Develop a culture of remembrance

The evening's program consisted of two parts. The first part was dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the Anabaptist movement.

On this day, in Zurich Switzerland, the building of an ancient prison has been preserved, situated right in the Limmat River, which flows through the city.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, prisoners languished there, imprisoned for preaching the Gospel, for defending the evangelical principle of conscious baptism.

These prisoners were sentenced to death by drowning. Before his execution, already in the boat, one of them, Felix Mantz, testified to his executioners about God, about the salvation, and the glorified Christ. He admonished his fellow believers: "We must die for the Truth, as disciples of Christ, and pray for our enemies."

Russian Baptists, to a certain extent, have some spiritual and historical continuity with the peaceful European Anabaptists. As is well known, the first Russian Baptist churches, formed in the 19th century in the southern regions of the Russian Empire, arose from Mennonite communities. Mennonites, in turn, are a branch of Anabaptism.

Almost the entire history of Russian Baptists, like the history of Anabaptists, is a history of persecution in one form or another.

A wonderful gift for the evening was the presentation of a book of poems by now diseased Voronezh preacher, Alexander Alekseev. The book was presented by his son, Pastor Oleg Alekseev, who prepared the manuscript for publication.

Alexander Alekseyev was a long-term Christian prisoner of Stalin's and Khrushchev's Gulag. His saga of suffering began in 1940 and ended in 1964. His poems, mostly written behind barbed wire, are yet another monument to this atheistic era. And not just a monument, but also a fascinating literary phenomenon.

Alexander Alekseev is a brilliant Russian genius from the bottom of society. A man with only a smattering of formal education, he managed to develop his God-given talents.

His life path included working as an acclaimed acrobat in the circus arena, painting, studying religious philosophy, and continuously writing poetry.

"If you want to serve God, prepare your heart for temptation," he instructed his son Oleg. "It is better to die than to make an agreement with temptation and the evil one."

The second part of the evening was dedicated to the memory of the great Christian enlightener of Russia, Priest Alexander Mann, who sealed his prophetic and apostolic service with his martyrdom. This year, all who revere this selfless champion of the Gospel celebrate his 90th birthday and the 35th anniversary of his receiving the crown of Christian martyrdom.

Years after his passing, his previously unpublished works now continue to be published, and the flow of books about him continues unabated.

The life and works of this extraordinary man and Christian left a deep mark on the entire Christian and cultural world.

Marina Ananka-Ganina, a guest from the Moscow UECB Theological Seminary edcuation department, delivered a lecture at the Evening entitled "Museums as a way of preserving historical memory and spiritual education."

She recalled that back in 1924, the leader of Russian Protestantism, Ivan Prokhanov, urged local churches to establish museum collections and exhibits for the purpose of spiritual and cultural development. Prokhanov's call is particularly relevant in our hectic times, when even church officials sometimes forget about preserving and promoting eternal values.

It was an historical evening filled with music, poetry, and testimonies of Christian martyrs from different eras, being another fruitful way to awaken historical events and develop a greater apprecation of our past.

Vladimir Popov