From the History of the Moscow Church of Pentecostals
The Church continued along the path of persecution, enduring reviling and slander. State atheism, which sowed hostility in society against Christ’s truth, did not hesitate to use the dirtiest methods in the mass media against the Church, trampling the religious feelings of believers and seizing every opportunity to revile and denigrate the saints.
In 1971, a tragedy struck the family of Brother Mikhail and Sister Alla Rybin: their son Dmitry was playing with matches outside, and his clothes caught fire. He underwent several surgeries and his life was saved, but a local newspaper published an article about how “sectarians” had wanted to sacrifice a child. Only faith enabled these people to endure such mockery. Dmitry is now a father of many children and serves God with the faith whose seeds his parents planted in him.
Under persecution, mostly simple people came to the church. The conversion of educated individuals was an event in those days. Thus, in 1971, Sisters Liza Kushnir and Faina Godiner turned to the Lord. Liza, a historian by training, worked as a research fellow at an institute of international relations. Immediately after her first police report at an illegal meeting, she was fired. For a long time she could not find work, because at that time, with such an education, no one would hire her for an ordinary job, and she could not continue in the historical-political field due to her convictions. Finally, with difficulty, she managed to get a job as a telegraphist, and later worked from home as a typist.
Faina Godiner*, a university graduate, worked as an editor before her conversion. After turning to God, she left the ranks of the Communist Party. Of course, there could be no question of a Christian woman continuing to work as an editor, and she was demoted to the poorly paid position of proofreader. Faina’s husband, a colonel by rank, taught at a military academy. Serious problems began at home, because he was greatly disturbed by such changes and, to avoid ruining his career, insisted that his wife be registered at the district psychoneurological dispensary. Only in the 1980s was she removed from the psychiatrist’s register, because the diagnosis made in those years was not confirmed. Her husband was unable to endure this struggle without consequences, and in his remaining years his mind became clouded, and he was paralyzed. Faina loved her husband despite all the hardships she had to endure with him in the fight for her faith. She cared for him until the end of his days. In those times, believers had to pay such a high price for turning to the Lord.
Sisters Liza and Faina, overcoming difficulties, labored much in translating and retyping spiritual literature. In those years, such activities were prosecuted by law, so they worked secretly, risking themselves.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a particularly large number of people from the intelligentsia came to faith. The Lord brought to the church Rimma Shvets, Leonid Odessky, Irina Nadyarnykh, Nonna Borisova, Elena and Vera Kovaikinykh, Tatyana Studentova, Natalya Lidina, Lyudmila Mironenkova. In those years, Stepan Grigorievich Kostyuk served as the presbyter of this group. The group grew numerically, and this was brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit, accompanied by healings. In 1979, Richard Zimmerman was ordained for diaconal ministry, and his gift as a teacher and preacher of the church began to unfold. The church had a prayer group that continually offered prayers and held night vigils for awakening in Russia and among the Jewish people. “With the coming of freedom to preach the Gospel, their joint prayers for Israel transformed into labor, thanks to which a whole Jewish group, or a small congregation of people who had turned to Christ, arose at their church.
Later, Brother Leonid left for Israel, where he continues his labors in Christ’s harvest, but their friendship, cooperation, and fellowship with Richard continues, despite the great distance that separates them.”**
In 1972, P. A. Razumovsky and his nephew V. Razumovsky were sentenced to five years’ deprivation of freedom for active work with young people.
In 1974, Evgeny Cherepannikov returned after five years’ imprisonment; he later became one of the presbyters of the Moscow church and the father of thirteen children. In the early 1980s, together with Richard Zimmerman, he was ordained as a deacon for the Paveletsky group; today he serves as a presbyter in the city of Chekhov. During this period, the Moscow church received a number of ministers, including V. R. Baranov, V. Miroshin, N. Miroshin, S. Ryakhovsky, V. Panteleev, D. Novikov, and others.
In the fall of 1980, bishops I. P. Fedotov, I. A. Levchuk, M. I. Ivanov, and P. S. Egorenkov, upon the nomination of I. P. Fedotov*, ordained from among the presbyters of the Moscow church S. G. Kostyuk, V. V. Ryakhovsky, and P. A. Razumovsky as bishops. Several people carried presbyterial ministry in the Moscow church, including M. M. Shokhov, N. V. Romanyuk, M. G. Miroshin, I. A. Fateev, and E. P. Gula.
