vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #158 / Social life / Reading article...

Dec. 21, 1997 was a big day for Vladivostok’s 300 Baptists: They opened their first church in Primorye history.

“The significance of the event for us is so big,” said the Rev. Mikhail Marchenko. “We dedicated the opening to the 130th anniversary of the Baptist movement in Russia.”

From 1976 until Dec. 21, the Baptists gathered in the old narrow prayer hall, which barely seated 200 people. The retired architect Yury Abakumov, husband of a church member, designed the new church at 2A Narodny Prospekt according to the wishes of the minister and church members.

They describe the style as partly Protestant and partly Russian Orthodox. The stained glass windows also recall Roman Catholic ecclesiastical architecture. Marchenko explains that many members of the church came from the Russian Orthodox or other confessions. Yet the believers’ common idea was to create something unique that would also make the city streets more beautiful.

Marchenko found it difficult to estimate the cost of the project, which the church launched in 1994, for the bulk of the work was done by the congregation. Women knocked cement from bricks gathered at a demolished building the Baptists were allowed to use. The head of a construction company donated a crane.

“Many people gave us discounts on the construction materials when they learned that this was for the church,” said Marchenko.

The Baptists did not appeal to any authorities or sponsors for help. “I don’t know how the officials would react to such a request,” he said.

Baptist history in Russia is full of tragedy. In 1932 all the Baptist churches and communities were closed, tens of thousands of believers were thrown into jail and concentration camps. The Soviet regime was hard on Baptists because theirs was the largest religious group in Russia after the Orthodox church. Marchenko, whose father and grandfather were Baptists, said: “The atheists envied our good organization and they feared it. They announced brotherhood, but only we had a true brotherhood.”

For many years, “Baptist” was almost a swear word. Many current Baptists confess that they used to avoid even passing the prayer hall, Marchenko said.

The church members haven’t gotten used to the new sanctuary yet. Alexei Zenkov, 25, a medical student said that he felt more comfortable in the old building, when everybody sat close to each other.

But Konstantin Uvarov, 32, a businessman, said: “The new hall is much more convenient: It can seat more people, and one can see the minister better.”

Uvarov is a former criminal who spent six years in prison (he said he is too ashamed to talk about his crime), and he is convinced that God changed him for the better. After years of striving for spiritual deliverence from his sins, he happened to listen to some believers who came to pray in the prison where he was lodged.

After he was released, Uvarov participated in the construction of the new church building and discovered a talent in himself: He can build beautiful fire-places. This is what he now does for a living.

Uvarov is happy with his new life.

“I can be a husband and a father to my two children,” he said. “I can be a good worker and respect the state.”