Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

CECB leaders had exerted pressure at local conferences to secure con- demnation of Orgkomitet statements. On trips abroad, they always stressed that believers were imprisoned because they violated the law, not because their religious convictions were severely restricted by the law.’ Another recurrent problem was that potential moments for reconciliation (such as the 1963 and 1966 congresses) were missed because, at the first one, their leader, Prokofiev, was in prison, while in 1966 Kriuchkov and Vins were on trial. AUCECB leaders might have made a risky conciliatory gesture by postponing the congress till these men were able to attend. They did, however, elect a unity commission that consisted of widely respected persons who made a special effort to restore unity. The unity commission had held four consultations, had sent out two letters to the churches giving guidelines for attaining unity locally and indi- vidual members had made 200 visits to churches. The reporter, V. 1. Le- bedev, complained that in some registered churches they encountered persons who felt that those who had left local churches to support the CCECB had thereby left Christ and they were unable to forgive them. Another problem had been local presbyters who were too proud to admit their mistakes. An even greater problem had been the outright opposition of the CCECB leadership which had advised local members against speak- ‘ing with commission members. The Moscow-appointed reporter revealed Reunification Rejected, 1964-1974 229 another weakness when he complained that initially the unity commission had mistakenly considered itself “some sort of neutral organization, inde- pendent of the AUCECB and as a result engaged in useless activity... .” This inability to be non-partisan was complicated by the fact that the members elected were trusted by both sides but they did not occupy posi- tions of power. In addition, the reporter failed to explain why a commission of twelve elected persons now included fifteen, three of them from Moscow. ; With each passing year reunification became more difficult, for two reasons. Each additional arrest, each slanderous article in the press, espe- cially those which made the AUCECB sound like a partner of the state, built up the psychological barrier to unity. When the CCECB supporter, M. I, Azarov, asked Karev at the 1966 congress whether they would help and pray for those in prison, Karev replied that, because he had been in prison, he never forgot and would never forget to pray for them.5 That helped break the barrier for many, but there was another, deeper barrier. This was the growing recognition that they differed on fundamental convictions, even though they affirmed verbally that they were agreed on doc- trine. This became clearer in the unity talks that were finally held in 1969. Actually, the first meeting of representatives took place on March 23, 1966, in Moscow. Five CCECB represent