Dr. Alexander Kozynko, former president of Moscow Theological Seminary of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, went to be with the Lord on 6 August 2015. He was leading a Bible study outside Moscow for the Christian Medical Association of Russia when he suffered a massive, fatal heart attack.
Dr. Kozynko’s accomplishments were many. He received a master of divinity degree from the Baptist Seminary in Buckow, East Germany, and an honorary doctorate from Northern Seminary, Lombard, Illinois, USA. He worked with the Evangelical ChristianBaptist Bible Correspondence Courses, the Germanbased Bibel Mission, the Russian Evangelical Christian-Baptist Union, and the denomination’s Central Baptist Church in Moscow. He also was a board member of the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague and vice-chair of the Christian Ethics Commission of the Baptist World Alliance.
He was best known, however, as the founding president of the Evangelical Christian-Baptist’s Moscow Theological Seminary, a position he held for 13 years (1993-2006). His task was daunting. The seminary, which began with 17 students meeting in the headquarters of the Russian Evangelical ChristianBaptist Union, struggled with limited resources, financial pressures, and ever-pressing faculty and library needs. Lesser leaders might have succumbed under these challenges. Dr. Kozynko, however, was a strong leader blessed with a robust faith who was determined to create as strong an evangelical seminary as myriad challenges would allow. In the late 1990s, he oversaw the purchase of an abandoned kindergarten building which needed extensive renovation. It was a glorious occasion, 1 September 2002, when some 300 guests from around the world gathered for the dedication of the newly renovated seminary building. Dr. Kozynko is survived by his wife, Vera, his sons Peter and Andrey, a daughter Tatiana, and their spouses and grandchildren who mourn his passing deeply. The words of Hebrews 13:7 speak eloquently of his life: “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” So we remember our brother, Alexander Kozynko.
Dr. Ian Chapman, Russian Leadership Ministries