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Growth of minority Protestant groups – the case of Christians according to the Gospels

This Protestant group is mentioned for the first time in Romania at the beginning of the 20th century. Led by the eldest members (called brothers) and by those who evidence in-depth knowledge of the Bible (the "messengers"), they claim to be guided solely by evangelical injunctions.

After 1989, the group split up over the issue of baptism. Some members were in favour of child baptism while others insisted on adult baptism. The first faction then formed the Romanian evangelical Church while the second group continued to call themselves Christians according to the Gospel, thus retaining the group’s original name. Each of these movements has its own governing bodies.

Between 1992 and 2011, membership in the two groups grew from 50,000 to 58,009 members (42,495 for the Christians according to the Gospel and 15,514 for the Romanian evangelical Church). This number represents 0.29% of the (total) population, and a significant increase of 16%. In 2004, the Romanian evangelical Church had 220 places of worship for its 20,000 members while Christians according to the Gospel had 491 branches headed by 724 "messengers" (La vie religieuse de la Roumanie, Bucharest, 2005, p. 77-80).

D 13 August 2015    AManuela Gheorghe APetrisor Ghidu

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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