Ivan Voronaev
Ivan Voronaev Pentecostal missionary to Bulgaria and Russia
Ivan Timofeevitch Voronaev(Nikita Petrovitch Tcherkasov) was born in Orenburg
district. Until he was 22 he confessed Eastern-orthodoxy. In 1907 he served
in Tashkent in the military, where he was converted by the Baptist. He
followed the convictions of his heart to become a noble minister of the
Gospel, conducting missionary work among the Russians. When his life was
threatened in 1912 he immigrated to USA.
He and his wife Ecaterina moved to St. Francisco, CA, where he lead a small
Russian church. Latter he was called to lead a church in Seattle, WA Here
he came in contact with Viliakovs, who latter became general superintendent
of ?Assemblies of God? . However Voronaev did not accept the teaching of
Baptism in the Holy Ghost.
1919 Voronaev moved his family to New York , where staid with Sirits family,
who were influenced by the Pentecostal movement. At first he rejected the
teaching, however when his daughter Vera experienced the glosolia he himself
pray and received the gift of tongues. Voronaev had a successful career
as a Baptist minister, he was very well respected and known. Once the news
spread of his Pentecostal experience, the elders pressured him to resign.
In 1919 he founded the first Russian Pentecostal church in New York. He
rented space from the Emman Church on 6th street, and was followed by 19
former Baptist from his previous church. His work was blessed enormously
by God us their small community grew. Most of the members were of Slavic
descend: Ukrainian, Russian, Polish etc. During this period a few Slavic
Pentecostal churches were founded in Boston, Jersey City, Scranton and
as far as Canada. In 1919 was founded Slavic Union. Represented by Ukrainians,
Polish, and Russians, Voronaev was selected as president. In the mean time
he was editing a Pentecostal journal.
During this period he received a revelation from the Spirit to return to
Russia. During this period the union of Evangelical churches in Russia
numbered over 500 thousand. Evangelicals were pacifist during this period
so they were persecuted by the Soviet government. Additional strains were
added by the increase religious control by the Russian Orthodox church.
July 15th (May 18th ?)1920. Ivan Voronaev, Dionissi Zaplishnii, Boris Klibic
and Vasilli Koltovitch left New York bound for Constantinople Zaplishnii
was married to Olga Pramataroff(evangelical of Bulgarian descent ), they
separated from the group and traveled to Burgass where they visited Olga?s
relatives. Soon they were joined by the rest of the group, after being
thrown out of Turkey for their religious activity.
Here Voronaev is invited by Rev. Patchadjieff to preach in the Congregational
church. Latter he visited Sofia where Kostadin Tomoff was baptized in the
Spirit. Voronaev also preached in Stara Zagora, Plovdiv, Sliven, Vratca
preaching the Pentecostal news. In August 1921 Voronaev and Klotovitch
were in Odessa. At first they were well accepted by the evangelical-baptists.,
however when they preached about the Holy Ghost, they were reputed
as heretics and fanatics.
While he was in Turkey, Voronaev came into contact with some Adventist groups, he taught them about baptism in the Holy Spirit and thy introduced him to the washing of the feet. In his future ministry this will achieve doctrinal significance.
In Odessa the Lord furthered their work and added fast numbers to the community. Soon after the first church in this country was founded. On November 12th 1921 was conducted the first meeting of the Christian Evangelical Faith. In Odessa Voronaev founded in 1924 the first local union of the CEF. In the organization were prominent Voronaev- president, Pavlov vice-president, Koltovich -treasury, Katz secretary, Doljenkov member of the board. In 1924 there were local unions in every Ukrainian county also in Tashkent on the Ural and Siberia. On 4th of September 1924 Voronaev lead the second meeting of the CEF, represented by 36 delegates of 24 churches and 17 guests. The conference discussed issues of prayer meetings, Christian holidays, inter-denominational relations, marriage, divorce, etc. In 1926 the Odessa local CEF union was reorganized and registered as All-Ukrainian union of CEF. Same year Voronaev published "Short Catachesis of CEF". Also in 1926 Voronaev and Koltovich preached in Moscow against alcoholism and of the Baptism in the Spirit having significant results. The Odessa union now was leading 250 counties, with 15 000 members and over 400 leaders. The Pentecostal message had great influence on the molokans and duhoborski sects in the Caucase mountaines.
In the 1930's many Pentecostal leaders were repressed Voronaev was send to Siberia where eventualy he was shot. His wife was send to Central Asia, where she suffered for over 25 years. In 1960 she left for USA where her sons were awaiting her. Voronaev's daughter and first fruit to Pentecost, Vera died in Ukraine.
Dionissi Zaplishnii