The paper is aimed to analyze the service, religious doctrine, worship practices and church life of the Mormons’ Association in Kazakhstan. The findings are based on authors’ internal and external observations. Authors’ conclusions were received from the analysis of the research results of cult and non-cult style of life of the adepts of Mormon Church in Kazakhstan. Mormons are the common representatives of new religious organizations in Kazakhstan. Their church is not public, but they have a significant influence on their followers. This influence is reflected in association’s creation of comfortable psychological condition, in the feeling of safety of members of the church, in mutual respect and understanding, in the satisfactory status of the association’s members in this social environment, in doctrines and religious practices which provide conditions for self-realization. Furthermore, the paper reviews the first emergence, official registration, and dissemination of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the territory of Kazakhstan.

New religious movements, Mormons, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons in Kazakhstan, Kazakh parish of almaty.

The paper is aimed to analyze the service, religious doctrine, worship practices and church life of the Mormons’ Association in Kazakhstan. The findings are based on authors’ internal and external observations. Authors’ conclusions were received from the analysis of the research results of cult and non-cult style of life of the adepts of Mormon Church in Kazakhstan. Mormons are the common representatives of new religious organizations in Kazakhstan. Their church is not public, but they have a significant influence on their followers. This influence is reflected in association’s creation of comfortable psychological condition, in the feeling of safety of members of the church, in mutual respect and understanding, in the satisfactory status of the association’s members in this social environment, in doctrines and religious practices which provide conditions for self-realization. Furthermore, the paper reviews the first emergence, official registration, and dissemination of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the territory of Kazakhstan.

New religious movements, Mormons, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormons in Kazakhstan, Kazakh parish of almaty.

The Republic of Kazakhstan is a sovereign secular state. This basic principle is reflected in the Constitution, legislation, and other legal acts. In 2011 the Republic of Kazakhstan passed a law called On Religious Activities and Religious Associations. Its first chapter states: “This Law is based on the fact that the Republic of Kazakhstan represents itself as a democratic, secular state, affirms the right of everyone for freedom of conscience, guarantees equal rights of everyone regardless of his religious beliefs, recognizes the historical role in the development of culture and spiritual life of the people, respects cultural and historical value of religions that are compatible with the spiritual heritage of the people of Kazakhstan, recognizes the importance of interreligious harmony, religious tolerance and respect for religious beliefs of citizens” [1].

The act led to increasing in the number of religious communities throughout Kazakhstan. As such, it is known that before the adoption of the law, in the period between 1991-2011, 4551 religious associations were registered in the state. According to the Law on Religious Activities and Religious Associations [2], adopted in 2011, religious organizations were obliged to re-register before October 2012 at the central or local authorities. In October 2012 the number of registered religious confessions dropped from 46 to 17, the number of registered religious organizations has fallen from 4551 to 3088. Since 2014 the number of confessions has reached 18. Table 1 demonstrates the number of registered confessions and religious organizations in Kazakhstan in the period between 2011-2016.

In the recent twenty-seven years, new religious streams have emerged in Kazakhstan along with above-mentioned two main traditional religions. Most of those religions have a long history in the countries of their origin. However, due to the fact that they appeared in Kazakhstan only after independence years of Kazakhstan, they are titled as “new” religions in Kazakhstan’s school of Religious Studies. Aiming to increase the number of followers’ new religious movements use diverse methods including the organization of free language courses; conduction of different seminars and pieces of training directed to improve man’s psychological and spiritual skills; the foundation of charity funds; organization of religious practices in Kazakh; a celebration of national holidays and others. One such new confession for Kazakhstan was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is also known as Mormons. This name is derived from the Mormon Book, which they consider as their saint book [3]. The Mormons started to disseminate in Kazakhstan in 1997. As such they have been functioning in Kazakhstan for more than 20 years. During this period the organization has spread its faith in the Kazakh land and increased the number of followers significantly. Thus, the question arises: how could, such religious stream which is absolutely different from Kazakh mentality, disseminate among Kazakhs and could find its followers? Since its arrival to the Kazakh soil, the service and functions of this organization have not been thoroughly studied. Notably, that the number of followers of the religion is growing globally and its influence in the United States is rising. In this regard, this topic is of high academic significance. Being a part of this global interest the study of the Mormons in Kazakhstan would raise the level of research of this phenomenon in Kazakhstan. There is no academic research work concerning this subject in Kazakhstan’s religious studies, except encyclopedias and reference brochures about the organization’s history, doctrines, and services.

