‘“Be baptized now, and baptize us also”: Reframing the narrative of Andrew D. Urshan’s encounter with Russian Pentecostals’

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay reframes the narrative of Oneness Pentecostal origins in Russia, presenting a decentred perspective on the encounter between the Petrograd community and their missionary, Andrew Urshan. Though unaware of the so-called ‘New Issue’ dividing Pentecostals in North America in the 1910s, these Pentecostals convinced Urshan to embrace the untraditional ‘Jesus name’ baptismal formula. This decentring approach creates a narrative of mutuality that recognizes the agency of a people considered recipients of mission. Beginning with a brief overview of Pentecostal origins in Russia, the focus narrows to the emergence of Oneness Pentecostalism in Petrograd. Urshan’s embrace of the Oneness doctrine of God and a general history of the Community of Evangelical Christians in the Apostolic Spirit, which resulted from Urshan’s ministry, will follow. Finally, the essay explores how the double appeal to ‘be baptized now, and baptize us also,’ spoken by a subaltern group, reframes the narrative of Oneness Pentecostal origins in Russia.