In 1980, I. V. Sizov visited Moscow while passing through from Rybnitsa. In recent times he had lived in Moldova. He was now 70 years old, and decided to visit his native places, where he had labored so much, where he was remembered and loved. During his stay in Moscow, he took part in a meeting of a group under Presbyter N. V. Romanyuk, preached a sermon, and a few days later departed into eternity. A. A. Vlasov, whose family was especially close to I. V. Sizov, later recalled: “One of the first organizers of our brotherhood in Moscow was Ivan Vasilievich Sizov (1910–1980). But the first do not always receive preeminence. J. V. Stalin (1879–1953) and N. S. Khrushchev (1894–1971) cruelly dealt with Christians. So I. V. Sizov’s lot too included prisons, camps, exile — a total of 15 years of captivity.”
Then he worked as an accountant in Kazakhstan. After retiring, he lived in Moldavia. He visited his blood sisters in Moscow. He was respected and always warmly received by presbyter Nikolai Vasilyevich Romanyuk (1934–1996). It was he who took upon himself all the arrangements for Sizov’s funeral in Moscow, since he was registered in Moldavia. Sizov died peacefully and was ready for it. Two days before his death, my wife and I visited him. Ivan Vasilyevich said he was going to die. We told him he was not so old and weak (Sizov was not bedridden), but he firmly said, “I will die!” Sizov forgave everyone who had offended him, saying that God would evaluate each person’s labor justly. He asked that no monument be erected to him. Short in stature, lame, and lonely, he suffered much and labored in the field of the Lord. God saw to his death in the place where he had begun his work for Him. Sizov knew the Scriptures excellently, never using a concordance. He could recite entire chapters by heart…” At his funeral, the choir of the Moscow church sang under the direction of A. I. Matsapura.
In the 1980s, the Moscow church’s services were held in apartments and homes. Besides the well-known Ryakhovsky house on Sokolovka, such places also included the “prayer houses” of the Balagurov family (from 1965 to 1980), the Rybin family (from 1959 to 1981) in Reutov, the Romanyuk family on Shcherbinka, the Zuyev family in Domodedovo (from 1966 to the present), and others.
Here it is appropriate to recall the external political events of those years connected with the human rights movement, including the movement for freedom of conscience. On July 3, 1973, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe opened in Helsinki, in which the USSR also participated. The conference adopted the Final Act, whose Section VII stated: “The participating States will respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.” The Final Act became a reference point for the human rights movement in the USSR, which appealed to it, pointing out the USSR’s violations of international agreements on ensuring freedom of conscience. On May 12, 1976, the progressive intelligentsia in Moscow formed the Public Group for Assistance in Implementing the Helsinki Accords in the USSR (later known as the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG). The group’s goal was to help ensure observance of the humanitarian articles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In the mid-1970s, many believers were overcome by weariness from persecution, and the emigration movement within the Brotherhood gained strength. In 1975, presbyter N. Goritoy from the city of Nakhodka led this movement; emigration committees were set up to process the departure of believers from the USSR. In 1976, the emigration committees of Nakhodka and the village of Starotitarovskaya appealed to the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the organizers of the emigration movement prepared an appeal on more than 500 typewritten pages, “Come out of her, my people,” and in 1977 more than 500 emigrant applications were sent abroad for the purpose of seeking political asylum.
On December 1, 1976, the Moscow Helsinki Group introduced the members of emigration councils, and a collection of applications and petitions for exit, to foreign correspondents. The Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers’ Rights in the USSR was organized, which issued its first document in 1976, and in 1977 the Belgrade Conference to review implementation of the Helsinki Accords began its work. In 1977, N. Goritoy met with foreign correspondents in Moscow, and in June 1977 more than 3,500 emigrant applications were submitted in the name of Brezhnev, and from the middle of 1977 a new wave of arrests of believers began. According to some data, by December 1977 about 20,000 applications for emigration had been sent. In July 1980, a human rights group published the almanac “Red and Black” about the oppression of freedom of conscience in the USSR.
The episcopate did not support this emigration movement, which had escaped its control and counsel, and part of the brotherhood split off on the emigration wave. On June 16, 1979, a congress of representatives of unregistered communities of Christians of Evangelical Faith (KhVE) (emigrants) in Moscow elected a leadership body—the Fraternal Council of the KhVE, modeled after the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian-Baptists (the so-called “initiative group”). But this division could not inflict significant damage on the brotherhood as a whole, just like the division that occurred on the wave of autonomous registration, unlike the division that occurred in 1982 on the wave of the Tallinn movement, which split the leadership of the episcopate.
The Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) raised its voice in defense of the Church. Thus, in one of the documents dated December 2, 1976, signed by group members L. Alexeyeva, E. Bonner, A. Ginzburg, M. Landa, Yu. Orlov, A. Shcharansky, V. Slepak, it was stated: “The fate of the presbyter of the Pentecostal community in the city of Maloyaroslavets, Fedotov, who is currently serving a three-year sentence in a labor camp, and numerous reports of fines for participation in prayer meetings (for example, M. V. Chinarov from Maloyaroslavets, born in 1890, receiving a pension of 45 rubles a month, was fined 50 rubles in October 1975. The Pyzhov family in Obninsk — 200 rubles in November 1975, etc.) show that even after the signing of the Final Act, the Soviet government ignores the commitment ‘to recognize and respect the freedom of an individual to profess, alone or in community with others, religion or belief, acting according to the dictates of his own conscience’.
This is also borne out by the discriminatory legislation against believers, still in force and not one iota changed since August 1, 1975, in Soviet laws on religious cults, on marriage and family, on public education, on universal military duty, on private trades, and articles 142 and 227 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (and the corresponding articles of the Criminal Codes of the Union republics).”
In 1977–78, the formerly well-known minister of the Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals), S. I. Marin, who had been working at the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (AUCECB) since 1956, petitioned the Moscow City Council for autonomous registration of a church, independent of the AUCECB, and for the provision of a prayer house. His request was granted, and premises were made available in the Kosino district. This was the first instance in Moscow since Voronaev’s time of permission for autonomous registration of a CFE church after 50 years of harsh persecution. It eloquently testified to the ongoing changes in state policy under the pressure of human rights activism and the emigration movement. However, for the Moscow church, this event exacerbated the question of registration, which was being pressed upon it by commissioners for religious cults as a new path to religious freedom. Many understood that the church in Kosino, led by Marin, was an experiment conducted under the control of the KGB.
Special pages in the history of the Moscow church are associated with a new wave of persecution against believers following Andropov’s rise to power. At that time, I.P. Fedotov and V.G. Murashkin were already in bonds. On December 27, 1982, a criminal case was opened against ministers of the Evangelical Christian–Baptist Church in Moscow, Stepan Kostyuk and Richard Zimmerman. These events in 1979–81 had been preceded by preparation: censuses were taken of participants in unregistered gatherings of believers, old records were pulled from archives, summonses to “conversations” were issued, and administrative accountability was pursued. The indictment in the case included a reference: “Pentecostals are a group of Christian sects of a fanatical nature. These sects base their doctrine and rites on the myth that on the 50th day after Christ’s ascension, the Holy Spirit descended upon His apostles and they received the gift of speaking in ‘other tongues’ (glossolalia), baptism ‘with the Holy Spirit,’ etc., which are the distinguishing characteristics that set them apart from many other sects.” The “case” contained over 250 pages. The investigation lasted about a year. The charges were filed on December 9, 1983, and on the same day S.G. Kostyuk was arrested. Thanks to the fervent prayer of the church and the prudent conduct of the sisters and brothers who were summoned for interrogations at the investigator’s office and at the Serbsky Institute, one of the charges was nevertheless dropped. Among them were Elizaveta Kushnir, Faina Godiner, Elena and Vera Kovaikin, Evgenia Kovalskaya, Lidiya Sergeevna (surname forgotten), Maria—the so-called Biryulyovo woman with her son—and Dima Novikov. Even the unbelieving mother of the Kovaikin sisters was summoned by the investigator, but she, taking the Constitution with her, exhausted all the investigator’s questions with one question: “Where is it written in the Constitution that one cannot believe in God?” (she later came to faith). They sought witness testimony from Alexander Borisov as an Orthodox priest against his “sectarian wife,” but he also refused to give any. The trial lasted a whole month and ended with S.G. Kostyuk being sentenced to four years of exile with confiscation of property. The brothers stood courageously in court. The court sentenced R. Zimmerman to two years’ deprivation of freedom, suspended. He was placed under house arrest and forbidden to attend meetings. During the investigation, S.G. Kostyuk was held in a detention facility in Moscow, and on July 5, after a month-long difficult journey by stages, he arrived at his place