Growth and persecution are the words that best describe Baptist history in Moldova.
The evangelical Baptist movement in Moldova goes back to the end of the 19th century, when Moldova was called Bessarabia. The first Moldovan evangelical church was founded in Chisinau in 1908. By 1918, evangelical churches conducted missionary activity in 10 districts. Both men and women were involved in evangelism and distribution of Bibles. They traveled long distances in order to reach remote towns and villages with the good news of the gospel.
In 1939, the number of evangelical churches reached 200 with a membership of 10,000. In the same year, the Romanian government officially recognized evangelical Baptist churches and they received relative freedoms but not for long. In 1940, Bessarabia was annexed by the Soviet Union. In 1942, minister Boris Pavlovich Bushilo was arrested and tried by Soviet authorities. He died shortly after being imprisoned, not being able to endure severe physical torments from his persecutors.
Under the Soviet regime, churches were tightly controlled by the State. Churches were split into “registered” and “unregistered.” Registered churches were those who accepted the state limitations imposed on evangelism, worship and activities for children and youth. Christians from unregistered churches often worshiped in secret, conducted evangelistic activities, taught children in Sunday School and printed Bibles, hymnals and other Christian literature on secret printing presses. Hundreds of Christians from unregistered evangelical churches received prison sentences and were fined for “illegal” activities.
In spite of persecutions and restrictions, 1989 statistics of the Moldovan Baptist brotherhood indicate the existence of more than 200 evangelical churches — these included both Baptist and Pentecostal churches.
In 1989, thousands of Bibles and hymnals were printed in the Moldovan language. Freedoms brought by Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost provided necessary conditions for evangelism and growth of evangelical churches in Moldova. Crusades took place between 1989 and 2002. As a result, more than 10 new evangelical churches were started in Chisinau.
In 2006, the Union of Christian Evangelical Baptist Churches numbered 400 churches and 250 mission points. There are 21,000 baptized believers. This indicates that Moldova is one of the strongest centers of evangelical Christianity in the former Soviet Union with the highest percentage of evangelicals per capita of all countries of the former USSR.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This article is an excerpt from Oleg Turlac’s book “Toward the History of Baptist Theological Education in Moldova.” Turlac is an instructor of theology at the College of Theology and Education in Moldova. He holds a masters of divinity and doctor of ministry from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham.
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