Bidash, Afanasy Ivanovich

Afanasy Ivanovich Bidash
Afanasy Ivanovich Bidash
Church	Union of Christians of the Gospel Faith
Commanding bishop
Period	1948-1978
Successor	Victor Belykh
Vice-chairman
Church	Episcopal Church of Christians of the Gospel Faith
Period	1942-1945
Ordination	presbyter (1931), bishop (1944)
Married to	Barbara Yakovlevna Bidash
Date of Birth	January 15, 1901
Place of Birth	Green , Kherson province , Russia
Date of death	1978
A place of death	Pyatikhatki , Dnipropetrovsk region , USSR

Afanasy Ivanovich Bidash ( Ukrainian Opanas Ivanovich Bidash ; January 15, 1901 , Zelenoye , Yelisavetgrad district , Kherson province (now Kirovograd region ) - 1978 , Pyatikhatki , Dnipropetrovsk region , USSR ) - religious figure “not registered " Pentecostals , the bishop of the Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith (1948-1978) ^[1] .

Prisoner of conscience , twice ( 1948 , 1957 ) convicted of "counter-revolutionary activity"; spent 18 years in Soviet camps. In 1988, the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR posthumously rehabilitated and was recognized as a victim of political repression ^[2] .

By the name of Bidash, believers of unregistered Pentecostal communities were sometimes called "Bidashevists" ^[3] .

Content

1 Biography
- 1.1 The early years
- 1.2 Episcopal Church XBE
- 1.3 August agreement
- 1.4 XBE Union
2 notes
3 Literature
4 See also

Biography

The early years

Afanasy Ivanovich Bidash was born in the village of Zelenoye , Elizavetgrad district , Kherson province (now Kirovograd region ) in a peasant family. After some time, Bidash's parents joined the evangelical Christian church. Athanasius received compulsory education, which at that time consisted of 6 classes.

In 1924, Athanasius Bidash joined the Pentecostal movement; since 1926 he became a preacher of the Union of Christians of the Gospel Faith ^[4] . It is known that in 1926-27 he was on a trip to the Kuban and preached in the Pentecostal churches of Bataisk , Rostov-on-Don and other places.

In 1929, Bidash moved to the city of Pyatikhatki , where he worked on the railway. In 1931, M.S. Booth ordained him to presbytery . After the arrest of the Board of the HEV Union (1930) and the arrests of M. Bout and D. Ponomarchuk (1932), the Pentecostal Union virtually ceased to exist. In 1932, the Pentecostal prayer building in the Pyatihatki was closed; Bidash’s church began to conduct illegal house worship. Unofficially, the city of Pyatikhatki at that time became the center of the Pentecostal movement, because G.G. Ponurko , who remained at liberty, lived here, who served as the head of the HEV Union until his arrest in 1935. In the spring of 1933, A. Bidash was first arrested and spent two and a half months in custody.

XBE Episcopal Church

In 1941, for health reasons, Bidash was not drafted into the army and remained in the Pyatihatki. He worked as a seller, a cashier, then as the head of the forest warehouse of the Rauprosoyuz. Soon, with the permission of the occupying German authorities , the Pentecostal community of Pyatihatok resumed open worship; at the same time, the question arose of reconstructing the Union of Heav. Bidash became one of the organizers of the congress of Pentecostal ministers, held on November 1, 1942 in Pyatikhatki, at which the restoration of the Episcopal Church of the XBE was proclaimed. At the congress, G. G. Ponurko was elected bishop (chairman) of the church, Bidash was elected second deputy chairman. A little later he will be appointed first deputy; in 1944, Bidash was ordained to the episcopal ministry. All this time he remained the pastor of the local Pyatihatok church ^[2] .

August Agreement

Under pressure from the Soviet authorities in August 1945, A. I. Bidash and D. I. Ponomarchuk began negotiations on the unification of evangelical Christians and Baptists with the All-Union Council . The negotiations ended with the signing on August 24 of the so-called. The “August Agreement” uniting Baptists, believers of the former Union of Hebrews and the former All-Union Union of Hebrews (on behalf of the latter, the agreement was signed by I. K. Panko and S. I. Vashkevich) ^[5] .

Failure to implement the agreement on the ground and the subsequent oppression of Pentecostals caused a massive outflow of communities from the All-Russian Agricultural Council. In February 1947, in Kiev, Bidash held a meeting of Pentecostal ministers who disagreed with the August Agreement. On March 16-17, 1948, in Dneprodzerzhinsk , under the leadership of Bidash, an expanded meeting of ministers of the XBE was held, at which the creation of a separate union was actually proclaimed. Immediately after the congress, all 16 of its participants were arrested and later sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

Afanasy Bidash was convicted in absentia by a special meeting at the USSR Ministry of State Security and sentenced under article 54 (paragraph 10) of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR to ten years in prison. He served his sentence in Int , Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . The camp was constantly in a closed cell for the disabled, which negatively affected his health.

