Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

registrations occurred after 1974 and represented a total membership of 9,393 persons.”8 Joining an ECB church was no easy matter, since a total of 8,790 persons had been ex- communicated. during the past decade, although approximately the same number of excommunicants had also been received back into full membership. But growth is also qualitative and for the AUCEGB that too was not entirely painless. The atmosphere at the 1979 Congress mirrored this, The previous congress with foreign guests present had been a cautious attempt to conduct themselves openly, although the leaders managed things with a very firm hand. This time the delegates were in charge. Central Asian dele- gates objected to the speed with which Alexei Bychkov had rushed through the elections to congress commissions and in approving the rules of procedure. When informed of the discontent, Bychkov interrupted his report to allow delegates to voice their concerns, Sensing that the delegates were eager for long discussion periods, he skipped major parts of his speech in order to accommodate this wish. Other delegates appealed to. the 424 Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Il congress for solidarity and described in detail the problems they had experienced with local authorities who refused to register a church or stalled on building permits. And the leaders themselves spoke with a frankness about state imposed limitations that inspired confidence. Alexei Bychkov had impressive achievements to report, even improved structural changes. In May 1979, at a special meeting of presbyters in the large sprawling Russian Federation (RSFSR), a special church administra- tion for the RSFSR had been organized. They had elected a senior presbyter to head the entire region, three deputy senior presbyters and a five-member advisory council. Hereby, Bychkov explained, “Our brotherhood is enabled to care for the churches more efficiently, and the churches receive more spiritual help on questions of purity of evangelical teaching and spiritual nurture of the church members.’’2° The new struc- ture paralleled the decentralized arrangement which had been in effect for the Ukraine from the beginning except that the RSFSR was much more dif- ficult to administer for geographic reasons. Bychkov also announced that the handful of churches in Lithuania had been subordinated under the Latvian administration so that there were now ten regional divisions for their union.° The subordination of oblast senior presbyters under such — senior presbyters for large regions was also detailed in a revised constitution. Perhaps an even more fundamental change that was happening gradually was the rejuvenation of the corps of preachers that Alexander Karev had called for. Since 1970 a total of 19 new senior presbyters, most of them Bible correspondence graduates, had been elected.?” During the pe- riod 1970-77, 596 presbyters and 420 deacons had been elected