A Merging of Protestant and Orthodox Theology and Practice: Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia 

Malkhaz Songulashvili

Editor’s note: The first two parts of this article were published in the two previous issues of the East-West Church and Ministry Report 24 (Summer 2016):1-4 and (Fall 2016): 11-14.

Religious Nationalism and the Perceived Threat of “Foreign Sects” 

In Georgia there were no Western religious supermarkets available where people could freely choose their religion. In Georgia, rather, the space once occupied by Soviet ideology was replaced with religious nationalism. Unfortunately, in the 1990s, the religio-political situation did not offer the opportunity for religious liberty in Georgia, which could possibly have stimulated renewal and reforms in the Georgian Orthodox Church, as a custodian of Georgian culture. 

On 5 April 1995, at the synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church chaired by the catholicos patriarch, discussion of proselytizing groups was summarized in the meeting’s minutes as follows: 

Some representatives of foreign ideologies and religious sects take advantage of the difficult situation in our country and hide themselves behind the mask of democracy. They coarsely interfere in the spiritual life of our population and by this they inflict great damage on our people. Some humanitarian [organizations], while giving out humanitarian aid, proselytize, that is recruit the faithful into foreign faiths…. Because of such influences there are a lot of family conflicts and splits. There are cases where couples are divorced and some murders have also taken place.1

This statement refers again to the Russian experience of the influx of the parachurch organizations, mainly from North America, who were involved in proselytizing Russian Orthodox. The only humanitarian groups that were involved in relief work in Georgia were the Salvation Army and Caritas, a Roman Catholic humanitarian organization. The ECB was involved in humanitarian aid activity with the help of the Baptist World Alliance. But none of the aid received by the ECB was used for any kind of proselytizing activity. During the war in Abkhazia, medicines were delivered by a large American aircraft, which the ECB distributed to state-owned hospitals. The statement about large-scale social conflicts leading even to murder is simply a fantasy. 

Five months later, on 18-19 September 1995, the Expanded Church Council of the Georgian Orthodox Church maintained, “The danger from the invasion by various sects is real, not only for the church but for the state as well. Their activity should be controlled by law.” The call to use the law to control “foreign religious sects” was not an original idea produced by the Georgian Patriarchate, and these “foreign sects” in Georgia were in reality respected churches (Roman Catholics, Baptists) that did not come to the country with the opening up of the borders after the breakup of the Soviet Union, but were churches that had endured the oppression and persecution of the Communist regime along with the Orthodox. The idea was to use state law to gain religious hegemony. However, instead of introducing negative, restrictive legislation for nonOrthodox, the government signed the Constitutional Agreement with the church in 2001, which positively granted status in law to the Orthodox Church with numerous privileges, but which also gave recognition to Catholics, Baptists, and other “traditional” faiths.2 

Nevertheless, competition from non-Orthodox churches provoked the Orthodox Church into doing what it should have been doing all along, confirming one of scholar Rodney Stark’s key points regarding religious competition overcoming the laziness of monopoly churches.3 The Orthodox Expanded Council stated that “the missionary activity of the Church should be extended, which first and foremost should be expressed in establishing parish schools in every parish.” At the council “it was pointed out that it is necessary for the clergy to develop closer relations with the people, especially now, when the strengthening of foreign religions has been felt.”4 

The campaign against non-Orthodox Christian churches and other religious groups, starting with the 1994 Christmas Epistle and continuing throughout the decade, posed a serious challenge to ECB ministry in Georgia. The question of the legitimacy of the ministry of the ECB was at stake. It had to prove that its mandate to evangelize was valid and that its evangelistic activity could not be identified as proselytism. 

The Question of Territoriality

Despite its ecclesial independence from Russia, the Georgian Orthodox Church has been heavily influenced by the Moscow Patriarchate, and therefore its arguments against non-Orthodox evangelism in the country have been heavily influenced by Muscovite reasoning. In the early 1990s the Moscow Patriarchate complained that after the breakup of the Soviet Union many Christians came to Russia, not to aid the Russian Orthodox Church, but to compete with it for its own souls on its own territory. Moscow Patriarch Alexii II quoted in this connection the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: “It is my ambition to bring the gospel to places where the very name of Christ has not been heard, for I do not want to build on another man’s foundation” (Romans 15: 20). The Moscow Patriarchate “welcomes friendly visits…of other denominations from other countries, but opposes their proselytizing of Russian Christians.5 The catholicos patriarch of Georgia applied the same argument to the ministry of the ECB of Georgia.6 But the argument did not work well in the Georgian context because the Georgian ECB did not come from abroad to evangelize the people of Georgia. 

