Nine Russian Baptists and one Russian Orthodox priest were murdered in the area of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on 30-31 December 1993. Thirty-year-old Father Sergei of Dushanbe's Cathedral of St. Nicholas was killed soon after he conducted a religious service for members of the Russian 201st Motorized Rifle Division, which forms the core of the CIS peacekeeping force in Tajikistan. Neighbors of the murdered Baptists questioned the official version according to which the deaths were connected with a robbery. According to the neighbors, nothing valuable was stolen. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Daily Report, no. 3, 5 January 1994; Moscow Tribune, 5 January 1994, 5.
Jane Ellis, St. Antony's College, Oxford University, has received a grant from Overseas Ministries Study Center (490 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511-2196; tel: 203-624-6672; fax: 203-865-2857) to research "Mission in Russia: Relations Between the Russian Orthodox Church and Foreign Protestant Missions." She is the author of a highly regarded study of The Russian Orthodox Church: A Contemporary History (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986). Miss Ellis is a long-time specialist in Russian church-state issues with Keston Research, Box 276, Oxford OX2 6BF, United Kingdom, tel: 0865-311022; fax: 0865-311280.
Pacific Architects and Engineers, Inc. has numerous clerical and administrative openings at the U.S. Embassy, Moscow. Applicants must be U.S. citizens, 21 or older, with a valid driver's license, and must qualify for top-secret clearance. Send letter and resume to: PAE, Ste. 900-CO, 1601 N. Kent St., Arlington, VA 22209; tel: 703-243-6941; fax: 703-243-5607.
The U.S. Peace Corps seeks teacher-trainers, university English teachers, ESL instructors, and curriculum developers. New programs in the Baltic states and other former Soviet republics now supplement existing programs in Central Europe. Must be U.S. citizen. No upper-age limit. Married couples may be eligible if both spouses qualify. Contact: Peace Corps, Box 946, Washington, DC 20526; tel: 1-800-424-8580, ext. 2293; fax: 312-353-4192.
Israeli officials report that in two years more than 125,000 Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Armenians, and Georgians have made visits to the Holy Land - starting in 1991, the year Israel and Russia restored diplomatic relations. Russians constitute the fourth largest group visiting Israel from Europe, exceeded only by visitors from Germany, Britain, and France. (We/My, 13-26 December 1993.)
According to Rev. Karl-Heinz Walter, general secretary of the European Baptist Federation, the EBF is transferring its university-level seminary from Ruschlikon, a suburb of Zurich, Switzerland, to Prague, Czech Republic. The Religion & Society Report 11 (April 1994), 7.
Serge Duss
In January 1993 World Vision, in partnership with the Educational Division of the Russian Ministry of Health, launched a two-year Nursing Education Reform Project. New Nurses for a New Russia, as the project is popularly known, incorporates a holistic approach to patient care with a special emphasis on the spiritual dimension of wellness and health.
California's Azusa Pacific University School of Nursing serves as World Vision's primary partner. Project manager Charles Dokmo, who supervises a staff of Russian nationals and American nursing educators, envisions longer-term involvement of additional Christian college and university nursing schools to reinforce the spiritual dimension of the project and to take advantage of opportunities for individual Christian witness.
In July-August 1993 the project convened a three-week curriculum writing workshop at Golitsino, near Moscow, that brought together 55 nursing educators throughout Russia and 10 faculty from Azusa Pacific University and the University of San Francisco. At the end of the conference Russian educators adopted a new philosophy of nursing free of Marxist-Leninist ideology. The conference also began work on a Russian-English glossary of nursing terminology. Official conference proceedings were published in Russian and have since been made available to nursing institutions throughout Russia.
In February 1994 the project convened a one-week conference at Golitsino aimed at developing nursing associations and communication tools such as newsletters. The meeting also provided management training for the 60 nursing association leaders who attended from across Russia and resulted in the formation of a Russian alliance of nursing associations. A video of conference highlights was produced and will be available throughout Russia.
Serge Duss is Associate Director for Government Relations for World Vision.
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© 1994 East-West Church and Ministry Report
ISSN 1069-5664