|
|
We representatives of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia, represented by Archbishop Malkhaz Songulashvili and Bishop Merab Gaprindashvili, and Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists of Russia, represented by the Revd President Yuri Sipko and the Revd Vitaly Vlasenko, met in Kiev on 30th October 2008. |
|
|
„Our brotherhood is alive and puts its decisions into action.” That was the response of Yuri Sipko, President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, to the news that donations from congregations this year would far exceed the amount given in 2007. |
|
|
|
Sergey Ryakhovsky, Bishop of the Charismatic, loosely-structured, 2.000-congregation “Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith", has voiced strong support in the past for the Russian administrations of Putin and Medvedev. He has on that basis defended Protestant interests against nationalists bent on eliminating the evangelical witness from Russia. |
|
|
|
On 15 October, a declaration unexpectedly appeared on the webpage of the Russian Ministry of Justice listing 56 religious organisations scheduled for liquidation. These stem from a number of major world faiths and included Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, the Catholic “Caritas” as well as small, dissident Orthodox groups. |
|
|
|
From 9 to 13 October, the World Public Forum’s “Dialogue of Civilizations” convened on the Greek island of Rhodes very close to Turkey for its 6th annual session. A Russian Baptist was invited to the Forum for the very first time. |
|
|
|
On 18 September, the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists held its first conference ever dedicated to analysing the historical successes and failures of Protestant mission in post-Soviet Russia. |
|
|
|
Before the eyes of the European Baptist Federation’s General Council convening in Lisbon/Portugal on 26 September, Malkhaz Songulashvili, Archbishop of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia, and Vitaly Vlasenko, Director of External Church Relations for the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, embraced. |
|
|
|
Following a hiatus lasting nearly seven years, the “Christian Inter-Confessional Advisory Committee for the CIS-Countries and Baltics” (CIAC) consisting of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants reconvened in Moscow’s Orthodox Pilgrims’ Centre on 2 October. The sessions were entitled: “Christianity in the Contemporary World – National and Global”. |
|
