On the 33rd Convention of the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists a new chairman was chosen
These forums take place every four years. The main topic of this congress was the election of a new chairman.
Yuriy Sipko served on this post for eight years, which is two terms. Before this, he was the first deputy of the chairman twice. However, he could not be the chairman for more than two terms in a row according to the charter.
That is why Yuriy Sipko left his position this year, and, in his place, Aleksey Smirnov was elected.
Aleksey Smirno has been a minister of the Lord for over 30 years. He has been the youth pastor of in his church for 10 years. After that, he was responsible for evangelism and organization of new churches in the Moscow region. In 1992, he was ordained as pastor of the church in Dedovsk. From 1991 to 1999, he served as the chairman of the autonomous union of churches, the "Association of brotherly churches of the Evangelical Christian-Baptists". Since 2006, Aleksey has been the head of the pastoral division of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists.
Guests from abroad were also involved in the congress: chairman of the Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists of Ukraine, Moldova, and Armenia, as well as the commanding bishop of the Russian Church of the Christian Evangelical Faith Edward Grabovenko and the spokesman of the Worldwide Baptist Alliance David Coffey. 
There were also several officials from the government and administration: Stephan Medvenko, the chairman of the state parliament department of interaction with religious organizations, and Constantine Blazhenov, the chairman of Moscow administration department of interaction with societal and religious organizations.
The spokesman of the President's administration of the Russian Federation, Sergey Melnikov, said, "I have noticed that this is your 33rd congress, which is actually more than the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ever had!" He also highlighted that "Protestants are one of the most active parts of the Russian society and that recently the government has passed a legislation to support religious organizations in charity and social work".
The new chairman of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists stated that he is planning to revolutionary change the politics of the brotherhood and will build his ministry on the foundations of the recent developed "Vision and Strategies of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists". The priority direction, as been marked out, is evangelism.
The Christian mission "Light of the East" also greeted the congress. The spokesman Waldemar Zorn said, "I was searching in the Bible what is a spiritual rite and found it. It is only mentioned once, and that is evangelism!" "Because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:15-16)
Amongst the many delagates and participants of the congress there were representatives of St. Petersburg Christian University: the rector Alexander Negrov and the vice-rector Ivan Makarenko. They held several meetings and fellowshipped with many alumni of SPbCU, who were also present at the congress as delegates and participants, who hold various recognizable positions in the brotherhood and perform different ministries.
(From Right to Left) Constantine Lupashtyan, Aleksey Konishev (2nd from the Left)
Peter Vorobyev with his wife Elena. Ivan Makarenko (on the Right).
Sergey Koval, Alexander Negrov Anatoliy Solovyev (on the Left)
Anatoliy Krikun, Syatoslav Tutunik (from Left to Right)
Ivan Makarneko, Denis Filippov, Sergey Koval, Roman Vecherkovskiy (from Left to Right)
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