Journal of European Baptist Studies, 2007

Journal of European Baptist Studies From Fellowship to Church The development in Karaganda mirrors the situation in the whole of Central Asia. With the thaw between 1955 and 1958, the hidden fellowship meetings began to crystallise into ECB and MB churches. Not everywhere were the strong and proven principles taken as ultimate guidance. Often the restoration of MB and ECB church patterns, which were similar, were marked by baptisms, exemplified by the first baptisms in villages around the city of Shchuchinsk in northern Kazakhstan, which took place in 1956: Andreas Pankratz baptised eight people in Kotyrkol, Jakob Konrad baptised in Kovalevka, Franz Klassen in Obaly, Jakob Fedrau baptised twelve people in Rai-Gorodok, Abram Koop baptised between twenty-three and twenty-eight people in Zlatopol’ye, Gerhard Unruh baptised one person in Urumkai. 73 Most of those baptised had been converted after 1946. The picture was similar in other regions. With the transition to regular church life, the enthusiastic character of the fellowship underwent significant changes, though the fellowship itself was quite stable. Previously the gatherings would cease their activities if they were under threat. JJerta Vogel remembers a story of Justine Neufeld who, in 1955, organised a choir that sung in gatherings in Shchuchinsk that included Mennonites, Baptists and Lutherans. On Christmas Eve 1956, Herta was summoned to a meeting with a KGB officer who demanded collaboration. Eventually, Herta distanced herself from the gatherings, the choir ceased, and a large number of its members stopped participating in the gatherings. 74 The structure of the fellowship was unable to produce a church body that could hold itself together during persecution. Usually the link between fellowship and church was marked by baptism. Here the common gatherings with Lutherans usually ended, as it happened, for example, in Osakarovka in 1959. 75 Those traditional Mennonites who did not acknowledge repentance as a condition of baptism, also distanced themselves. The regular celebration of the Lord’s Supper consolidated the group, and the traditional church order that 1f\ included principles of church discipline and priesthood of all believers formed a homogeneous faith community. Some baptised people moved to places where churches existed. Those who remained formed small village churches that mostly survived 73 Stschutschinsk. Geschichte einer Genieinde ([Fulda. 1999]), pp. 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16. 74 H. Vogel fed.), Lockvogel imNetz■ KGB im Kontext (Munster: Monsenstein und Vannerdat, 2003), pp. 47-56. 75 Material of J. Ginsman, Honingen. 76 H. Wolk, Die Mennoniten Briidergemeinde in Rufiland 1925-1980, p. 93. Rebirth in the Valley of Shadow 51 the next phase of persecutions. In this way, a new ECB and MB Church geography in Kazakhstan developed with several large churches in cities and a large number of smaller churches in villag