Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

church unions were created. The primary task of the church (also stated in the 1966 consti- tution) was “to worship God and praise his name on earth and to preach the gospel to the whole world.” The independence of the local congregation has been very important in Baptist circles generally, best illustrated in the relative weakness of a Baptist union. In the Soviet scene this principle of local autonomy has been severely tested in the postwar period. The 1929 legislation had guaranteed this principle in law, but following the war state policy changed to en- courage centralized control. In spite of its protests to the contrary, the AUCECB during its first fifteen years had clearly usurped extensive powers away from the local churches. Senior presbyters, for example, were ap- pointed by Moscow, sometimes even the local presbyter was appointed by Moscow. The process of statutory revision during the congresses resulted fi- nally in new rules by 1966 which gave local churches the right to elect the senior presbyter. Still, the AUCECB maintains a leadership structure much more authoritative than its counterparts elsewhere. The CCECB in essence drew attention to the degree in which the AUCECB had been violating the principle of the autonomy of the local church, having gone so far as to dictate a statute which the local churches must obey. In their advice to churches seeking registration, the CCECB advised the local church not to permit any unauthorized person to attend their members’ meetings and to insure that all major decisions were taken by the local church. Yet here, too, because of the CCECB’s conflict with the authorities and its competition with the AUCECB, it began demanding a loyalty and uniformity from its member congregations that did violence to Soviet Evangelical Theology 349 the autonomy principle. This was the major criticism voiced by Joseph Bon- darenko and others against the leadership of Gennadi Kriuchkov,4° 5. Equality of All Members in the Church: This used to be referred to as the “priesthood of all believers,” a conscious declaration against hierarchy in the local church and against any human mediator between man and God. The Dogmatika noted that presbyter and deacon must be elected by the membership. Their office entrusted them with leadershi but not with lordship.*! e A striking contrast to the emphasis on brotherhood, on mutual responsibility and mutual sharing in the writing of the Anabaptists, is the strong individualism present in principles four and five. It gained its most specific expression in principle six. 6. Freedom of Conscience for All: Soviet evangelical understanding of ‘this principle is the same as the classic liberalist individualist understanding The Soviet state, in contrast, emphasized the freedom of conscience ho religion. As a persecuted minority when Orthodoxy was the state church this principle made Soviet evangelicals early activists for religious