D u s h a n b e / P r a g u e – Dr. Tony Peck (Prague), General-Secretary of the European Baptist Federation (EBF), calls Tajikistan “one of the forgotten corners of Central Asia”. The former Soviet republic is now one of the world’s poorest countries: 64% of its 6,6 million inhabitants live below the official poverty line as defined by the World Bank. This means that they must get on with less than 1,65 Euros per day. Peck notes in his report that the country’s economy is on a level comparable to that of Eritrea. Along with the EBF’s President, the Estonian Helari Puu (Tallinn), Peck recently visited Tajikistan. During their stay, the EBF-delegation was able along with local Baptists to pay the Ministry of Culture a first-time visit. Peck regards it as a step forward that local Baptists were able to voice their concerns directly to the Deputy Minister of Culture. The country is strongly Muslim in orientation – 97% of its inhabitants are officially Muslim.

Baptists reside primarily in the capital city of Dushanbe. The congregation there has approximately 1.000 members. According to Alexander Vervai, President of the nation’s Baptist Union, he had to begin late in the 1990s “to rebuild the Union from nothing”. Until then, the country’s Baptist churches had consisted almost entirely of Russians and the descendants of German settlers. Yet these groups have returned either to Russia or to Germany. Nevertheless, the church has already founded 20 mission stations, some of them among Tajiks. Peck noted that although tensions between native and Russian Baptists persist, hopeful signs of renewal are apparent.

Peck and Vervai agreed to support an IMP (Indigenous Missionary Project) effort for planting native congregations. Swiss Baptists have already agreed to finance the project. Vervai also approached Peck regarding the desire of his Union to found a seminary for the training of its own future theologians. Although the inter-denominational Slavic Gospel Association had already agreed to support the seminary project, Peck expressed his preference for a cooperative effort in conjunction with other evangelical groups. He had during his visit met with highly-qualified evangelical missionaries who supported the idea of an inter-denominational seminary. In Peck’s estimation, a 1.000-member Union is too small to sucessfully run a theological school.

The Dushanbe congregation already runs a kindergarten and has a broad programme for aiding the imprisoned. It also has a programm for rehabiliting women who have been released from jail. Together with other evangelicals, Baptists are running a Christian bookstore in the capital. Tajikistan has approximately 230.000 Christian believers.