Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

when they were released in the amnesty of 1955, they resumed their efforts. In June 1956 a new headquarters was established in Piatikhatki. The following month they issued a new confession of faith for Pentecostals and then conducted an All-Union congress in Kharkov in August 1956: The authorities disliked these developments especially be- cause the congress came a step closer again toward encouraging pacifism. Bidash also attempted to obtain registration for this union, but it was re- jected. The AUCECB now began renewed efforts to win the Pentecostals back. Alexander Karev and Jacob Zhidkov sent a letter to all presbyters in January 1955 which not only repeated the conditions which Pentecostals had agreed to, namely, to restrain themselves from glossalalia in worship services and not to spread their views among other believers, but also stressed the promises made by the AUCECB. The AUCECB had “‘made a promise to respect their convictions and not to attack their views from the pulpit...’ Zhidkov and Karev complained that they were receiving in- formation that local presbyters were treating Pentecostals with great in- tolerance, sometimes excommunicating them as soon as they discovered that they had Pentecostal views. 286 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II The following year Zhidkov attended a conference of senior presbyters in the Ukraine which met with five Pentecostal leaders.® Officially, they reported that about ninety percent of all Pentecostals had already joined the union, but the major action resulting from this meeting was that these Pentecostal leaders now began tours of Pentecostal regions in order to persuade local Pentecostals to join and also to persuade local presbyters of the serious intent of Pentecostals to have fellowship with other evangelical believers. In January 1957 the AUCECB presidium met with six Pentecostal representatives, Here the Pentecostals secured agreement on a four-point statement of principles whereby the AUCECB recognized the legitimacy of spiritual gifts (and by implication the Pentecostal gifts) but emphasized that believers should not strive for gifts above everything because the deciding factor at the judgment is “our life and walk in the Spirit.”® In addition, the August Agreement of 1945 was finally published in Bratskii Vestnik.® Pentecostal dissatisfaction remained the chief worry for the AUCECB, and in August 1959 they called another meeting with seven Pentecostal leaders.®* These reported that although 25,000 Pentecostals were in the union, a further 14,000 were outside the union, although they claimed that 4,000 of these had recently expressed willingness to join. The next winter Moscow sent out a letter to all presbyters, including Pentecostal congrega- tions not in the union. The letter included several questions, and the ma- jority of the replies indicated that most of the Pentecostals not in the uni