Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference

Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference is a part of the Caucasus Union Mission in the Euro-Asia Division of Seventh-day Adventists. It was organized in 2002. Its headquarters is in Yablonovskiy, Republic of Adygea, Russian Federation.

Territory: Krasnodarskiy Kray, and Republic of Adygeya, in the Russian Federation.

Statistics (June 30, 2021): churches, 57; membership, 3,000; population, 3,535,430.¹

Origin of Adventist Work in the Territory of the Conference

The spread of Adventism in the territory of the Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference dates back to the end of the 19th century, when the first groups of Christians, who believed in the second coming of Christ and observed the Sabbath, appeared in this area. The first communities were organized on the Black Sea coast, after receiving the Adventist message from the Crimea, as well as in the eastern districts of the Kuban, in the North Caucasus, where Conrad Laubhan and Jacob Klein performed their ministry.²

As long ago as 1907, the leader of Russian Adventists H. I. Löbsack paid a visit to German communities in Armavir and Laba, as well as Russian companies in Armavir and the villages of Labinskaya, Vladimirskaya, and Upornaya.

From 1911 to 1914, Pastor Grigoriy Grigoriev served at that territory. On February 17, 1913, G. Grigoriev wrote to J. T. Böttcher from Sochi a letter in which he reported an improvement in the religious situation: “After four months of inactivity, I received an opportunity to preach five days a week again.”³

In 1920 Pastor K. Ya. Fisenko worked in Ekaterinodar (now Krasnodar).

Organizational History

Initially the territory of the Kuban and the Chernomorskaya Governorate was part of the North Caucasus Conference headquartered in Stavropol and belonged to the Caspian Union. On October 25, 1923, the North Caucasus Conference was divided into districts, including the Kuban District with the center in the village of Labinskaya. Two ordained pastors, K. Ya. Fisenko and A. A. Herzen, worked there. The Kuban District united the Adventist congregations in Rodnikovskaya, Vladimirskaya, Voznesenskaya, Upornaya, Galadzhinskaya, Akhmetovskaya, Laba, Psebay, Zassovskaya, Krasnodar, Anapa, Sochi, Platnirovskaya, and Maikop. The congregations of Armavir, Otradnaya, and Gulkevichi and others, pastored by preachers G. K. Löbsack and I. Petukhov, were part of the Central Caucasus District, with the center in Armavir.⁴

In May 1924 the North Caucasus Conference was reorganized and became part of the South-East Union with the center in Rostov-on-Don. This fact smoothed the way for organizing (on December 21, 1924) the Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference that comprised the entire Kuban Region and the Chernomorskaya Governorate, i.e., almost the entire territory of the present-day Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference. The elected officers of the Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference were brother K. S. Shamkov (president), sister A. M. Demidova (secretary), and brother R. Born (treasurer). In 1929, Pastor E. I. Skorobreshchuk was elected the president of the Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference.

The events of 1928 and1929, when the church lost hundreds of members who defected to the SDA Reform Movement; the repressions of the 1930s, when almost all ministers were imprisoned, and, finally, the Second World War that was attended by the banishment of the Germans, who constituted a significant part of membership in Adventist churches, resulted in a sharp reduction in the number of Adventist congregations in the Kuban after the war as compared to previous times. Once again the Kuban churches became only a part of other larger denominational units that existed in the territory of the North Caucasus.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Pastor P. A. Matsanov unofficially tried to revive denominational work in the North Caucasus. The All-Union Council of Seventh-day Adventists sent Pastor P. G. Panchenko to Krasnodar, where he visited church members scattered throughout the villages and the community in Krasnodar while combining denominational service with a factory job. He often changed jobs and professions due to “absence from work on Saturdays.” In as little as one year, the Panchenko family with three small children had to change their place of residence three times. In such a state P. G. Panchenko was able to carry out his pastoral ministry in Krasnodar for only three years.

In 1957 an Adventist community was organized in the city of Sukhumi (Republic of Abkhazia).

The decision to restore the Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference was taken on November 8, 2001, when the churches in the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygea had to be united into a separate conference within the framework of reorganizing North Caucasus Conference into the Caucasus Union Mission.

On January 1, 2002, a new history of the Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference began. Today the conference is actively engaged in various lines of missionary work. In particular, the medical missionary projects aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle are being actively implemented, and several day-care centers for children with special needs have been opened.

List of Presidents

P. I. Smorzhev, 2002-2007; F. A. Koltuk/V. P. Verlan/P. M. Nikulshin, 2007-2011; I. V. Manilich, 2011-2014; V. S. Kapustin, 2014-2018; A. A. Kachalaba, 2018-Present.

Sources

Archives of the SDA Church in the USSR. Reports of the Board meetings of ACSDA, 1920-1934.

Löbsack, H.J. Velikoye Adventistskoye dvizheniye i Adventisty Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii. Rostov-na-Donu: Altair, 2006.

Parasey, A.F., and Zhukalyuk, N.A. Bednaya, brosaemaya bureyu. Kiev: Dzherelo Zhyttia, 1997.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, various years. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Teppone, V.V. Iz istorii Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii.  Kaliningrad: Yantarnyy Skaz, 1993.

Yunak, D.O. Istoriya Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii (1886-2000). Zaokskyi: Istochnik Zhizni, 2002, Vol. 1.

Zaitsev, E.V. Istoriya Tserkvi Adventistov Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii. Zaokskiy: Istochnik Zhizni, 2008.

Notes

1. “Kubano-Chernomorskaya Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2021), https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=20750.↩

2. H. I. Löbsack, Velikoye Adventistskoye dvizheniye i Adventisty Sed’mogo Dnia v Rossii (Rostov-na-Donu: Altair, 2006), 160-162, 167.↩

3. Ibid., 167.↩

4. Ibid., 160-162.↩