merefaith: two friends on pilgrimage

Here's an encouraging story from the news page on the web site of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia:

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One more Break-away congregation comes back

On June 24th a special service took place at the First Baptist Church in Stalin’s home city of Gori. This particular congregation had spent 7 years in separation from the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia. The split was caused by the undermining activities of fundamentalist groups in Germany namely Friedensbote represented by somebody called Viktor Rogalski. They had stirred up the congregation against Ecumenical movement of which Evangelical Baptist Church is an active part.

The congregation was founded in Soviet time. It was the second Georgian speaking Baptist Church to be established in Georgia. For a long period of time the church was led by the Revd Vladimir Songulashvili, later senior pastor of the Cathedral Baptist Church and Bishop of Tbilisi region.

A statement signed by all the members of the congregation was read before the service started. It said: “After seven years of estrangement we come back to the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia and admit that it was wrong and sinful to break away from the Church for which we seek forgiveness both the Lord and the Church of Georgia. We would like to forget the past and think of the future...”

The Archbishop and the President of the EBCG re-consecrated the church building and than anointed all the members of the congregation with oil as a sign of the renewal of the church. At the end of the service the Archbishop Malkhaz celebrated the Eucharist in con-celebration with the President and representatives of the regional clergy.

In Georgia everything ends with a party. At the party the toast-mastership was carried out by Revd Sulkhan Murmanishvili, a newly appointed interim minister of the Gori congregation.

Labels: Baptists, Discipleship

Posted by Chris Schelin at Wednesday, November 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

Unless you pay close attention to world news bulletins, you probably haven't heard about the unrest in the Republic of Georgia in the past several days. The current president, Mikhail Saakashvili, rode a wave of popular sentiment to the top during the 2003 "Rose Revolution." However, much anger and frustration has now been directed against him, culminating in violent reprisals against protesters and the declaration of a state of emergency on Wednesday. But today a government representative met with opposition leaders, and this meeting was held at the residents of the Georgian Orthodox patriarch. According to this Reuters brief, the patriarch chaired the meeting. Naturally, this pithy sub-story doesn't dive into the significance of an Orthodox Christian leader serving as a moderator between the nation-state and other political figures. Most Orthodox churches in Eastern Europe and the Caucuses are the official state religions of their countries or at least have special privileges. The situation is fluid, though - in Georgia and certainly in other countries trying to navigate the recognition of an Orthodox heritage and yet the growing presence of "insurgent" groups such as Baptists or Pentecostals. Patriarch Ilia II has several times met with Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia and has encouraged positive relations. Given this, what does he make of the role of his office and of Georgian Orthodoxy in the body politic? Does he see the role of the (Orthodox) Church as a guarantor of state stability and identity? Or does he view his mediation more generally as consequent of the Christian's obligation to witness to the peace of the gospel? Will other Christian groups be encouraged to play such roles? Or will they be dismissed as irrelevant to the integrity of Georgian national life?

Posted by Chris Schelin at Saturday, November 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments

And that is a scientific fact. A Jamaican pastor, a theologian, an active ecumenist in the Faith and Order Commission for the World Council of Churches, Callam was recently elected the first non-white general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. Here's a snippet from an interview in the November '07 issue of Baptists Today, where he clarifies a much misunderstood doctrine:

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Q: Baptists cherish autonomy, though it can be difficult. How does one lead a worldwide alliance of autonomous Baptists?

NC: In the Baptist movement there is an appreciation for the autonomy of the congregation. But I'm afraid autonomy is not always properly understood.

Autonomy is not about power. Autonomy is about competence to discern what the Spirit is saying. So to say a Baptist church is autonomous means that, gathered together in a meeting, that group is competent to discover how the Holy Spirit is leading. And what the Holy Spirit is leading is always consistent with what the Bible is teaching.

I prefer to talk about "Christonomy" rather than autonomy. The rule of Christ among the churches...and if the rule of Christ exists within all the churches, we discover a number of commonalities and discover how to move forward together.

So I have no displeasure serving as a leader within the worldwide Baptist movement because there is a responsibility on me and on the councils of the Baptist World Alliance and on all the churches and Baptist communities to discover what the Spirit is saying. We are on a journey to discover where God is leading us...It is easy to serve in that context.

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Now if you got a problem with that, take two doses of John Howard Yoder's Body Politics and place a cold compress on your forehead.

Diggin' radical catholicity...

Labels: Baptists

Posted by Chris Schelin at Thursday, November 08, 2007 | Permalink | Comments