Leaving a Godly Heritage

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Union of Free Evangelical and Baptist Churches of Estonia

The Union of Free Evangelical and Baptist Churches of Estonia (UECBCE) comprises 85 churches with more than 6,000 members, 12 of which are Russian-speaking churches.

Its beginning goes back to the Estonian national reawakening in the 19th century when two Swedish schoolmasters, Thorén and Österblom, started preaching on the island of Vormsi and the peninsula of Noarootsi in Western Estonia.

The first Baptist church was formed in 1884 in Haapsalu in Western Estonia. In 1900 the Baptist churches in Estonia were recognized as an independent union. The Evangelical Christian Union of Free Churches was founded in 1937 and was joined in membership by the Pentecostal churches in that same year.

In 1945, the Baptist Union, the Free Church Union, and the Evangelical Christian Union, were combined by the communist authorities to form the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists. This combined body was in turn joined with the All-Soviet Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.

Much of the work began by the churches either went underground or discontinued during the annexation of the country into the Soviet Union beginning in 1940. The magazine Teekäija ceased publication in 1940 and did not reappear until 1988; the Baptist Theological Seminary, opened in 1922 in Keila, was closed in 1940 and reopened in 1989 in Tallinn, the country's capital; and youth work and other ministries went underground for much of that period until political tensions began to ease in the late 1980s.  

The country regained its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and, as a consequence, UECBCE became an independent church body with the dissolving of the All-Soviet Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.  

The Centre for Youth and Children's Work is one of the important ministry endeavors of UECBCE, with the annual Bible Days and the Children's Day among the most awaited events on the union's calendar, with hundreds of youth and children gathering for these events.

Since 1993, a mission conference is held each year.  Regional mission conferences have also been held, beginning in 1998. UECBCE offers training on church planting.

Throughout the years, Baptists in Estonia have distributed thousands of tons of food and goods with donations from within Estonia, as well as contributions from Germany and Scandinavian countries.

Publishing enjoys a long tradition in the union. In addition to books, often done in cooperation with Christian publishers, the union publishes two monthly magazines, Teekäija (Wayfarer), first published in 1904, and Karjase Kiri (The Shepherd's Note).

Heritage Baptist Church

Annapolis, Maryland, USA    

College Avenue Baptist Church was formally organized in 1903 in Annapolis, the capital of the state of Maryland in the United States, before relocating in 1972 to another location in the city and changing its name to Heritage Baptist Church (HBC).

The congregation believes it "exists to be a beacon reflecting God's unconditional love in Annapolis and surrounding communities." A hymn, composed by two congregants, speaks to the church's ethos:

We have confidence in You, O Lord, 

We have confidence in You, O Lord;
Your love and mercy we proclaim.

HBC is engaged in a number of outreach activities to its own members and the wider community, including the Heritage Learning Center, a preschool founded in 1985; a food pantry in partnership with the Maryland Food Bank, which provides groceries for those in need; and the Lighthouse Shelter, in partnership with other area churches.

The Baptist World Alliance Global Impact Church also offers ESL classes, "English for Speakers of other Languages," and makes contributions and provides volunteers for the construction of houses in tandem with Habitat for Humanity.

Each year its youth participate in the "30 Hour Famine to raise money for World Hunger," youth evangelism conferences, among other activities.

HBC holds strongly to the notion of religious freedom. "We believe that everyone has the right to worship God," HBC states. "We may not always agree with others in what they believe about God, but we respect their right to believe. "

Each week, the staff of the Baptist World Alliance prays for conventions and unions throughout the world.

We invite all other Baptist conventions and unions, and individual Baptists everywhere, to join us in these prayers.

For the month of June we will remember the following: