KestonKeston NewsletterNewsletter No. 18, 2013 Andrei Semashkin, a champion sled team driver who is able to reach the isolated villages of Kamchatka, works as a missionary for the ‘Good News’ church Protestants in Russia Today by Roman Lunkin Interest in religious faith, a product of years of relative religious freedom, are Russia’s religious boom in the 1990s lower than in Western Europe (Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet is an exception). In this situation inter- Union, led to the revival of a whole raft est in ‘pure faith’ free from ideological of national traditions, religions and accretions was embodied in the devel- churches which became symbols once opment of a Protestant movement – a more of national pride, patriotism and a source of cultural values. However, Also in this issue: people’s knowledge of concrete church observances and religious practice in Armenian Apostolic Church. p.15 post-Soviet Russia was extremely lim- Fr Dmitri Dudko . p.21 ited. Statistics on church attendance in A Romanian Starets . p.23 the post-Soviet republics, even after 20 Fieldtrip to Kamchatka . p.38 Keston Newsletter No 18, 2013 Sir Sigmund Sternberg . p.43 1 Home News . p.44 new phenomenon for post-Soviet Rus- same number of groups and communi- sia. ties function without registration (Protestant spokesmen calculate that in In Russia and Belarus Protestants form reality the number is three times no more than 1% of the population higher). According to a rough estimate (from 1.5 – 2 million), in Ukraine there are about 8000-9000 non- about 5% (2 – 3 million) – and yet they Orthodox Christian communities and are beginning to play a constantly groups in Russia which involve about growing role in their country’s social two million people. As a rule all those and political life. Within the former who associate themselves with some Soviet Central Asian republics – Tadz- type of Protestant confession are prac- hikistan, Azerbaidzhan, Kazakhstan tising believers – for the majority in- and Turkmenistan – Evangelicals make volvement in such a group is a serious up no more than 0.5% of the total conscious decision. Furthermore, the population (from some tens of thou- level of religious observance is far sands to hundreds of thousands), but stricter than for religions which are they are socially active and often the ethnically and historically associated state authorities see in them the threat with Russia. 3 Statistics for 2012 enable of an ‘Orange Revolution’. 1 Officially us to see the development of non- in Russia there are about 4.5 thousand Orthodox Christian denominations registered ‘religious associations’ be- over a period of 20 years. The follow- longing to ‘non-traditional’ religions, 2 ing picture emerges from data for Sep- 80% of which represent various types tember 2012 collected by the Ministry of Protestant churches. About the of Justice: 4 RF CFR SFR NWFR VFR FEFR SFR UFR NCFR MJ RF = Russian Federation FEFR = Far-Eastern Federal Region CFR = Central Federal Region SFR = Southern Federal Region SFR = Siberian Federal Region UFR = Ural Federal Region NWFR = North-Western Federal Region NCFR = North-Caucasus Federal Region VFR = Volga Federal Region MJ = Ministry of Justice Keston Newsletter No 18, 2013 2 Thus 18% of all registered ‘religious the following data from the Ministry of associations’ are Protestant. Pentecos- Justice also dated September 2012: tals form the largest group according to Other strands include a variety of Prot- first). Exceptions are the North Cauca- estant churches which usually call sus Region and the Volga Region themselves either simply an where Protestants come third after the ‘Evangelical Church’ (or a ‘Christian Orthodox and Muslims. A trend no- Evangelical Church’ or ‘Christian ticeable since 2000 is the growth of Church’), or a church of Evangelical registered Muslim ‘religious associa- Christians, which can denote similarity tions’ which have pushed Protestantism to the Evangelical Christian-Baptists or into third place in Russia as a whole, to the Pentecostals. In addition, these according to Ministry of Justice statis- ‘other strands’ can include Methodists, tics (from the mid-1990s until 2012 Presbyterians and members of the Re- Protestants were in second place after formed Church. In the Urals, Siberia the Orthodox). and particularly in Russia’s Far East where there are not so many registered It should be noted, however, that the ‘associations’, the Protestant churches majority of Protestant congregations – make up a significant proportion of up to a third – do not get registered, them or are even more numerous than owing to the complex accounting de- Russian Orthodox ones. In these re- manded by the authorities and general gions where ‘traditional’ religions are distrust towards the latter. They prefer historically not as strong as in other to exist as religious ‘groups’. Alexandr areas, Protestantism is one of the lead- Kornev, President of the Evangelical ing forces in the religious field. Christian Missionary Union, observed (in an interview with the author in In almost all