of exile in Abatsk, Tyumen Region. At the same time as the brothers, the sisters E.L. Kushnir and V.V. Kovaikina were brought to criminal liability for refusing to give witness testimony. From the recollections of Vera Vasilyevna Kovaikina, now Kharchenko: “On the KGB’s orders, many of those whose names had been recorded during the documenting of an illegal meeting were summoned to the investigator in order to persuade some of us to cooperate and gather witness testimony against Stepan Grigoryevich and Richard, and also to prove that they were causing harm to the health and psyche of Soviet citizens, in order to bring them under Article 227 of the Criminal Code, which carried a sentence of 5 years of strict regime. Almost everyone refused to testify against the brothers, but the investigator, as well as KGB officers present at the interrogations and experienced psychiatrists from the Serbsky Institute, tried to break the faith of some of us, to intimidate and humiliate. I was summoned to the investigator 9 times; three times I was taken directly from interrogation to the Serbsky Institute. It was indeed frightening: each time doors with metal bolts slammed behind my back, and I did not know what would happen next. The church prayed intensely. That was very strong spiritual support for all of us. I resolved to give no testimony to the end, and God miraculously helped me, even on the hardest day when they arranged a cross-examination with a KGB officer and took me to the Serbsky Institute. The charges against our brothers were not confirmed. Lisa Kushnir and I were tried on the same day. When the trial began, the judge asked: ‘And where is the defendant?’ I timidly responded. He was surprised: ‘Is that you, the socially dangerous criminal?’ I was 31 years old, but I looked about 20. When he began to study the case, he was ready to pass an acquittal because it seemed insignificant, but after retiring to deliberate, he learned that the case was on the KGB’s orders. The judge, being an honest man, found himself in a difficult position but was forced to pass at least some sentence: five months of correctional labor at our place of work in the form of a monthly fine of 20% of earnings were imposed on me and Lisa. I worked as a junior researcher in one of the scientific-research institutes; my earnings were very modest. My colleagues were also invited to the trial; sitting in the courtroom were our brothers and sisters led by Leonid Odessky. After the trial, the secretary of the party organization demanded that I be dismissed because he did not want such a stain on the institute. But he immediately fell seriously ill; God intervened for me, and he had to retract his decision. A person was assigned to keep watch on me. The other employees unexpectedly began to show heightened and positive interest in my faith. True, the head of the department where I worked asked: ‘How could you choose such a terrible sect?’ I became respected at work as a believer; this trial made me well-known at the institute and helped me speak more about God and bear witness. I am grateful to God for those days. He did wonderful things, especially when me and my sister Lena Kovaikina, Faina Godiner, and Zhenya Kovalskaya were taken to the Serbsky Institute as ‘patients’—they even opened personal patient cards for us, and experienced psychologists and psychiatrists tested us. They were tasked with exerting psychological pressure on us to destroy our faith, to prove that harm had been done to us by attending meetings, but God thwarted that plan and was wondrously glorified. And it was precisely then that the false diagnosis concerning Faina’s mental health, which had been established back in the 70s at the beginning of her Christian journey, was lifted.” From the recollections of Faina Evseyevna Godiner: “When the doctor began asking me provocative questions in his office, distorting the behavior of some in our community, I firmly and sternly said to them: ‘What are you doing?! Our God is holy!’ After that rebuff, their behavior and attitude toward me changed immediately. Still, the pressure was exerted very skillfully; thanks to prayers, we stood firm. And when we were summoned before a panel of doctors, God arranged it so that our brother Stepan Kostyuk, in the Holy Spirit as a shepherd, gave instruction to the entire panel on how to live correctly in family life! And all attempts to mock or undermine our faith were thwarted. True, they threatened me that if I once more said to them ‘it is written,’ they would not let me go. After the panel, all of us, exhausted, went home, but I gathered my strength to go first to the meeting. What joy when I saw there the sisters who had been anxiously waiting for all of us and had not dispersed!