The ECB went back to Jesus, who recognized that the work of the kingdom of God did not have to be solely centered on the special group of the disciples but could be practiced by others in parallel with the work of the chosen twelve. In arguing such a position, the ECB appealed to what Jesus said that suggested that the territorial claims of the Orthodox Church did not reflect the wider legitimization of Christian mission to be found in the New Testament: “John answered, ‘Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not stop him for whoever is not against you is for you’” (Luke 9:45-50). For the ECB, this text has been considered Jesus’ affirmation of religious diversity.7 But for the Orthodox, the argument from the patristic period was far more important. The principle of canonical territory with ecclesial jurisdiction is based on the canons of the First Ecumenical Council (325).8 Other ecumenical and local councils from the fourth to the eighth centuries also accepted decrees in support of canonical territories. 

By signing the Common Declaration of Proselytism in 2001 with the ECB, the Orthodox recognized the right of the ECB to preach the Gospel in Georgia under the mandate of religious human rights. This could be considered as a code of conduct between the majority and minority churches in the Georgian context. The Common Declaration clearly stated, “For a church, a denial of preaching equals denying its existence. The prohibition of preaching would also be a violation of universally recognized human rights.”9 

The Patronage of the Theotokos 

With the opening of borders after the breakup of the Soviet Union, another argument against proselytizing assumed prominence. According to this argument, Georgia is a country allotted to the Theotokos, the Mother of God. The concept of Mary’s patronage of Georgia developed over the course of centuries, gradually becoming more prominent, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After the rise of religious nationalism, the patronage of the Theotokos was adopted by politicians as a historical fact. Even President Shevardnadze referred to Mary’s patronage in his speech made at the Baptist Cathedral in 2003. It is still being repeated by representatives from a wide spectrum of political life in Georgia. 

In the 1990s, before the Georgian Orthodox Church and Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia signed their Common Declaration, and before the dramatic changes in liturgical practices of the ECB, it was maintained that any non-Orthodox Christian Churches should not have a right to evangelize in Georgia because of the special patronage of Mary the Theotokos. The ECB was particularly targeted by ultraconservative groups in the country because of their anti-Marian reputation from the Soviet era. The reforms in the ECB community, however, restored the balance in relation to the place of Mary in its spirituality. It never affirmed the patronage of the Theotokos, but it has given her a more prominent place in its spirituality. For instance, icons of the incarnation, Mary, and the baby Jesus are prominently placed in Georgian Baptist sanctuaries, and chants to the Theotokos are sung in the liturgy. By restoring due respect and veneration to Mary, the Georgian ECB, denominationally, has gone further than any Baptist union or convention anywhere in the world.10 

The Orthodox Liturgy and the Cult of Antiquity 

For Orthodox, the Divine Liturgy is the most important means for mission and evangelism. Father Ion Bria, a Romanian Orthodox theologian, wrote extensively of the significance of the liturgy for evangelism.11 The liturgy in Orthodox missiology was also studied by an evangelical scholar, James J. Stamoolis, who wrote, “It is no exaggeration to state that the chief feature of the Orthodox Church is its liturgical orientation.” 

Obviously, the Georgian Orthodox Church fully practices the liturgical legacy of Orthodoxy. But to make the best use of the liturgical tradition, it is necessary to celebrate it in language the people understand, not ancient Georgian. Orthodox even recite biblical readings in ancient Georgian, even though a modern Georgian Bible text is available. The official stand of the Georgian Orthodox Church is that the church never changes, preserving immaculately every single tradition of early Christianity, which it judges makes it the only authentic church in the nation.12 In accordance with this tradition, all theological views and liturgical practices have, it affirms, been unchangeably preserved by the Orthodox Church. Thus, in the present climate in the Orthodox Church, it is not possible to think of translating and using the liturgy in the modern Georgian language. This particular stance in its present form has also been inherited from the Russian Orthodox tradition. A progressive-minded Russian Orthodox priest and professor at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Fr. Vladimir Fedorov, points out that “one widespread and quite deeply rooted idea is that Orthodoxy is the church where everything has been preserved since apostolic times and will not tolerate change.” Bravely, he maintains that this false stereotype is “non-historical.”13 Fr. Alexander Schmemann of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary in New York also wrote of the “cult of antiquity” as being a part of “Romantic Orthodoxy” which “pushes reality away for the sake of an imagined reality; it is belief in illusions.”14 

In reality, the Orthodox Church has experienced dramatic changes in history, including changes in theology, doctrine, and liturgical practices. It is infantile to deny change, but, for some reason or another, the antiquity and unchangeability of the tradition has become a dominant theme that deprives the Orthodox Church both of flexibility and the opportunity to share the experiences of other churches in a changing world. 

Fascinating research has been carried out in the study of Orthodox liturgy by Robert F. Taft, S.J., a professor at Rome’s Pontifical Oriental Institute. In his five-volume history of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the eucharistic liturgy most frequently used in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Taft reveals various historical layers of the liturgical text that reflect the theological and historical context of its centurieslong development.15 

The Georgian Orthodox Church needs to be critical of the “cult of the past” to enable it to rediscover the evangelistic energy in its own liturgy. Such a discovery could also serve as an important step in cooperating with the ECB in the cause of evangelism. For the time being, the claim to antiquity and authenticity by the Orthodox serves as a criticism of the liturgy of other Christian churches.

