Lessons Learned in Eurasia Ministry: Mostly the Hard Way

The present article is based on a speech delivered at a conference of the United Methodist Church: “Eurasia-Central Asia – In Mission Together,” Fulton, Maryland, May 5, 2017

Increasing State Restrictions on Russian Protestant Seminaries

In sum, Russian Protestant seminaries are presently undergoing a trial by state inspection that threatens their very existence. Academics Perry Glanzer and Konstantin Petrenko are correct in asserting that the Russian state’s “power to license and accredit” is “the power of life and death” over any educational institution. State justifications for close oversight of Protestant seminaries appear overstated at best and lack credibility at worst. As regards state concerns for quality control, should not the Russian constitution’s requirement for separation of church and state take precedence over a secular government’s presumption to instruct believers on how best to train their clergy

Methodism in an Orthodox Context: History, Theology, and (Sadly) Politics

The history of Methodism and Eastern Orthodoxy goes back to the early days of Wesley and his interest in the teachings of the Greek Church Fathers. The relationship between Methodists and the Orthodox Church has gone through positive and negative periods, but the growth of the Soviet Union and the challenge of Communism placed new challenges on both groups. The emergence of the Russian Orthodox Church and its reaction to growing Protestant missions has led to new problems, although the ongoing hope is that commonalities in our theology will overcome some of the challenges of current political realities. This paper was originally presented at the United Methodist Church Eurasia-Central Asia “In Mission Together” Consultation, held in Fulton, Maryland on May 6, 2017

In Lieu of a Review: Reminiscences on Reading One Word of Truth; The Cold War Memoir of Michael Bourdeaux and Keston College

I first met Michael Bourdeaux in October 1983, at the beginning of one month of research at his Keston College Library and Archive, located in a southwest suburb of London, England. The back story to what gave occasion for our first meeting dates back a decade, to 1974, the year I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky and the year my wife, Darlene, and I made our first trip to the Soviet Union