BAPTISTS IN THE BALKANS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 716, 15 January 1910, Page 9

BAPTISTS IN THE BALKANS.

■;, £ , y . *;' : Last, .year ;'fey^:;;C;; : ;,T.;f : Byford,; pif Leeds,, spent some months, in-itho south-, east .of Europe"as"■ tHo special, commissioner'■!of- tie -Baptist.: World: Alliance, visiting'the'Baptist.churches .in-Hungary, and the Balkan provinces. ''Ho discovered numerous ■ Baptist; communities' in Bulgaria,. Servia,.'Roumania,' ! and' : even'.'in -Turkey; of whicli-'British ; Baptists did not suspect the'existence,; 'Most of. these churches' had .bomb'-into' being-through' the study)of.:the.'New:.Testament, and they;ivere 'some.'.of'them just:as ignorant of the existencd'Vof-'similarvihufches'in' other-parts of-: the \world;'lf r; "Byfofd further reportei-that-theseVinfant -communities. Avere organised: on. very • primitive linesj: and were for. the most ipart without pastoral'. oVersight.' -In Hungary, there are fifty, churches and 480 Amission stations, ; witly: a" membership', of: some 20,000 Magyars, , : :Slovacs'. v Roumanians, Rutheniah's,: and Germans, and ■ only six pastors to overlook them all, assisted by a handful of-evangelists and colporteur's; Tho; churches Jh. 'Transylvania, Bulgaria, Servia, and Iwumania - are' in an '.even more'unshoplierdedtconditiou. ': Of one nourishing: church,- 'Mr. .Byford found' that a, railway...porter was-;the 'pastor,' and of another an "old woman so rheumatic, that sho.liad:to: sit to preach: -The, •.ministerv.of/.a 'Hungarian,..church '.'forty hours •' joilrhey .• distant, KasVth'e pastoral oversight of the Baptist Church', of Seryui. ■ And, ■ iu. di\d,"to: supply trained pastors for all the •' churches in southeastern .Europe there is onlv' one. small Baptist College in: Buda-Pesth, conducted by. two ministers,: who have 'in. addition ,their_ own .churches' to care for. '-It is felt by tho committee of the Baptist World Alliance: that there- is a -.danger that: these' movements,; if not' wisely guided,: maybe diverted "into -Strange forms of Church life, or, be-betrayed into ' laying. undue emphasis'oh minor .matters of'faith and practice. . Such was! tho case with. the. Anabaptists:of'' tho' sixteenth cehipiry, and with: the Do'ukhobdrs of our .day,'and-in order: to '-, assist in their.development and organisation,' the committee :has-decided: to send Mr. Byford out again to" Buda-Pesth as the permanent representative of the: Alliance. Part.of Jiis time ; ho will give to the work' ?f training,.pastors at the :College'■ in Buda-Pesth,;, and -ho: will also: mako that city tho-centre from 'which: to Visit- as ' aften as possible all the Baptist churches in the south-east of .'Russia. •• It is l hoped, too.; that ..tho Bantists in this country and in America will: ho sufficiently inter-i\ted-in the work to" supply the' means for .greatly, extending'.the- work ;,of,- tho College, so: as to make it possible to train pastors for all the nationalities in Hungary and, the . Balkans. -' - 1