Toni Semerad [4] published in Salt Lake Tribune an article covering Mormon’s church in Kazakhstan. He describes the meeting of the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev with Paul Pieper, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at that time. An official representative of the Mormon’s church introduced rules of Mormon’s confession to Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan. General authority Paul Pieper, who represents the area for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke in both Kazakh and Russian as he outlined support of traditional family values, education and the authority of local governmentsas well as the faith’s taboos against alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs [4]. This meeting was organized as one of the meetings organized to meet with representatives of all religious confessions. However, Mormon’s church’s side misrepresented, advertised and explained this meeting as a sign of support and interest from the president’s side.

Authors attempted to study the service of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from secular academic perspective. Furthermore, we tried to find out the number of Mormon’s parishes, the number of people who come to service, the methods applied to attract new followers, their attitude to the values of Kazakhstan’s society, ethnical and age composition of church members and other questions.

The research was conducted under the thesis work titled Mormon’s Association in Kazakhstan (Religious Analysis). The aim of the thesis was to analyze the function of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Republic of Kazakhstan and to find out the methods they use to attract new adepts. Internal and external observation methods were widely applied during the research. The field research was conducted in the Parish of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Almaty in the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2017 from September to December. Interactions with association’s members were realized during the Sunday services, English courses and in additional events.

According to Dmitry Tsai, the president of Mormon’s church in the Parish in Almaty in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the first Mormon missionaries arrived in Kazakhstan in 1997. Initially, they invited Kazakhstan’s citizens to their rented apartments and introduced them to their belief. But later when the numbers of their followers increased they registered their organization officially and received official status as a religious association.

If to trust the data given on their official webpage the total number of Mormons in the world has reached 16,118169 people. When we started our research there were registered 157 churches all over the world, but during the research period in three months, two more churches were added, reaching 159 churches in total. Currently, 67049 missionaries work worldwide [5].

On 16 December 2000, the Church was officially registered. Paul Pieper was assigned as the first president of Kazakhstan’s parish. Its first filial branch was founded on 29 July 2001 in the Almaty city [6].

If to rely on church’s figures the number of its followers in Kazakhstan reached 197 people. If to take the statistics in Asia the total number of followers in Asia equals to 1111204 people. 42 missionaries are working actively in this continent [7].

Mormon’s church in the Almaty city is located on the ground floor and the first floor of a building. The church is under camera’s surveillance, it is surrounded by iron gates and one can see on it two scripts in both Kazakh and Russian with words The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Kazakhstan’s Almaty Parish. The building is rented and its payment is made by Salt-Lake City accounting office.

During the field research about 120 Almaty members were registered. One-third of them were children and teenagers. The other one-third was youth aged 18-30. The rest part was adult men and women from 30 to 60 years old. Organization and control of activities are conducted by males. Their family members are also members of the church.

The ethnical composition of members at Kazakhstan’s Almaty Parish is various, but predominantly it consists of Russians. We assume that this is related to the fact that Mormon’s doctrine is originated from Christianity and they have many common symbols. The next lesser groups are from Kazakhs, some Uighurs, Koreans, Armenians, and Tadzhiks. Parish’s president Dmitry Tsai is Korean and he has two assistants. They and their families have the rights to conduct rituals of this parish.

Members of the church are from different social groups including those who have the higher university degree and with secondary school level, teachers, workers, businessmen, entrepreneurs, and others.

During our research, six young missionaries were conducting parish’s services: four young men and two young women. They are constantly exchanged with missionaries from Astana’s parish. At the beginning of each Sunday services missionaries greet people with words ‘Thank you for coming!’ and go through the hall. This organization gives youth an opportunity to continue their education or to continue their missionary in any other country of the world (boys are allowed from the age of 18, and girls are allowed from the age of 20). One can find among them volunteer missionaries. We met a couple who were in their 60s, the Taylors family, who were conducting missionary as a humanitarian couple. This humanitarian couple arrived in Kazakhstan planning to spend there about two years. They organize different humanitarian events, visit needy and sick people in orphanages and retirement homes to help them.

