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Marcelo Mauricio Santos, a Reformed pastor, preached in Moscow’s Second Baptist Church on 25 November. That’s not an every-day occurrence in Russia: a black person holding Christian sermons in the national tongue. But this may unfortunately soon be history: On 10 December he and his family will need to leave Russia. |
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An open letter condemning Moscow’s “Russian-American Christian University” (RACU), appeared in the Communist-supported “Sovietskaya Rossiya” newspaper on 25 October. The letter, signed by playwrights, journalists and professors, asserts that 15.000 signatures have been collected in a bid to thwart the building of a new campus. |
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Inter-confessional highlight of a five-day visit to Voronesh by the ensemble Blagovestie (Proclamation) was a concert on 23 November in the city´s Orthodox seminary. In his talk there to 100 seminary students and professors, the group`s Director Boris Berezhnoi emphasized that his group had come to share the joint spiritual and artistic heritage of all Russians. |
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Evgeny Bakhmutsky (Moscow), four years on as Director of the Department for Youth Work for the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB), believes the Baptists of Russia have something to offer the world. He maintains for ex. that in congregational life all generations are direly in need of each other. |
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Ioann, the youthful Archbishop of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, graciously received a Baptist delegation in his residence on 16 November. The city administration also granted the Moscow-headed delegation a meeting. This is remarkable due to the fact that the Belgorod region has in recent years gained a reputation for militant Orthodoxy. |
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In an interview with the magazine „Christian Herald“ from the far eastern city of Blagoveshchensk, Rev. Yuri Sipko, the President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) voiced his concerns regarding the upcoming Russian parliamentary elections on 2 December. |
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The world’s tried-and-proven, historic Christian churches have opened themselves to dialogue with non-traditional churches. That was emphasized by the delegates from 72 countries who gathered in Limuru near Nairobi/Kenya from 6 - 9 November for the first large „Global Christian Forum“. |
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Within less than a year, the number of resident foreigners living in Russia may drop drastically. New Russian visa restrictions that came into force on 17 October 2007 stipulate that persons with six-month or one-year multi-entry visas issued after this date will only be allowed to spend half of their visa period on Russian soil. |
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The Russian and Ukrainian Baptists of North America are doing well. That was the conclusion of Yuri Sipko (Moscow), President of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB), following his fifth visit to the state of California. |
