T i m i s o a r a – Romania’s Baptist Union is faced with an extensive reorganisation of its work. Plans for the Union reorganisation were laid out at the Union’s recent conference in Timisoara. Dr. Otniel Bunaciu, the Union’s President and Dean of the Baptist faculty at Bucharest’s state University, reports that numerous new departments are to be opened including departments for youth, mission, women, an editorial office for a Bible-study calendar, a liaison office for pastoral matters, a programme to facilitate the advancement of young people. The Union’s 1.700 congregations have traditionally held the position that such topics fall under the jurisdiction of the local church. But Bunaciu reports that people are now expecting more from the Union offices, which he observed from conversations with the many congregations and regions that he has visited following his election a year ago. Vice Presidents have been elected for all new departments; they are to present concepts for implementing these new ideas at the next national conference in November.

Bunaciu called emigration a primary concern facing Baptists and Romanian society in general. Since becoming a member of the European Union, 10% of the populace has left the country for the West in search of employment. As a result, many children are suddenly "orphaned" and need to be looked after by their grandparents. Many Baptists have also exited the country. In recent months, five new Romanian-speaking churches have been established in Italy and Spain. Romania’s Baptist Union regards it as their calling to support these foreign congregations. They are in many instances forming a kind of ghetto - yet they have a great variety of opportunities for evangelism among their Romanian compatriots.

Another challenge facing the Union is the spread of secularism and materialism, especially in urban settings. Even though 99% of the country’s 21 million residents are Orthodox, many Romanians strive to lead a Western lifestyle. To this the Baptist Union needs to respond "appropriately", answers have not yet been found as how to best reach them. The result of these various challenges has been the lack of growth in the Baptist Union: membership is stagnant at around 90.000 members. Bunaciu sees little chance of success for foreign missions and initiatives to gain a foothold in Romania: "This is not a route for the future."

Bunaciu was a guest at the German "Federation of Evangelical Free Churches'" annual conference. He thanked the Federation for its invitation and regretted that his predecessors had not maintained bilateral contacts with the Federation in recent years. He intends to change that now in anticipation of a mutual learning process. Historically, there have been a wide range of contacts between Germany and Romania: in the 1930s, approximately 750.000 ethnic Germans lived in Romania. This minority has now exited the country completely, yet its chapels and churches remain. Some of them are now gladly being used by Romanian Baptists.