On 16 October 2017 Russell Nelson, the president of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at that time, met with Nurlan Ermekbayev, the Minister for Religious Affairs and Civil Society of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Currently, Russell Nelson is the seventeenth president of the Mormon’s church. In this meeting with the government, he stated that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dedicated to strengthening agreement with Kazakhstan related to family values and interreligious agreement [8]. Issues of strengthening of interreligious and inter-confessional dialogues, collaboration in providing of charity and humanitarian help to needy people were discussed during the meeting.

As one of the initiations of the charity the president of Mormon’s church in Kazakhstan Russell Nelson gave a charity with 250 wheelchairs for disabled people in Kazakhstan [9]. In fact, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been organizing active humanitarian and missionary services since their arrival to Kazakhstan. It seems like this act was one of their actions to act in collaboration with state bodies, following all legislative rules and aiming to introduce their religion to wider masses. All those wheelchairs have the name on them with words the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Now we would like to stop on baptizing rituals. As mentioned by the members of the church baptizing rituals are valued higher than other rituals, since it means the forgiveness of all past sins and the transition to the church. After this ritual, it is made an agreement with God to keep all covenants. Babies aged 8 can be baptized in Mormon’s church. Baptizing has symbolical meaning: when a candidate is immersed into water it reminds its death (immerse into water is the symbol of burial) when a candidate is taken out from the water it symbolizes rebirth and washing away of sins [10]. Missionaries consider baptizing new members of the church as their main duty.

Baptizing ritual is conducted in the following order:

Baptizing ritual is conducted by religious leaders who have Aaron status or who have higher status. Mormons, like many other Christians, believe that when a man comes to repentance and goes through immersing ritual all his past sins will be forgiven [12]. Mormons count this ritual as for the beginning of a new life and believe that baptized man is fully purified. After baptizing ritual Mormons take the Holy Ghost as a gift. A religious servant who can conduct this ritual puts his hands on the head of a candidate and others give a special blessing to a person whom the Holy Ghost is going to be given. This is called a confirmation ritual [13].

According to the church member, the first baptizing ritual in Almaty was conducted in 1999. As the church members state that baptizing was conducted in a car wash since there was no parish at those times. Unfortunately, there were no baptizing rituals during our field research.

Internal observation is usually conducted during this Sunday worship service. Church members gather to church every Sunday to worship. Sunday worship consists of several parts. The first part is a sacramental meeting (people wash their sins by tasting the bread and sipping some water, bread is Jesus Christ’s flesh and water is his blood) [14]. All members of association take part in this event. It is started with a hymn and a prayer, and then people taste some bread saying that Jesus Christ’s flesh is bread and his blood is water, by this going through the process of purification. Bread and water are covered up with a white cloth and a prayer is read. Then bread and water are given out to people by missionaries. After that, the church leaders or other prepared people stay in the prayer circle and tell their story of how they came to this faith and how they were revealed the Holy Ghost from the Heaven. After the speech, the first part is finished with closing prayer and hymn.

After the first part people are divided into several groups. Sunday school works for newly baptized and listeners. At the same time the group, which is designed to work with young boys and girls and children, who came with parents, also start their work. They are taught in the form of games. There is a book for children in Russian which is called “Excerpts from the Mormon book”. This is adapted book with easy language for children. Main classes for children are conducted with this book. Children will have only one class and at other times they spend time socializing and playing with each other. There is a special play-room for children to avoid disturbance from their side. Especially, they spend their time playing there during the first part of the service. The whole event takes about a half day. That is why people come here with their family and children. Classes are taught by special teachers who conducted their missions and who were appointed to this position by the decision of the church. The church has a special methodology book in Kazakh which titled “Teaching manual”. It has instructions on how to organize preaching. In general, the purpose of the Sunday school is “teaching of all members of the church and each other to Gospel teachings” (Bushman 2006) [15].