XBE Union

Thanks to the Khrushchev thaw , Athanasius Bidash was prematurely released “due to illness” on November 27, 1955, and in fact immediately led the movement of unregistered Pentecostal communities ^[5] .

Together with S.I. Marin, K.S. Kruzhko and BC Shepel, Athanasius Bidash finalized the dogmas of the XIV doctrine, taking as a basis the document prepared by I.E. Voronaev . By June 1956, the “leadership center” was restored in the city of Pyatikhatki, and on August 15-20, 1956, an underground meeting of ministers was held in Kharkov , which hosted the “Brief Doctrine of the Christians of the Gospel Faith in the USSR” and recreated the independent Pentecostal Union. In connection with the spontaneous merger of the Pentecostals of western and eastern Ukraine, a common name was adopted for members of this religious movement - Christians of the gospel faith.

In the fall of 1956, Athanasius Bidash was in Moscow , seeking registration of the XBE Union. At this time, he was admitted three times (October 13, October 25, November 12) to the Council for Religious Cults , held meetings with the leadership of the All-Union Agricultural Council , participated in a meeting of the All-Russian Agricultural Council and even addressed the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR K. E Voroshilov ^[6] . Despite the efforts made, the Soviet authorities refused to register the XBE Union.

Returning home from Moscow to Pyatikhatki, Bidash visited Pentecostal communities in Moldova , the Krasnodar Territory , and a number of Ukrainian regions, urging them to clandestine ministry.

Athanasius Bidash was again arrested on January 20, 1957 ^[7] . In May 1957, the criminal panel of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Court examined his case and sentenced him to 10 years in prison with confiscation of all property and loss of rights after serving his sentence for 5 years. Conclusion A. I. Bidash served in Special Camp No. 3 . He was freed on January 20, 1967 ^[8] .

After his release, in 1967 Bidash formed the Council of Bishops with the Board and the Bishop in charge. Subsequently, the Bidash group was called the Kiev episcopate . In the last years of his life, Bidash departed from the administration of the fraternity; the Council of Bishops alternately was chaired by free bishops.

Athanasius Ivanovich Bidash died in the Pyatikhatki in 1978 at the age of 77.

Notes

↑ Franchuk V.I. Russia asked for rain from the Lord. Volume 2. 2002 (neopr.) (Inaccessible link) . Date of treatment August 3, 2015. Archived January 12, 2019.
↑ ¹ ² Franchuk, 2003 .
↑ Michael Chizh. Who are you and I in world Pentecostalism? // Evangelist: a magazine. - 2002. - No. 4,5 (40,41) .
↑ M.I. Odintsov. A.I. Bidash: "I will bring freedom to the children of God . " Documentary materials on the history of the Pentecostal movement in the USSR 1955-1957 (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Protestantism and Protestants in Russia: past, present, future. Materials of a scientific and theological practical conference. . Zaoksky : Zaoksky Theological Academy / Russian Association of Religious Researchers (May 2004) . Date of treatment December 8, 2014. Archived December 21, 2014.
↑ ¹ ² T.K. Nikolskaya. August Agreement and Pentecostal Positions 40-50 XX century // Egorov V.K., Vasilieva O.Yu., Kravchuk V.V., Schmidt V.V. , Bartsits I.N. , Turchinov A.I., Boykov V.E., Shevchenko A.V. State, religion, church in Russia and Abroad: magazine. - M .: RAGS , 2010 .-- T. 4 . - S. 124-133 . - ISSN 2073-7203 . Archived March 4, 2016.
↑ Nikolai Usach, Vladimir Tkachenko. Choice of a way. A disgrace to the world // Christian's Word: Journal. - 2009. - No. 1 (88) . - S. 16-18 . Archived December 21, 2014.
↑ Nikolai Usach, Vladimir Tkachenko. Choice of the way // Christian's Word: Journal. - 2009. - No. 2 (89) . - S. 9-11 . Archived on September 28, 2013.
↑ Barbel, Trofimenko, 2004 , p. 313.

Literature

Nikolay Usach, Vasily Trofimenko. Driven by the Holy Spirit. - 3rd ed .. - Vinnitsa : The Word of the Christian, 2004. - 240 p. - (To the history of the Pentecostal movement: a collection of documentary short stories and essays). - ISBN 966-8432-09-6 , UDC 284.57, LBC 86.376.26.
Franchuk, Vladimir Ivanovich. Russia asked for rain from the Lord. - Kiev: Christian mission "Opportunity", 2003. - T. 2,3. - 1005 s. - ISBN 966-95609-77 .
M.I. Odintsov. A.I. Bidash: "I will bring freedom to the children of God . " Documentary materials on the history of the Pentecostal movement in the USSR 1955-1957 (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Protestantism and Protestants in Russia: past, present, future. Materials of a scientific and theological practical conference. . Zaoksky : Zaoksky Theological Academy / Russian Association of Religious Researchers (May 2004) . Date of treatment December 8, 2014. Archived December 21, 2014.