Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

yters were reporting regularly. Evidence suggests that those senior presbyters who were most regular in their reporting were most dependent on support from Moscow and that several senior presbyters who seldom reported also had less trouble with splits locally. Each year the AUCECB sent a New Year’s greeting to the churches which offered brief reflections on the past and suggested goals for the fu- ture. In 1960 the greeting included the cryptic statement that God’s way was often incomprehensible to them but that “All things work for good to them that love Him.” The following year, an editorial signed by Jacob Zhidkov was entitled “Our New Year’s Tasks.” Yet the only task he men- 202 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II tioned was that Christians must raise their voice for peace—a point repeated in four or five additional articles. In 1962, after the split had taken place, the New Year’s letter proclaimed as motto Philippians 3:13: “F orget- ting the things that are behind and striving forward... .” The annual let- ters to congregations on unity day were slightly more forthcoming in ac- knowledging that not all was well. In 1960 the letter referred to fissures in the churches and urged all necessary measures to restore unity. The follow- ing year the unity letter appealed to the brotherhood “to recognize all our inadequacies and imperfections and .. . forgive each other from a pure heart... .”” There were also references to “splits in the brotherhood” in the past and present, but, till the report to the congress in October 1963, there had been no official acknowledgment of the existence of the Initsiativniki. Later the AUCECB acknowledged that they had responded to the Initsiationiki challenge directly. In November 196] they had called an expanded meeting of the presidium where an additional nineteen senior presbyters were present to discuss the threat to unity.® Following another meeting of the presidium in February 1962, they dispatched a letter to the churches which, according to dissident sources, discouraged local presbyters _ from signing requests for an All-Union congress.” Another letter to the churches dated June 20, 1962, warned about.the activities: of the Init- siationiki as “enemies of the work of the Lord.” Yet aside from that initial meeting on August 18, 1961, and possible chance encounters later, there were no formal talks with Initsiativniki leaders. A Congress After All Instead of dealing with the Initsiationiki directly and working out a joint reform program as requested by the Initsiativniki, the AUCECB now launched a program for reunification which, step by step, included more and more of the Initsiativniki suggestions. The first step was the boldest, be- cause, suddenly in September 1963, local congregations received a letter in- viting them to send delegates to a conference in Moscow to be held October 15-17. Soon after t