COLUMN: Carillon Flashback – Carillon Flashback June 19, 1969 – Russian church delegates visit EFC in Steinbach

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/05/2024 (427 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Five members of a Russian and Mennonite church delegation gave glimpses of what religious life is like in an atheistic country to several hundred people at a special service in the Emmanuel Free Church, through short greetings, messages, and replies in a question period.

The visit to Steinbach was one of two stopovers in Manitoba on a cross-country tour by the group, jointly sponsored by the Baptist Federation of Canada and the Mennonite Central Committee.

Members of the delegation included two former presidents of the All-Baptist Union, a director of the Baptist Union’s foreign department, a liaison between the Baptist and Mennonite congregations in Russia and the secretary of the Baptists’ Moscow office. The four men in the delegation are also ministers.

Only one of the delegates was Mennonite. Victor Kruger, speaking in German, moved listeners with his brief, well-delivered and emotion-filled sermon.

In reply to questions about the growth of the Mennonite church in Russia, Kruger said it was difficult to say whether the Mennonite church, designed as such, was growing, but God’s church surely is.

“For example, there is one church, near Kant, with over 700 members, some 60 Baptists and the rest Mennonites.”

He went on to say that the Kant church was holding a Baptist service this very day and 50 people will be baptized and become members.

“We rejoice not only because they are joining the Mennonite church, but because they are joining the church of God. We are especially glad, because 95 percent of those baptized are young people.”

Over half an hour of Saturday evening’s service was allowed for questions from the audience and delegates took turns answering. Nearly all replies were translated from Russian into English. Questions ranged being able to testify in public, to needing a permit to leave the country, to travel restrictions and limitation of visits to the country.

The audience was told that Christians must testify everywhere, and while they are not allowed to hold open air meetings in Russia, no one will prosecute them for testifying to individuals on a train, for example.

For any kind of a trip to any country, passports can be received. On the trip to Canada they did not have to report to anyone but our brethren. The suggestion was that if the secret police of any country would get busy checking up on those people visiting other countries, they would be busy with nothing else.

While Canadians are not absolutely free to travel anywhere in the USSR, the delegate noted that tourists are not free to travel just anywhere in the United States either.

Tourists to the USSR must specify where they wish to go, and after the list is checked, reservations will be made for the approved places.

Peter Dyck, who travelled with the group while they were in Canada, added that the last time they toured Russia, not one of the many numerous listings were refused, and his group had been able to visit every town and city they had asked for.

Many of those attending Saturday evening’s service had fled from the Soviet Union in the years following the Russian revolution and some in the turmoil of the Second World War. Others had relatives still living there and information regarding them or their religious life was of great interest.

The delegates were hosted at a noon reception by the Mennonite Brethren congregation in Steinbach. In the afternoon, they toured the Mennonite Village Museum and attended a supper there.