B u d a p e s t – Approximately all the 600.000 residents of the Albanian capital, Tirana, had the opportunity this summer to view the renowned “Jesus-Film”. All received an invitation to open-air-showings as well as an evangelistic tract. This was reported by Kristo Pango (Tirana), General-Secretary of the Albanian Baptist Union during European Baptist Federation Council sessions in Budapest, 26 to 29 September. According to this 32-year-old, children between the ages of 10 and 14 showed particular interest in the film. The missions project had been organised by the city’s Evangelical Alliance under Baptist leadership. Pango lamented that Baptists and other free churches are without state recognition. This places them at the mercy of the whims of the authorities. Only “traditional” religions such as the Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims enjoy state recognition. “We have no rights,” concluded Pango. He requested EBF help in obtaining recognition as a religious community. Albania has eight Baptist congregations with roughly 200 members, who have joined together to form a Baptist union. There are also an unknown number of independent Baptist congregations. Generally speaking, it remains an incredible miracle that in the world’s first so-called atheistic state with a government proud of the fact that it had completely wiped out religion, we today find 7.000 conservative, evangelical Christians.

For the first time in 12 years, Romania’s Baptist Union participated in EBF Council sessions. Dr. Otniel Bunaciu (Bucharest), President of the Union and Dean of the Baptist faculty at the state university of Bucharest, confirmed: “We want to remain a good member of the European Baptist family.” In recent years criticism of the EBF had become audible in Romania among Baptists who felt it had become too liberal. But Bunaciu was elected President this year and has made a clear effort to strengthen contacts with the EBF. He now intends to visit rural regions of Romania in order to, among other issues, convince church members of the new beginning which has taken place within Union leadership. With approximately 99.000 members in more than 1.700 congregations, Romania is Europe’s third-largest Baptist Union outnumbered only by the unions of Great Britain and Ukraine.

The former EBF-General-Secretary Theo Angelov (Sofia) took part in the sessions for the first time since leaving office in 2004. He was pleased that the Indigenous Missionary Project (IMP), which he had initially proposed, has developed so positively. “I’m very happy about this,” the 68-year-old reported to EBPS. This programme began with only four missionaries in Moldova; today it has 60 missionaries active in 24 countries. Today, Angelov is active as General-Secretary of Bulgaria’s Bible society, which annually publishes Bibles, children’s Bibles and children’s magazines with a total circulation of 10.000. He is also active in the leadership of Bulgaria’s Baptist Union. He helps to lead a small, new Baptist congregation in Sofia. Very recently he has been politically involved in a small, Christian party. Yet the party did not receive sufficient votes in the most recent election to win any seats in Parliament. Angelov lamented that the influence of American missions and missionaries is growing in his country while European organisations are on the retreat. Bulgaria has 75 Baptist congregations with a total membership of more than 5.000.

Dr. Nabeeh Abassi (Amman), General-Secretary of Jordan’s Baptist Union, noted that the number of Christians in his country continues to decline. Christians once made up 10% of the country’s 5.4 million residents, it is now as low as 3%. The trend has two causes: Muslim families have more children and Christians tend to leave Jordan. Yet Baptist offerings in the country enjoy a very positive reputation. For examples, he pointed out two Baptist-run Christian schools, at which Muslim pupils are also taught. At one school, Muslims make up 40% of the pupils, in another 80%. The Baptist Union has now received an offering from the government to take on an additional school. The funds necessary to run this school were offered at a reduced rate. One million US-dollars will be needed to begin building the new school. Abassi sees these funds as one of his most major prayer concerns. Jordan has 20 congregations with roughly 2.000 members

Bader Mansour (Nazareth), General-Secretary of Israel’s Baptist Union, reported on a surprising answer to prayer. His union had recently purchased an empty building in Nazareth belonging to the North American Southern Baptists. It was rebuilt into a Centre for Christian Studies and dedicated in mid-September in the presence of David Coffey, President of the World Baptist Alliance. A total of 400.000 US-dollars was needed for the completion of this project. But during the EBF sessions in Budapest, Mansour received an unexpected phone call from the Southern Baptists. They had reduced the selling price by $50.000. Mansour was deeply moved by this gesture. Israel has 20 Baptist congregations and a membership of approximately 800.