Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

the Lake], Jaljed I (1979), pp. 4-6. ” Anne Lange, “Uhest T. S. Elioti luuletajaisiksuse tahust” [About One Aspect of T. S. Eliot as a Poet], Lugemisvihik (1988), pp. 11-18. * Jiiri Puusaag, private correspondence (16 August 2002). T. Pilli personal archive. ® Mihail [Mikhail] Zhidkov and Jiiri Puusaag, “Billy Graham taas Noukogude Liidus” [Billy Graham again in the Soviet Union], Logos, no. 4 (1984), p. 29. ” Jiri Puusaag, private correspondence (16 August 2002). T. Pilli personal archive. 157 Christian Youth Work Revived In the 1970s, despite the state's increased efforts to influence children and young people with atheistic ideology,”’ Estonian ECB churches were able to attract a number of young people. Those who in the midst of political “stag- nation” and “suffocation” were still seeking ethical values and philosoph- ical ideals often found inspiration from religion. The following quotation, though referring more generally to the Soviet situation, pointedly describes the situation in Estonia as well: From the mid-1970s the pace of proliferation of all kinds of unofficial religious activity had been accelerating, particularly in the major cities and amongst educated young people. Some of this activity was part of the continuing search for spiritual values amongst young people disenchanted with the dead offi- cial ideology, while an increasing proportion was related to the defence of religious rights and human rights in general, an area of activity which was given a specific boost by the Soviet Union's signing of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975.” In 1979, the ECB Senior Presbyter stated that in mission and evangelism “the good soil” was no longer the countryside population, as it had been earlier, but “the educated youth living in cities”. ECB churches should direct their attention, prayers and work towards this social group.” One gets the impression that this statement was five or six years late in being made. At home, at school and in church, “serious battles took place about the length of hair and width of trouser legs” and “electric guitar ensem- bles were mushrooming”’” - youth culture was gradually influencing ECB self-understanding. Young people who joined ECB churches often came from non-Christian families and faced opposition at home. Their presence, however, challenged traditional understandings in local churches regarding how a believer should appear or speak. “The language of Canaan’, a “Baptist dialect” loaded with biblical expressions, was unknown to most of the new ”! Walter Sawatsky, Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II (Kitchener, Ontario: Herald Press, 1981), p. 297. ” Philip Walters, “A Survey of Soviet Religious Policy’, p. 27. ”> The UECBE Senior Presbyter’s report of 1978 (20 November 1979). VpAruanded, Archive of the UECBE. 5 * Lauri Vahtre, Elu-olu viimasel vene ajal [Living Conditions During the Last Russian Rule] (Kirjastuskeskus: Tallinn, 2002), p. 89