The third part of the meeting is the meeting of Relief Society. The leader of the organization is Sister Ljudmila. She teaches in two colleges. Sister Ljudmila agrees the topic be discussed on Sunday with the church’s president and gets prepared for this in advance. Women and girls, who attended Sunday service, come to this meeting. A hymn is sung there as well. Some excerpts from the book are read. Rules of behavior in society and other social problems are discussed. When it is warm outside those meetings are organized outside in fresh air, in the mountains or similar park-like places.

Sunday service finishes at this point. After that some of the members leave the church, others (mostly youth) stay and get prepared to sing a hymn. Interestingly, that purchasing of any item is forbidden at this day. Because of that Mormons make all purchases before Sunday. Along with it, they buy food in such amount so that it could be enough to consume for three months. This is done to be prepared for any natural catastrophes, for sickness situations or for the financial crisis [16].

Members of the church believe that a man can enter God’s kingdom only by visiting Sunday worship and Sunday classes [17]. Hence, these visits are considered obligatory. Also, they fast each first Sunday of each month (according to fasting rules one cannot eat anything in 24 hours). Since Sunday is considered as break day in most countries Mormons regard this day as the day for spending time with God, relatives, and the church members. Mormons are prohibited to drink alcoholic drinks, tea, and coffee and to smoke. This is because they are useless and they are composed of nicotine. This might lead a man to addiction.

Prayer is one of the central teachings in the church. There are no special words to say in prayer, one can start his prayer with words like, “God the Father… we are thankful for your... and ask for... in the names of Jesus Christ, amen”. Asker can ask his needs during this prayer. As Mormons say there is no need to memorize and recite prayers. If a person prays sincerely his prayers will be heard and his heart will find the words he needs to say. Interestingly, that Mormons can ask in prayer for everything they want. They even prayed for us several times.

According to Mormons’ doctrine, the most significant value is faith. Faith should be strong and powerful. Such faith will lead to self-development and success. Mormons say that their faith is sincere. They are very proud of being the most humane among others. They respect other religions but criticize representatives of other religions for not following religious doctrines and values [18]. They say that other religions’ followers do not read fully Quran or the Bible but claim to be faithful. They say that such behavior is not permissible among Mormons.

A family is one of the most important values among Mormons. The main function of a family is to raise children. They try to have the family with many children. Rules of relations in the family among Mormons are described in the books of a prophet G. Hinckley. It is cited in the Relief Society, in the Sunday services. Here is the excerpt from the book, “Parents who bring children into the world have a responsibility to love those children, to nurture them and care for them, to teach them those values which would bless their lives so that they will grow to become good citizens.” [19].

Church leaders and missionaries and every member of the church are obliged to give 10% of their income to the church. According to the president of the church “to pay 10% of your income is not a sacrifice, but rather a privilege” and a man has to be spiritually wealthy to understand that. Payment of 10% is mentioned in the bible and those who pay 10% of their income follow the initial Christianity rules. However, those who are unemployed are free from this tax. This money is spent on needy people, old people, to build houses and to cover financial expenses of constructions, for the needs of missionaries and other expenses of the church [20].

However, we were not able to reveal all the details concerning financial issues. They are not discussed during the meetings. Hence, it seemed for us that there are some secrets which are known for the members but kept in secret for non-members.

In terms of self-realization, Mormons are very similar to Protestantism. A man should always improve his talents because it is the God’s will. If a person demonstrates his talents in the association, all convenient conditions will be made to support him: to be a teacher, to teach English, one can be involved in music events, sports events, in singing, painting and in other event organizations. Church members should strive for a career and self-improvement, but only to achieve this in an honest way [21].

Relations between people in Kazakhstan’s parish are organized differently according to age differences. As it was mentioned above the youngest age group, who is in the age between 3-12, are taught with the help of games and music. They are taught to the basics of the religion and norms of behavior.

The next group is the group of people consisting of young men and women. Any baptized member of the church can participate in events organized by them. These members are involved in daily process activities. They discuss the topics for the lessons; organize holidays and other similar things. All women (baptized, non-baptized, newly arrived) can participate in the Relief Society. As mentioned above these classes discuss norms of life, different aspects of life which is related to values and faith.

Furthermore, we noticed that youth take care of newly arrived people who are younger than of their own age. Children respect elders, whereas elders take care of children. Adults are constantly watching the behavior of young people, making remarks if necessary, but speaking kindly and in a friendly note. In general, the relationship atmosphere in the church is very friendly.