…” Credit must be given to the panel of psychiatrists from the Serbsky Institute in that they were not afraid and, contrary to the KGB’s assignment, did not confirm the charge that would have placed the brothers under Article 227 of the Criminal Code “On causing harm to the health and psyche of Soviet citizens.” And God did this. But this decision became known only at the trial of S.G. Kostyuk and R. Zimmerman. For three and a half hours, Stepan Grigoryevich, answering the doctors’ questions, convinced them that he was not ill but a believer. In the end, a professor announced: “None of our illnesses have been found in you, Stepan Grigoryevich; you are free.” Refusing a lawyer, the brothers defended themselves in court, asserting the right to freedom of worship. The Holy Spirit filled them, giving them what and how to speak, so that the accusers were left without answer. Stepan Grigoryevich was brought to court hungry, while they sought to heighten the psychological pressure, bringing him to physical exhaustion in the detention facility. During the trial, he was twice faced with the choice of agreeing to registration or going into bonds, but he resolutely rejected the offer. His reply, “I cannot be a minister in the Church and an informant at the same time,” provoked a storm of indignation. The attempt to entice the pastor was exposed and could no longer be concealed. But the court nonetheless handed down a guilty verdict. The preserved verdict contained witness testimony that S.G. Kostyuk was not guilty. During perestroika, these testimonies were used to rehabilitate S.G. Kostyuk. His residency permit was restored, and in place of the confiscated apartment he was given a new one in Moscow, along with all the benefits due to a rehabilitated person. On July 19, 1984, E.P. Gula was arrested and soon sentenced to five years’ imprisonment; however, in connection with the political “spring” that came to the country, he was released early in August 1986. Arrest also threatened N.V. Romanyuk, but he did not go with the brothers and chose registration. During that period, he separated from the church and began to lead the community in Kosino. The group that had been under Romanyuk’s leadership did not follow the pastor, and presbyter Georgiy Ivanov took up leadership in it (see photo on p.26). According to the testimony of some church members, before his death N. Romanyuk regretted that he had shown cowardice and gone into registration. On April 21, 1986, after five-year bonds, Bishop I.P. Fedotov and Presbyter V.G. Murashkin returned. On October 16, 1986, Bishop S.G. Kostyuk was freed from exile. They found the Moscow church in a distressed, divided state. The division of the Kiev episcopate that had occurred in 1982 deeply shook the entire brotherhood, including the Moscow church.
The so-called “Tallinn movement” that arrived brought final division in opinions and assessments. Fellowship between the parties was broken, and opposition began, dividing the brotherhood for a long ten years. After his return from imprisonment, S. G. Kostyuk, in addition to long-distance trips, made regular visits to all groups of the Moscow church (of which there were more than twenty).
In 1989, E. P. Gula was ordained to the ministry of bishop. Freedom from persecution came to the country, and all prisoners of conscience were released from imprisonment. During the period of freedom to preach the Gospel, the Church grew significantly, and new groups were formed.
In early October 1990, a fully democratic USSR Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations was finally adopted, thereby “dismantling” the Stalinist legislation of 1929 on religious cults, and on October 22-26, 1990, the World Lausanne Congress took place in Moscow. These and many other events testified to serious, profound changes which politicians all over the world called “perestroika.”
On January 17, 1990, in Moscow, with the active participation of A. Semchenko, P. Abrashkin, A. Men, S. Averintsev, and others, the Bible Society of the Soviet Union was established, and in October 1991 it was renamed the Russian Bible Society. For the first time, Orthodox, Protestants, and Catholics united for joint work. The president of the Society became the Russian Orthodox Church priest Alexander Borisov, and the vice-president — the ECB pastor Alexei Bychkov.
In the 1990s, an attempt was made to find points of contact and cooperation between the sides of the divided brotherhood. Thus, in Moscow, V. Murashkin and S. Ryakhovsky created the Council of Interchurch Coordination (CIC), which made it possible to cooperate in the work of evangelization and organize joint trips abroad.
In June 1991, with the consent of V. I. Belykh, the Moscow brotherhood established the Interregional Christian Association “Kovcheg” (Ark). The current leadership of the Association was entrusted to presbyter S. Ryakhovsky, and later to A. Radkin.
In April 1992, under the leadership of V. G. Murashkin, with the participation of missions from the Kaluga, Sverdlovsk, Perm, Voronezh regions and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and with the consent of I. P. Fedotov, the Association of Christian Missions (ACM) was established; today it is the Russian Association of Missions of the Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals), and it includes about eighty missions.
