Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

The largest wing of the Pentecostals, the Voronaev movement, was initially sponsored by the general council and then the mission society of the Assemblies of God from North America.® In recent decades Pentecostal-oriented East Eu- ropean missions have tried to help Soviet Pentecostals, but links with those in the Far East have been difficult to establish. Official Pentecostal ties to the Soviet Union are still weakly developed. The Movement Toward Autonomy 291 Evangelical Ecumenisn—Yes or No? Alexander Karev wanted to emphasize that the union of four different strands of evangelicals in the AUCECB was an achievement of evangelical ecumenism that should serve as an encouragement to evangelicals elsewhere to unite.?! Toward the end of his career there was increasing doubt that a real union of evangelicals would survive. In local cities such a union was threatened by anti-Pentecostal sentiments, by anti-Mennonite sentiments, not to mention the anti-Moscow sentiments that have never entirely disappeared. Compared with the separatist feelings locally, the open door stance of the Moscow leadership reveals commendable tolerance. Yet their policy has fostered a development whereby unity means uni- formity. In 1969 the statute was changed so that the union consisted of Mennonites, Pentecostals, and Evangelical Christian-Baptists, whereas for- merly the latter had been identified as two groupings. At the 1974 congress. Fadiukhin reported with pleasure that an increasing number of persons were identifying themselves as ECB, including those from Men- nonite and Pentecostal backgrounds.® The movement toward autonomy has prompted a few key leaders to voice their thoughts about the possibility of a different structural arrange- ment which might be more successful in achieving evangelical unity without uniformity. Perhaps it might be possible to form a federated council of free churches as has been done in Hungary. This council would unite all evangelicals in dealing with the state on matters of concern to all of them; they could cooperate together in peace work and in other interna- tional activity, yet allow the freedom of each denomination to emphasize its distinctives. But such thinking has not even reached the formal discussion stage so far. : Many Pentecostals and a significant number of Mennonite Brethren remain outside the union. A growing number of them have obtained au- tonomous registration. Pentecostals inside the union at present are itching to leave, and it is no secret that many Baptist leaders would be relieved to see them go. If the Pentecostals would choose to leave, then many Men- nonite Brethren would do the same. That would represent a loss of at least fifteen percent of the AUCECB membership, not counting the fifteen percent lost earlier to the Reform Baptists. It is also apparent that if the Pentecostals left at their own initiative, fraternal relationships with the AUCECB would be