Regions of the Russian 2012) that a significant proportion of Federation Protestant churches come Protestant congregations – up to two second after the Russian Orthodox thirds – prefer to remain ‘in the shad- when comparing numbers of ows’, in the form of house groups in ‘associations’ (except for the Far East- order not to complicate their life ern Region where Protestants come (accountability and renting of premises Keston Newsletter No 18, 2013 3 Procuracy nevertheless examined the funding sources of the churches (mostly Protestant and Catholic churches), as well as those of NGOs and charitable founda- tions set up by churches. The important role played by the evangeli- cal churches in the religious development Harvest Festival at Penza’s Living Faith charismatic church of Russia, particularly in the sphere of social were particularly complicated). Prayer work, has not so far been fully ac- houses were thus registered as private knowledged by the authorities and property as was the case during the society. The official attitude to Protes- Soviet period. The adoption in 2009 of tants owes much to Soviet religious a new Law on Non-commercial Or- policies dating back to the worst period ganisations, which applied general of the 1930s-1950s, which in their turn regulations on accountability to reli- relate back to the intolerance towards gious ‘associations’ (later these regula- ‘sectarians’ of tsarist Russia. Believers tions were simplified for the latter) of other faiths are seen as Orthodoxy’s made their position yet more compli- ideological opponents, their image is cated. The general political situation often blackened with Soviet stereo- associated with the growth of the Rus- types about ‘sects’, ‘sectarians’ and sian Orthodox Church’s (ROC) influ- their ‘leaders’, thanks to Russian Or- ence, together with the increased con- thodox anti-sectarian activists. Yet it is trol over NGOs dating from the sum- in fact Protestants who in many regions mer 2012, confirmed the be- lief of many Protestants that it was better to exist in the form of ‘house groups’. In spring 2013 religious ‘associations’ were subjected to widespread checks by the Procuracy in the context of a general ex- amination of all non- commercial organisations and the government’s search for potential ‘foreign agents’. Although ‘religious associa- tions’ were not subject to the Law on Foreign Agents, the Baptists in Volgodonsk (Rostov oblast) evangelise Keston Newsletter No 18, 2013 4 ‘healings’ of drug addicts, alcoholics, cancer patients and AIDS victims in these churches and rehabilitation centres are not only possible in their eyes, but in the minds of believers – of pastors and converted former addicts and alcoholics – are seen as fore- ordained. One of the largest Protestant centres organised by the Pen- Baptist children sing for the start of the new school year tecostal ‘New Life’ church at the Volgodonsk Christian School and led by Sergei Matevosyan is in the Kingisepsky district are able to challenge the Orthodox; of the Leningrad oblast. A well-known many people regard Protestants as organisation dealing with addiction believers with a faith which has been called ‘Exodus’, runs rehabilitation carefully thought through and is free centres alongside church congregations from ideology. mostly in the south of Russia (its leader is Eduard Deremov, a Pentecostal Protestant leaders acknowledge that if bishop). Drug addicts who have gone the church is to fulfil its spiritual through the rehabilitation process, earn ‘goals’, every believer must participate the trust of others within an ‘Exodus’ in civil society and help alleviate soci- centre by leading groups, and then ety’s ills. Almost every Protestant gradually join in the life of the church congregation organises groups of be- where they take part in worship and lievers to work with drug addicts, street start leading Bible study groups. Some children and in children’s homes and of them later become church leaders – old people’s homes. Alcoholism, drug indeed the majority of church leaders addiction and such social problems as in ‘Exodus’ are former drug addicts. poverty, abandoned old people and homeless children, are understood in One of the best known programmes for the light of biblical teaching: drug ad- drug rehabilitation during the first part diction is seen as a consequence of the of the decade after 2000 is a project Fall and many illnesses are associated called ‘Train to the Future’ which sent with the spiritual state of modern soci- Christians from city to city organising ety. Sin, sickness and the future anti-drug demos and educational semi- ‘rebirth in God’ are seen as stages in a nars. 5 Then a project called process which will inevitably bring a ‘Experience the Power of Change’ convert healing. The majority of those became famous: it aimed to link up all who head drug rehabilitation centres the Christian churches in a region, to speak about ‘miraculous’ healings share experience, to coordinate their which have taken place without the social work projects and publicise them help of medication.