Baptistic Theologies, 2009

ntributions to Baptist work in the south." The culmination of his Alliance activities was a conference from 1 st - 6 th April 1884. The Baptist sources refer to it as to ‘the congress in St. Petersburg’." In truth, the conference had an organisational committee of five people belonging to different denominations; invitations to people from six different confessions were issued - from Baptists and Mennonites 28 to Molokans and Dukhobors." The conference did not achieve the preliminary goal - an agreement on an open participation in the Lord’s Supper - mainly because of Baptist reservations. Moreover, it became the cause for the expulsion of Pashkov from Russia. The time was not ripe for celebrating unity of faith in its diversity. From Diversity to Baptist Identity The revival in Russia followed the main Pietist pattern of fellowship and, as a consequence, created informal circles in addition to church. This phenomenon was totally new for Russia, and even the mighty Russian language did not have a term for this. The new term, Stundist, for converts to the new faith was a convenient translation. For the Pietists, too, the regular fellowship was an important but still optional addendum to the main church life and structure. With small exceptions, the church remained their church, the Sunday morning service - the obligatory service, and the Pastor - even an unconverted one - still remained the true Pastor who baptised children and buried the dead. The Pietist fellowship had power but no regular inter-fellowship structures. The shaping of identity still remained a task of the church. “ 4 Edmund Heier, Religious Schism in the Russian Aristocracy 1860-1900. Radstockism and Pashkovism (Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970), p. 43. 25 Example: I. Yanyshev, Religioznye mneniya g. Pashkova [Religious opinions of Mr Pashkov], Tserkovnyl Vestnik 11 (1880), p. 8. 26 Example: Andrei A. Stoyalov, Letter to V.A. Pashkov, 21.11.1884. Pashkov Papers, 2/2/675. 27 Savinskii, Istoriya, pp. 196-9. 28 M.M. Korff, Am Zarenhof. Erinnerungen aus der geistlichen Erweckungsbewegung in Rufiland von 1874-1884, 2nd ed., trans. M. Kroker (GieBen: Brunnen, 1930), p. 69. Revival and Baptist Beginnings in Russia 21 For Stundists, the situation was totally different. Their Church rejected and even persecuted them. The typical Pietist pattern of fellowship was not capable of shaping a new common identity that could become the basis for a stable existence. In southern Russia, the consolidation of new converts was almost, from the beginnings of the revival, promoted by Mennonite Brethren; in Transcaucasia - by German Baptists. Persecution accelerated the process of consolidation and the shaping of a new confessional identity. In 1870, three Stundist groups scattered over southern Russia, and with the advise of Wieler, agreed to make a complete break with the Orthodox Church and sent a petition to the Tsar." This petition was a