wfn.org | Tajikistan: Protestants Outnumber Orthodox

[APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com]

September 1, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD

Tajikistan: Practising Protestants Outnumber 
Orthodox Christians

Dushanbe, Tajikistan.       According to local 
church leaders, the total number of regular 
Protestant worshippers in Tajikistan already exceeds 
three thousand, compared with approximately fifteen 
hundred Orthodox. The main reason seems to be that 
whereas the Protestants have sought members from all 
ethnic groups, the Orthodox have confined themselves 
to traditionally Orthodox populations.

St Nicholas Church, the Orthodox cathedral for the 
Tajik capital Dushanbe, can hold two thousand people 
and only ten years ago was full on major festivals. 
Now on Sundays there are 300-400 worshippers, with 
600 at the last Easter service, according to the 
priest in charge Archpriest Sergei Klimenko. 
According to the priest, regular parishioners 
attending church at least once a month number about 
600 - this was the congregation at the last Easter 
service.

Compared with statistics for 1989, only ten per cent 
of the Russian-speaking population remains in 
Tajikistan. According  Archpriest Sergei, if it were 
not for the Russian army and border troops units 
remaining in Dushanbe, who provide employment for 
some of the remaining 50,000 Russian speakers, it is 
quite possible that by now the parish would have 
ceased to exist altogether. The Russian Orthodox 
Church (ROC) continues to regard Tajikistan as its 
canonical territory with its six parishes in 
Tajikistan forming part of the Central Asian 
diocese of the ROC based in Tashkent.

In keeping with the ideology of the Central Asian 
diocese only members of the Orthodox nations' living 
in this region are considered as parishioners: 
Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans and 
some Roma. The  Orthodox priests do not see the 
local population' (as they describe them) as 
potential parishioners, claiming that they  fear for 
their lives and for the survival of their churches 
if the Muslim clergy should call for reprisals 
against them for proselytism.

Such concerns appear unfounded. Throughout the civil 
war - including periods when power fell in to the 
hands of those named Islamic radicals' - and until 
the present, the only problem that Archpriest Sergei 
has had with the local population' is that 
neighbouring children knock down the fruit in his 
garden with stones and sticks. The situation is the 
same with the other parishes in Tajikistan. 
Meanwhile, the Protestant congregations which have 
conducted active missionary work in the country have 
not been attacked by believing Muslims in 
Tajikistan.

Furthermore, Archpriest Sergei, who is one of the 
consultants on new sects' of the state Committee for 
Religious Affairs, told Keston News Service (KNS) 
that he managed to prevent the Bible Society of 
Tajikistan from importing 150,000 Bibles in Tajik. 
In his view the import of Bibles could cause a civil 
war' provoked by reactionary Muslim activists ready 
to declare holy war'.

According to Klimenko there is no need for Bibles in 
Tajik because the Orthodox in Tajikistan do not use 
the Tajik language in worship and literature in 
Tajik does not appear on church bookstalls. At 
present about one hundred of his regular 
parishioners are locals' as a result of mixed 
marriages. Indeed, he was puzzled when a Tajik 
wanted to be baptised into the Orthodox Church and 
cited the following example: in response to the 
priest's doubts, a young Tajik brought a whole 
folder of signed statements that his family, 
neighbours and the local authorities were not 
opposed to his adoption of the Orthodox faith'.

Meanwhile, the Protestant churches in Tajikistan are 
broadening their base from the Germans and Russians 
who were members during Soviet days to including 
ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Tatars. In the heart of an 
area of traditional Tajik housing in Dushanbe is  
the House of Prayer for All Nations', the central 
church of the officially registered Union of 
Evangelical Christian/Baptist Churches (UECB). Its 
400 seats are full for every service, and 600 
attended at Easter. The church holds services in 
Tajik and distributes literature in the Tajik 
language as well. Five other congregations belong to 
the Union elsewhere in Tajikistan. Thus, despite the 
relatively small number of baptised members - four 
hundred in the whole of Tajikistan - the number of 
regular attendees is nearly one thousand. No 
less than one-third are Tajiks, Uzbeks and Tatars.

In Dushanbe there is another large Protestant 
congregation. The Solmin Missionary Centre' belongs 
to Grace Mission and was established by pastor Chee 
Yoon Son who arrived in 1991 from Los Angeles. 
Having lived alongside the local population through 
the country's recent civil war, he now leads a 
congregation of 1500 mostly ethnic Tajiks. Groups 
associated with the Centre meet in four small 
towns in other parts of Tajikistan.

As well as the congregations of the UECB and Grace 
Mission there are a few smaller Protestant 
congregations operating in Tajikistan: Hope 
Christian Mission, the Council of ECB Churches, 
Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals and the New 
Apostolic Church.

If the ethnic Russian population continues to 
decline and outreach to the local populations' 
continues to be confined to Protestant churches, 
then the comparative church decline among Orthodox 
and growth among Protestants appears set for years 
to come. (230/2000)