A BAPTIST COLLEGE IN ST. PETERSBURG.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1509, 3 August 1912, Page 9

A BAPTIST COLLEGE IN ST. PETERSBURG.

Sinco the Imperial Ukase of 1005, granting religious toleration in liussla, Baptists have made much'progress. At tlio Continental Baptist Congress in Berlin in 1909 it was resolved to establish, as soon as practicable, a. Baptist theological college at spine suitable centre on the Continent for the training of pastors for Russia and South-Eastern Europe. At the autumn assembly of tlio Baptist Union in Glasgow in 1910 XIiGTJO was raised for the purchase of a site, and at the Second World Congress at Philadelphia last year £15,000 was contributed for the erection of the college. American and British Baptists also pledged themselves to raiso •£I2OO a year for its maintenance. It was then decided to establish tlio collego in St. Petersburg, and two representatives of British and American Baptists visited Russia last year to obtain the consent of the Imperial Government. This was readily granted on certain conditions, which the committee of the Baptist World Alliance willingly accepted. The chief stipulation was naturally that all.political questions should bo rigorously excluded from the curriculum of the College.

It is now announced that a site has been bought at Lisnoie, the chief residential suburb of St. Petersburg, easily accessible by tram from the centre of tho city, and in the centre of (lie buildings now being erected by tho Government and the municipality for the technical schools, tho School of forestry, and tho medical schools of (he University. The site is at, present occupied by buildings which may serve as a, temporary home for the collego until more suitable ones can be erected. It is some two and three-quarter acres in extent, affording ample spaco for all the buildings needed.