Baptiştii din România în decursul anului 1937. Decizia nr. 4781 din 21 aprilie reflectată în documente britanice

Authors
Sorin Arhire
Pages
343-352
Abstract
The law for the general status of cults issued on 22 April 1928 recognized several cults apart from the Romanian Orthodox Church, whose organization was regulated by a special law. The Baptist community from Romania was recognized only as “religious association,” which implied complete dependence on decisions of the Ministry of Cults from Bucharest. As the Encyclopaedia of Romania published in 1938 considered the emergence of religious associations a serious consequence of the sixteenth century Reformation, there is no wonder that on 21 April 1937, the Ministry of Cults and Arts issued a decree for the religious associations from Romania, which imposed restrictive conditions, which undermined their functioning. There were numerous interventions made in order to ease the situation of Baptists from Romania, some made by religious organizations from Great Britain, including the Anglican Church, the major newspapers, members of the Foreign Office and the British legation in Bucharest. Letters and statements were sent to the king of Romania, the patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as the members of the Romanian legation in London. Although it was planned to be applied starting from 21 December 1937, a date when no religious association could function without procuring an authorization from the Ministry of Cults, the decision was no longer enforced. Thus the Baptist churches could be reopened. On 14 June 1948, the government led by Patriarch Miron Cristea, who appointed Orthodox Bishop Nicolae Colan as head of the Ministry of Cults and Arts, issued a similar decision to the one from 1937.
Keywords
Baptists, Minorities Treaty of 1919, Ministry of Cults and Arts from Bucharest, British religious organizations, Foreign Office.