The question of attendance is very important for the church in Almaty. Currently, only 40-50 of 120 registered members visit church regularly. Majority of them are those who are constant members of the church. According to the president of the church, the reason why the number of newcomers is not increasing is related to the changes made in Article 9 of the Law on Religious Activity and Religious Associations about Religious Literature and Religious Objects. It states that “Informing materials related to religious literature and with religious content are allowed to be given out only in the places of worship (in religious buildings)” [1]. Due to this reason, missionaries cannot now spread their religious literature in the streets or in houses as they used to do in past. Hence, the number of new visitors is not increasing anymore. However, it was revealed that missionaries spread business cards with address and with words “Free courses to practice English” and “Sunday Service” in streets and in the neighborhood around the church. If to be exact we met people who came to the church from the mall Dostyk Plaza, which is close to the church. They received invitations with similar business cards. Most of those people were unaware of the fact that inviting people were missionaries and that this organization is a church.

According to church visitors’ people’s attitude toward them sometimes hinders them. They say that some people reject them or sometimes talk harshly to them because of their faith. This makes association’s member feel resent and upset. Some members of the church say that some of the members were fired due to their belief in Mormon’s faith.

There are many other events similar to above mentioned. But the main thing is that they are working intensively to spread their doctrines in Kazakhs’ soil.

Youth, who attend church in Kazakhstan, are offered the opportunity to study overseas at Mormon’s university Brigham Young. This is a private university founded in 1875 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is one of the biggest private religious universities in the USA. It is located in Provo, Utah. It has affiliations and business colleges in state Idaho in Rexburg (Brigham Young University-Idaho) and in Hawaii in Laie (Brigham Young University-Laie) (Brigham Young University nd). Along with that if Mormons from Kazakhstan express intention to do missionary activities they will be sent to Salt Lake City to the special center which prepares missionaries for the period from 3 weeks to 3 months to study the language. After they finish these courses they will be sent to missionary activities to one country chosen by the church administration. We found out that several citizens of Kazakhstan were sent to foreign countries to do missionary activities. This means that Mormons’ church contributes to the youth of Kazakhstan to go overseas or to emigrate from Kazakhstan.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has the main following features which are typical to religious sects: its founders and prophets must be pure people without sins, followers must believe in living prophets, there should be spiritual elites, proselytism, and religious marketing in the religion [26]. However, we did not notice any threat of these features to psychological or physical conditions of a man. A scholar in religious studies from Russia refers to Mormons’ organization to totalitarian sect, but in Kazakhstan, it is categorized to non-traditional religious streams.

Members of the church are required to be completely subordinate to church leaders at the expense that members’ some essential needs will be satisfied by the church leaders [27]. Firstly, they will feel safe. Those, who visit the church, will feel the condition of psychological safety. Secondly, people’s need for love and affection will be satisfied. In the association, people will feel a love of other people toward themselves. They feel that these feelings are sincere and they treat each other with kindness. Thirdly, a man feels respect for himself being a member of the church, which is a rare case in current society. Since the members of the church spend much time together and help each other a lot they will not feel estrangement from each other. As such, their necessity for sincere relations will be satisfied. Fourth, their necessity in respect and increase of status will be satisfied. The church members have an opportunity to change or increase their position in the church. This will impact on their social status in a secular life. Unlike other children and young people, those who are involved in church activities, go through the process of socialization under surveillance of adults in much healthier conditions. Fifth, each member, who visits the church, will satisfy his need in religion. The main advantage of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that the life in the church does not conflict with modern life norms and at the same time a person can satisfy his needs in religious feelings and necessities [28].

To sum up, we can conclude that Mormons’ society exists in Kazakhstan and it is growing dynamically. Missionaries are conducting their services very actively. The main reason for the emergence of Mormon on the Kazakh land is the dissatisfaction with traditional religions, the freedom of spiritual pursuit and religious freedom.

Following assumptions were made in the result of this religious social analysis:

To let people, know more about Mormon Church by offering humanitarian assistance. Weak social support from the state and society also gives more opportunities to new religious streams, such as Mormons’ church, to disseminate in society.