Counter-culturalism 

Robert Taft has rightly suggested that “cultural rejection as well as adaptation has always been integral to the process of inculturation. The church does not just borrow and adapt from local cultures: it also resolutely  rejects aspects, even fundamental religious aspects, of those cultures.”16 Culture not only ought to be affirmed, but should be critiqued as well. The Venerable Bede gives a classic example of the reinterpretation of preChristian religious culture in Britain.17 The temple is “baptized” and accepted for mission, but idols are rejected. 

The ECB has affirmed Georgian culture by letting it shape its mission. But this does not mean that it indiscriminately accepts everything that belongs to that culture. Specifically, the ECB has rejected Georgian religious nationalism and political Orthodoxy. The first written evidence of this rejection was recorded in the concluding document of the Orthodox-Baptist dialogue. For their part, Orthodox considered the ECB stance separating faith from the nation to be a “denuding” of religion; Orthodox would not even fully accept the understanding that “Christians of all countries are brothers and sisters.” In contrast, the ECB believes that religious nationalism and ethnocentrism are so deeply entrenched in Georgia’s culture and are so inimical to the Gospel that it has refused to condone them. While it encourages patriotism that represents a love of people and culture, it rejects a nationalism that alienates people one from another. Such counterculturalism is justifiable in the light of the mission of God, which implies the friendship and equality of all races and cultures. 

Conclusion 

First, this study started with the intention of discovering what happens when two dramatically different religio-cultural traditions come together: the tradition of the European Radical Reformation and the tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. In the past several decades they have merged in the ECB, which has incorporated the best of both traditions. In the Georgian situation, unique in Eastern Europe, there has occurred a convergence of Western Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and an indigenous reform movement within Orthodoxy. 

Second, as distinct from treating Baptists in Georgia as a branch of the former Soviet AUCECB, this volume has, for the first time, traced the history of Georgian congregations of Evangelical Christians and Baptists. Third, this study argues that two key, but often-neglected, elements in mission are liturgy and a search for beauty (aesthetics). The particular character of the ECB mission experience has consistently been marked by culturally relevant liturgy and beauty. While liturgy and aesthetics have been given special attention and have become more explicit since the post-1990 ECB reforms, their foundation lies in the earlier years of the church’s life. Recent political independence and ecclesial autocephaly have simply opened up a situation in which Georgia’s Evangelical Christian Baptist Church has been able to freely forge its own mission and identity.

Notes: 

1. Decisions of the Synod,” The Republic of Georgia, 7 April 1995, 3. Also in The Grace, April 1995, 1. 
2. The Constitutional Agreement between the Georgian Autocephalous Apostolic Orthodox Church and the State (Tbilisi, 2001).
3. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996).
4. The Expanded Council of the Georgian Orthodox Church,” 3. 
5. Harold J. Berman, “Freedom of Religion in Russia: An Amicus Brief for the Defendant,” Emory International Law Review 12 (1998),” 313. 
6. N. Kvirikashvili, “Meetings with Ilia II,” KN: 1992, Archives of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia. 
7. Collection of Sermons, 1992-93, PA. 201, Archives of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia. 
8. William Lambert, ed., The Canons of the First Four General Councils of the Church and Those of the Early Local Greek Synods (London: 1868).
9.  “Common Declaration of the Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia and the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia,” Tbilisi, 5 February 2001, Archives of the EBC of Georgia. 
10. E. Verady, “Mary,” in A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought, ed. J.H.Y. Briggs (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2009), 319. 
11. Ion Bria, The Liturgy after the Liturgy: Mission and Witness from an Orthodox Perspective (Geneva: WCC, 1996).
12. Ilia II, “Paschal Epistle” (Tbilisi: 1995). 
13. 13 Vladimir Fedorov, “Barriers to Ecumenism: An Orthodox View from Russia,” Religion, State and Society 26 (No. 2, 1998), 135.
14. Alexander Schmemann, The Journals, 1973-1983 (New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), 276. 
15.  Robert F. Taft, S.J., “The Great Entrance: A History of the Transfer of Gifts and Other Preanaphoral Rites,” in A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Vol. 2 (Rome, Pontifical Bible Institute, 1975), 3-52. See also Robert F. Taft, S.J., Diptychs: A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Rome: Pontifical Bible Institute, 1991), 13-17.
16. Robert F. Taft, “The Missionary Effort of the Eastern Churches as an Example of Inculturation” in Le Chiese Orientali e la missione in Asia: Riflessioni in preparazione all’ Assemblea Speciale del Sinododei Vescovi” (Vatican City: 1998). 
17. Bertram Colgrave and Roger A.B. Mynors, eds., Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969), 107. 

Edited excerpts reprinted with permission from Baylor University Press from Malkhaz Songulashvili, Evangelical Christian Baptists of Georgia: The History and Transformation of a Free Church Tradition (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2015).

Malkhaz Songulashvili is Associate Professor of Comparative Theology at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia, and Metropolitan Bishop of Tbilisi of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia.