Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

ion. In this atmosphere, it was the middle geriera- tion, people like A. I. Mitskevich and N. N. Mel nikov, who played the dominant role. ; Karev had his usual lengthy report? and he also read a major con- troversial paper on the Christian and his motherland.® There was more caution in his speech. Again he stressed that the work must proceed in observance of the laws. “Throughout our entire history,” he said, “we never forgot that the condition for blessing is ‘quietness and confidence’ (Is. 30:15), and when we did not forget this, the work of the Lord always went forward with blessing for us.’ Initsiationiki criticism that they still main- tained “ties with the world” were unfair because such “ties with the world by no means contradict the Word of God. Without such ties with the world, we would not have the present congress, would not print our Bibles and hymnbooks, would not print our dear Bratskii Vestnik, and so on.” Karev focused on two major problems: unity and leadership. He sum- marized the abortive reconciliation talks briefly but left most of the dis- cussion on the CCECB to others. The second problem was that too many of the senior presbyters, presbyters, deacons, and preachers were old, very poorly educated and not sufficiently competent. There was need for teach- ing, and he was proud to report that a correspondence course with 100 students had been introduced. the previous year. In 1968 the council had The Union Defended, 1963-1969 219 | : : paal nee ee of electing presbyters whose children were un ad reached a compromise solution.® a had ution.® Above all, Kar - : oe oe it is necessary for us to rejuvenate the corps of our Ane . Se : : is important for us to have workers with higher cultural and piritual education, and especially with greater capability.’® Karev concluded with a movin summary that Oo serv = Vv . | . g als Si ed to sum. We h i ble iar and there were defeats; we were strong, and we were “ i i ae joys, and we had sorrows; there were roses on our path rns; we strove to work, expecting to rest only in heaven ts Wi 4 ; re ee days of discussion on the unity question, this ered more thoroughly than heretof retofore. There were tw - Seaiainee: preeate Vice-President S. T. Timchenko and ieleeed est . P. Fadiukhin, as well as a report i mission established at the 1966 congress i se aa The maj ity con er pahtecnoae on unity complained about Initsiationiki pride ae . ee on one-sided repentance by the AUCECB and need the latest appeal of the Council of Pri : ; Pat ORTH ae ae uncil of Prisoners’ Relatives to all , which opened with the st 7 tion of the church is worsening.” eran eres n ng.’””° Such false data, Ti i ater a, Timchenko claimed, was y persons like Richard i pe ee a Wurmbrand in order to brand - viseana participants shared illuminating information, but the i e ie of the discussion was the seven CCECB stippotiers ole aaa t eir mistakes and re