A LEADING Georgian churchman this week described the situation in his country as “appalling”, despite some signs of a Russian withdrawal.
Archbishop Malkhaz SongulaÂshvili, of the Georgian Evangelical Baptist Church returned to Georgia on Sunday to reports of looting and rape by Russian troops.
He said that the Georgian people feel “humiliated and devastated” by the situation, and he believed many displaced people could die if they did not receive food and shelter before winter.
“I cannot believe what I am seeing on TV footage: Russian soldiers are plundering villages and taking truckÂloads of goods, even people’s clothes. They’re taking everything, and there are reports of rape, and people being kidnapped for ransom, by South Ossetians backed by Russian troops.”
The Archbishop estimates that about 60,000 people have fled to the capital Tbilisi, where they are being housed in hospitals and schools, often with little medical or food supplies.
[blockquote] Archbishop Malkhaz SongulaÂshvili, of the Georgian Evangelical Baptist Church [/blockquote]
DO WHAT? A Baptist Archbishop????
What next? Anglicans marrying…
Oh wait. Never mind.
ICXC NIKA
[url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/]John[/url]
Speaking of rape, plunder and murder, can someone point me to an Episcopal-sponsored anti-war rally protesting Russia’s actions in Georgia? Maybe something in Marc Andrus’ diocese?
In the US and Great Britain, Baptists are congregational in polity, at least 99.9% of the time. But it is not inherent in Baptist theology to have only a congregational structure. It certainly sounds odd, though, to have a Baptist archbishop…
As Hakkatan notes, though by far the majority ecclesiology of Baptist churches over the past 350 or so years has been congregationalist, it is by no means inherent in their theology. The General (Arminian) Baptists of England and Wales had ministers known as “messengers”, who functioned as itinerant evangelists, who exercised a ministry of oversight in several congregations who committed themselves to their care (including congregations founded by their evangelistic endeavors), who ordained elders (pastors) and deacons for the several churches, and who laid hands on those who had been baptized. The “Orthodox Creed”, an irenic and ecumenical General Baptist confession drawn up in 1678 to “unite and confirm all true protestants in the fundamental articles of the Christian faith” gives as the officers of the Church, “appointed by Christ, to be chosen by his church” as “Bishops, or Messengers; and Elders, or Pastors; and Deacons, or Overseers of the Poor”. However, by the 19th century the ministry of messenger was in a pretty much moribund state among the General Baptist churches.
The Particular (Calvinistic) Baptists of England and Wales, like both Calvinistic and Arminian Baptists in the United States, never adopted a ministry of oversight above the congregational level.
In recent years, for no doubt a variety of reasons, a number of predominately African-American Baptist churches have elevated their senior pastors and regional denominational leadership to a form of episcopate, and have set them apart as bishops. Putting “missionary baptist” and “bishop” into an internet search engine will no doubt produce more than a few examples.
As to the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia, whose evangelicalism and Baptist practice has been tinctured with a stated desire to fit into their cultural context (Georgia and its antecedent principalities have long been Orthodox), a perusal of their website is of more than a little interest, both to the merely curious and to those who look for signs of ecumenical hope for practices that get us beyond parochial issues of denominational identity. Not only do they have an archbishop, but a school of icon writing as well!
http://www.ebcgeorgia.org/