Soviet Evangelicals Since World War II, Walter Sawatsky, 1981

CECB leadership began urging greater restraint. In 1958, 125 gees Riles baptized in the Moscow church.“4 According to the rules of the AU no one could be baptized until he had reached the age of 18 ‘ae : Orlov, the presbyter in Moscow at the time, emphasized cee aptisma candidates between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five formed an ae. nificant number of the total baptismal candidates because they were sti so young and had not had opportunity to demonstrate their faith in ee Perhaps the state was interfering because numerous lay people com- plained that the minimum age of baptism appeared to be 25 or ee even 80 years of age. Before being baptized, the baptismal sr 4 ate submitted to the presbyter a written statement requesting ae ter a year of testing, several members of the church who knew the candi ate es sonally were asked to give a character reference. If the indications sci i positive, the congregation would vote to accept the candidate for ee What Bratskii Vestnik failed to mention was that each baptismal a a had to be approved by the state authorities before the baptism ee tal ‘ place. This often produced long delays while the candidate $ co sacs : work, for example, were putting on pressure to dissuade him from his at- tempts. Renewal and Church Growth, 1944-1957 73 The Moscow leadership repeatedly urged local congregations to install a baptistry in the church building, if possible.4® Where this was not possible, the baptism could be performed in a lake, river, or sea. If this was the case, the presbyter was urged to conduct the service very early in the morning with only the necessary number of persons present. These would include the presbyter, the baptismal candidates, and sufficient brothers and sisters to assist in the changing room. There should be no big parade to the place of baptism and the worship service itself should be conducted in the prayer house. Nonregistered congregations often held secret baptismal services at night and sometimes accommodating presbyters from registered congrega- tions secretly baptized a young person without submitting his name to the state authorities. But even then the disadvantages of being a Christian in Soviet society were felt, By the later 1960s another factor made it problematic to join the Soviet evangelicals. Evangelicals placed a strong emphasis on personal ethics and expected their believers to be honest in their dealings, This meant that someone contemplating joining an evangelical church would have to be prepared to forego numerous comforts and even necessities of life because he could not in good conscience purchase items on the black market, Living na levo had become widespread; many citizens regarded life as impossible if one did not cheat along the way.4* Sometimes it even meant that the Christian trying to build a house would have to wait for years or else rely on his own ingenuity because the doors for his house had not been