The time of freedom brought the opportunity for fellowship with foreign churches. Moscow became a place of true pilgrimage for missionaries, evangelists, and guests from the West and East. Many rushed into the wide-open doors to evangelize, do charity, open their own churches, schools, and missions. In this broad humanitarian flow, much of what ails Western society and Western churches also came. Along with Western religion came a religious culture, which soon came into conflict with local culture, traditions, and spiritual values.
New proposals for cooperation and unification came.
In the late 1980s, Scandinavian ministers and the pastor of the “Kovcheg” church V. Vegert (Hamburg) wished to cooperate with the Moscow church in evangelization. At the invitation of the Finnish brothers, S. Ryakhovsky traveled to Finland.
In March 1990, a meeting of bishops S. G. Kostyuk and E. P. Gula with Finnish pastor Seppo Pekkonen took place, and in April 1990, at the invitation of V. Vegert, bishops S. G. Kostyuk, V. V. Ryakhovsky, E. P. Gula, and presbyter S. Ryakhovsky visited Germany. After that, an evangelistic service with the participation of V. Vegert was held in Moscow.
In May 1991, the president of the world Pentecostal movement, R. Hughes, visited Moscow, after which worship services of the Moscow church began to be held in Moscow houses of culture. Over five days, he conducted a seminar for ministers and then held an altar call service.
In May 1991, the Moscow School of Ministry was held in Moscow under the leadership of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and in July, a School of Evangelism, organized by the same Association, took place at Luzhniki. In October 1992, an evangelistic service with the participation of Billy Graham was held at the Olympic Sports Complex. The attendance at this service broke all records. According to the sports complex management, the complex had never gathered so many people. On October 25, there were about 50,000 people in the hall and about 20,000 people listening to the sermon, standing in the frosty air in front of a large screen. Entire railway trains were chartered to bring people from 12 cities, and 120 buses brought people from Moscow and the Moscow region. A 7,000-voice combined choir took part in the service, uniting singers from 80 cities of the CIS. The Moscow Patriarchate also blessed every Orthodox believer who wished to attend these services. On October 26, the service opened with the singing of Christian hymns performed by the Red Banner Choir of the Soviet Army.
In April 1992, in order to prepare for the upcoming evangelization of Yonggi Cho in Moscow, within the framework of interchurch coordination, a trip was made by V. Murashkin, S. Ryakhovsky, P. Serdichenko (representing three Pentecostal fellowships) and translator V. Bagrin to Seoul to meet with the famous Korean preacher at his invitation. This was a new experience of cooperation among three Pentecostal associations, making it possible, despite existing internal disagreements, to promote evangelization and participate in international Pentecostal conferences.
On June 16-18, 1992, Yonggi Cho conducted a service at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, but on one of the days of this crusade, the service had to be moved from the KPC to the Kremlin walls due to an unexpected ban by the Kremlin commandant on holding services in the KPC. Near the Kremlin walls, before a large assembly, with the participation of the “Emmanuel” choir, Yonggi Cho continued his ministry.
At the beginning of the 1990s, in Moscow, with the blessing of the brotherhood and based on a contract with the AChM, a Bible school began operating to train pastors. It was organized by Burt Clendennen, a well-known teacher and evangelist from the Assemblies of God in the USA. Until 1995, on the outskirts of Moscow in the village of Dubrovskoye, this school operated with a three-month training course and had about ten graduating classes. More than 600 people from all regions and republics went through the school. E. P. Gula and R. Zimmerman participated in its work. B. Clendennen was not only a remarkable evangelist and teacher; he also carried out extensive charitable, humanitarian, and organizational activities. In the school’s facility, the First Congress of the United Church of the Evangelical Faith Christians was held, but subsequently the brotherhood had to break off cooperation with him because the teaching of the Assemblies of God and its pastoral practice of planting new churches came into conflict with the pastoral leadership experience of the Evangelical Faith churches.
At the beginning of the 1990s, John Kim, a missionary from the “Holiness Church of God,” came to Moscow and established the “Agape” Bible school with a one-year training course. He also sought cooperation with the brotherhood, and bishops R. Zimmerman and V. Murashkin were involved in the teaching process. This cooperation with the “Agape” school continued until 1997.
In 1988, at the invitation of Bishop Fedotov, the European coordinator of the largest worldwide Church of God association, Paul Lauster, arrived in Moscow. He contacted S. Ryakhovsky, who arranged a meeting with Fedotov and Murashkin. This marked the beginning of a period of rapprochement between these two Pentecostal unions, the closest in theological roots. Soon I. Fedotov was invited to visit the main office of the Church of God in the USA. Then V. Belykh and I. Fedotov, along with other brothers, attended the II General Assembly of the Church of God in the USA. In Moscow, at one of the conferences of the so-called “School of Ministry” of Carl Richardson, a representative of the Church of God, a large number of ministers and former prisoners from across the former Soviet Union were present. During the “School of Ministry,” a Council of Bishops took place, at which the union of two unregistered brotherhoods, led by V. Belykh and I. Fedotov, occurred.
From 1992, the restoration of unity began between the churches of the Evangelical Faith Christians under the leadership of V. I. Belykh and those under I. P. Fedotov. From that moment, the church in the territories of the independent states became known as the United Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith (UCCEF). One of the first joint projects of the Russian UCCEF and the Church of God in June 1992 was the so-called “100 Churches in 100 Days” project. Presbyter S. Ryakhovsky was appointed coordinator of this project. Fourteen cinemas were rented in Moscow, where evangelistic meetings were held daily. On October 25, 1992, a special meeting of the UCCEF and the Church of God was held in Sergiyev Posad, at which the union proposed by the Church of God was rejected, but a cooperation agreement in evangelism was signed.
In 1994, S. Ryakhovsky, R. Zimmerman, and V. Miroshin were ordained as bishops.
In 1995, the new European coordinator of the Church of God, Dietrich Knospe, contrary to the agreement with the UCCEF, ordained Bishop Sergei Ryakhovsky as a bishop for ministry in the Church of God, for which the Council of Bishops of the Russian UCCEF released S. Ryakhovsky from ministry in the UCCEF.
Not all churches and not all ministers proved capable of sensible interaction with foreign churches. Therefore, taking into account all the costs of cooperation with foreign associations, on July 8, 1995, the Board of the Council of Bishops of Russia adopted a decision to suspend broad contacts with foreign associations, schools, and missionaries.
All these events are not directly related to the history of the Moscow church, but since they occurred in Moscow, they left their mark on it.
The ranks of the Moscow church are growing. As the ministers who were passing into eternity were replaced, V. Miroshin and R. Zimmerman were ordained as bishops (R. Zimmerman left for Germany in 1995). The Moscow church lives a life of service to God. Annually, by tradition, it gathers on Pentecost Day in the forest (about two thousand people participate in the services), all the ministers of the Moscow church gather monthly for prayer, youth congresses are regularly held, gatherings for ministers’ wives and mothers of many children, and several houses of prayer have been opened. In the Izmaylovo district, a prayer house where Bishop V. G. Miroshin ministers is being prepared for opening. Moscow remains a city of many guests, whom members of the Moscow church have to serve. The great treasure of the Moscow church is not only its history, but also the fact that in its ranks there are still many old members who diligently lift up their prayers to God for it and share the experience of the path they have traveled with the younger generation.
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- Priest Gleb Yakunin: The True Face of the Moscow Patriarchate The patriarchate’s face rubbed through – its glare burst out of the party archive. INTRODUCTION Russian society, transitioning to a post-Soviet image…
- The Case of the Leningrad Pentecostals On November 18, 1950, and in January 1951, the Leningrad MGB simultaneously arrested an entire…
- V. Franchuk. The Authorities and the Judases Herd Pentecostals into the AUCECB AN APPEAL TO FORMER CHRISTIANS OF THE EVANGELICAL FAITH Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! God’s peace be with you!…
- V. Franchuk. Persecution of Pentecostals in the Khmelnytsky Region The Commissioner of the Council for Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, Vilkhovy, on August 26, 1954…
- Alexander Mramornov. The First Public Trial of Clergy in Soviet History Was Conducted by Saratov Bolsheviks in 1918 Chronicle of a Tribunal. Almost immediately after coming to power in October 1917, the Bolsheviks began…
- The Russian Orthodox Church Stood Up for the Pentecostal Community Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Synodal Department of the ROC for Church-Society Relations, appealed with a request…
- The FSB Actively Recruits Pentecostals of ROSHVE Moscow, April 29. — In the Russian United Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals) (ROSHVE) of Bishop Sergei…
- Murder, Retribution, or God’s Judgment on the Creator of the AUCECB and the Moscow Patriarchate, Lavrenty Beria Beria’s wife: She stood and frantically crossed herself. I am describing only what I saw with my own eyes. Only…