of leading services or performing baptisms for anyone without the Council’s approval and accreditation, significant restrictions placed on youth work, encouragement of the use of church discipline (particularly, excommunication from churches on grounds of unchristian or immoral living), and many others. It is particularly interesting the way the authorities attempted to control the ecclesial life of churches by allowing compilation and publication of the hymn-book in order to bring coherence into the lives of diverse congregations (as well as removal of any hymns with ambiguous, thus potentially inappropriate from the state’s perspective, meaning) and a recommendation to focus teaching and preaching on spiritual matters, rather than practical issues related to everyday living. The governmental department dealing with religious affairs went as far as recommending the authorities to allow Baptists to open a Bible school,