Ukraine: Young Baptists are Searching for Challenges in World Mission
Ukraine: Young Baptists are Searching for Challenges in World Mission
Odessa – Young Ukrainian Baptists want to become more active in world mission. That view was expressed by the lawyer and politician Pavel Unguryan (Odessa), also active as the unsalaried Director of Youth Work for the “All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists”. Ukraine’s 40.000 young Baptists desire to be a platform for supporting in particular the rapidly-growing Baptist youth movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Consequently, the Ukrainian Union’s youth department has sent two missionaries to the once-Soviet republics of Central Asia; two more young families are to follow in September. A total of 450 Ukrainian Baptists are already serving as missionaries in Russia. Thirty-eight more are serving in Australia, Afghanistan, Israel, Portugal and Canada. Unguryan has lofty goals in mission. As he reported to the news service of the Russian Baptist Union, all of his Union’s 2.800 congregations with a total membership of 133.000 should send out one or two missionaries: “They would form a mighty army.” Baptists should also develop more profile as a bridge between East and West. This new “global role” for Ukraine needs to be taken seriously.
Unguryan described relations with the youth department of the Russian Union as “very close and good”. One high point was an international youth conference in Odessa a year ago with 3.000 participants from 19 countries. The joint struggle for mission is a glue cementing the ties between the national youth movements.
Unguryan does not believe that significant theological differences exist between Baptist youth in East and West. But he conceded that “cultural and psychological differences” remain. Young Baptist adults in the Russian-speaking world grew up with the awareness that Christians had been repressed by the communist authorities. Believers had responded with conservative positions that still exist and find their expression in superficial matters such as clothing and forms of worship.
Unguryan is one of four Baptists active in the Ukrainian parliament. All belong to the ruling party, the “Bloc Yulia Timoshenko”. He would approve if Baptists were also active in other Ukrainian parties - but they have no interest in working with Protestant politicians. Neither is political involvement fully accepted in his own Baptist Union. But Unguryan has a different view: “We Christians are called on to help change society.”
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Unguryan described relations with the youth department of the Russian Union as “very close and good”. One high point was an international youth conference in Odessa a year ago with 3.000 participants from 19 countries. The joint struggle for mission is a glue cementing the ties between the national youth movements.
Unguryan does not believe that significant theological differences exist between Baptist youth in East and West. But he conceded that “cultural and psychological differences” remain. Young Baptist adults in the Russian-speaking world grew up with the awareness that Christians had been repressed by the communist authorities. Believers had responded with conservative positions that still exist and find their expression in superficial matters such as clothing and forms of worship.
Unguryan is one of four Baptists active in the Ukrainian parliament. All belong to the ruling party, the “Bloc Yulia Timoshenko”. He would approve if Baptists were also active in other Ukrainian parties - but they have no interest in working with Protestant politicians. Neither is political involvement fully accepted in his own Baptist Union. But Unguryan has a different view: “We Christians are called on to help change society.”