Seeking to understand the nature of religious liberty and pluralism, three official visitors from the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan visited the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters Jan. 12 during a U.S. State Department-sponsored visitor
Seeking to understand the nature of religious liberty and pluralism, three official visitors from the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan visited the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters Jan. 12 during a U.S. State Department-sponsored visitor project. Discussions included a report on religious liberty in the United States from the viewpoint of minority religious groups.
Ahaman Egizbaev, president of the Evangelical Alliance of Kazakhstan, an organization of more than 1,000 Christian groups; Murat T. Mynbayev, rector of the International Kazakh-Arabic University; and Daulet Zakaryanov, deputy head of the Internal Policy Department for the Pavlodar Oblysy region, were welcomed by the International Religious Liberty Association, an organization chartered by Adventists in 1893.
“As a part of my work, it is very important that I get to know churches,” said Zakaryanov, the only government official of the three. He noted that there were four Adventist congregations in his region.
“Thank you for your dedication to religious freedom in Kazakhstan,” said Dr. John Graz, director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Adventist Church and secretary-general for the IRLA. IRLA is now a non-sectarian organization with 67 chapters worldwide, including a Kazakhstan national chapter, established there in 2003. (See ANN, June 3, 2003.)
Along with Graz, the delegation was welcomed by Ted N.C. Wilson, a general vice president of the Adventist Church who spent several years as regional president of the church in Moscow. During that time, he recalled, Wilson made several trips to Kazakhstan, and has continued his interest in the area. Wilson participated in centennial celebrations for the Adventist Church in Almaty last year. (See ANN, June 10, 2003.)
The Republic of Kazakhstan, about four times the size of the American state of Texas, is home to nearly 17 million people. An estimated 47 percent of the population are Mulsim, 44 percent are Russian Orthodox Christians, 7 percent claim “other” affiliations and 2 percent are Protestant Christians. There are nearly 3,400 Adventists in Kazakhstan worshiping in some 119 congregations.
