Eastern European Studies Commons^™

On Intentions And Facts: Ukrainian Protestants Are Striving For Public Recognition, Valentyna Kuryliak, Maksym Balaklytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Scientific Review, Nadiia Stokolos

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Scientific Review, Yurii Chornomorets

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Protestants In Soviet Ukraine In The 1920s To 1930s: Political And Historical Aspects, Roman Sitarchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim. The article offers a general political-historical analysis of the Protestant movement in the context of the party-state policies of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s. Scientific novelty. The study of state-church relations of polyconfessional Ukrainian society in general and Protestant currents, in particular, actualizes a new scientific understanding of the state religious policy at different stages of development of the historical past and present. Research methods. The research project studies Baptists, Evangelical Christians, Seventh-day Adventists, and Pentecostals, utilizing the principles of objectivity, ideological pluralism, complexity, methodologies of mathematical statistics, comparative studies, and problem-chronological method. The study is …

Agent-Operational Activities Of Soviet Security Services In A Protestant Environment (1945-1953), Oleksandr Trygub

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The place and role of Soviet security services in the development of two Protestant movements, Pentecostals and Adventists-Reformists, are examined in the paper, based on previously classified documents of the Committee for State Security of the USSR. The development of these confessions in the late Stalinist post-war period of 1945-1953 is analyzed.

The main intention of the Soviet state security services among Pentecostals was to dissolve them through integration with the Baptist congregations. The August Agreement on integrating Evangelical Christians-Baptists and Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals), carefully prepared by the special services, was not fully concluded. Most of the Pentecostal …

Volyn Confessors Of The ‘Spirit Movement’: Survival Practices In The Context Of Soviet Totalitarianism, Iryna Panchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The trajectories of the modern “Spirit Movement” affirm qualitatively new phenomena in the Ukrainian evangelical movement and religious life in the region. The rapid development of Pentecostalism in the Volyn region, where a third of all Pentecostals in the Ukraine live, its active entry “into the world” and its capacity for creative contextualization, necessitate a scholarly analysis of the “Spirit Movement.” It is revealed that the Pentecostal movement in the Volyn region during the time of the totalitarian period functioned as an association of Christians united not by institutional context but by a common charismatic experience. The indifferent attitude of …

Adventists And Pentecostals Of Donetsk Region In The Late Soviet Era: Between The Scylla Of Legalization And The Charybdis Of Opposition, Oksana Salata, Karen Nikiforov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article describes religious policy of the Soviet government concerning the Protestant communities on the basis of archival materials. Two different models of Soviet policy in the field of religion are analyzed, using the activities of the Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs in the Donetsk region in relation to Pentecostals and Adventists as an example. Ukrainian SSR was the "Bible belt" of the Soviet Union. Donetsk region was characterized by high percentage of Protestant communities in general and Adventist communities in particular. Most of the Adventist communities in the region were officially registered, and their members did not …

Visual Rhetoric Of Protestant Architecture (On The Example Of Adventist Churches In Kyiv), Petro Kotliarov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the features of the architecture of prayer houses of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Ukraine from the end of the 19th century to the present day. An attempt was made to explain the phenomenon of the development of Gothic elements in the construction of houses of worship in the late 20th - early 21st centuries, a chronological period that coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's independence. The connection and role of architecture with the dogmatic foundations of the doctrine of the SDA church have been established. The study partially refers to the methodological …

Monitoring Of The Living Conditions Of People With Disabilities In Ukraine Under The Conditions Of The Covid-19 Pandemic (On The Example Of Evangelical Christian Baptists), Olga Polumysna

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article finds that the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly affected social relations and exacerbated the already vulnerable situation of people with disabilities. Everything that was hidden or veiled in relation to people with disabilities by society has fully manifested. In these conditions it is necessary to monitor the living conditions of people with disabilities as the most vulnerable category of the population, which are currently ignored because healthy people suffer and are usually put first. The social and medical spheres proved to be the most unstable in the conditions of the pandemic in terms of assistance to vulnerable groups of …

Economic Ethics Of Ukrainian Protestants As A Means Of Stabilization Of Economic Processes, Liudmyla Shtanko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article considers the influence of Protestant business with its inherent business ethics, attitude to work, "labor ethics" on economic processes in Ukraine. It is noted that although Ukraine does not belong to a group of Protestant countries; Protestants take a very active position in addressing many issues of social orientation. This paper describes the activity of Protestants in various fields of public life in Ukraine, including science, education, health, legal, and social spheres. Protestant businessmen have formed a Protestant business environment, which can include enterprises and organizations founded by Protestants and the influence of the founders on the concept …

Ukranian Protestants’ Communicative Responses To The Covid-19 Pandemic, Maksym Balaklytskyi, Petro Kotliarov, Viacheslav Korchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article considers the reaction of Ukrainian Protestants to the Covid-19 pandemic. Most important for Protestant theologians was a discussion of the impact and consequences of the pandemic on church life. Most Protestants agreed to a hybrid model of church worship: online-offline as a manifestation of an open reaction to the changes that resulted from the introduction of state quarantine restrictions. During the pandemic, Ukrainian Protestants managed to move away from the established model that the church is a building and to accept the paradigm of the Church as the Body of Christ. Under limited conditions, digital Protestant theology began …

Ukrainian Protestant Youtube Livestreams During Coronavirus Pandemic: Statistics And Analytics, Maksym Balaklytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the statistics of Ukrainian Protestant digital activity. The key indicator of Ukrainian Protestant digital outreach is the increased number of livestreams in different styles and formats. I use “All-Ukrainian Sobor” NGO’s YouTube livestreams catalog as a working statistic model. In the course of study, two peaks in the overall number of views of all videos of a given YouTube channel were singled out. These peaks were (1) from 500K to 100K and (2) from 50K to 10K. Analysis of the views rating of a single YouTube channel proved to be somewhat random and non-indicative; nevertheless, views number …

The Attitude Of The Protestant Community To Disabled People In Ukraine, Olga Polumysna

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In this article, we research those publications that show examples of Protestant social service to people in need, including people with disabilities. Ukrainian scientific studies have not considered this issue but only briefly mentioned their charitable deeds. This article demonstrations that Protestant denominations in Ukraine--whether Baptists, Pentecostals or Adventists--are sympathetic to people with disabilities. They establish various organizations, foundations, and volunteer actions to care for them. Protestants rely on their religious teachings that call them to help those who need it. They help both morally and materially. The assistance is provided selectively, in those places where a certain community operates, …

Two Positions Of Ukrainian Protestants On The Question About Lgbt Community, Valentyna Kuryliak, Оlena Honcharova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The relevance of the study of protection-traditional Protestant positions regarding the promotion of the ideas of LGBT communities in Ukraine is due to the European integration processes, which have become a strategic guideline of Ukrainian aspirations for transformation, for which they have been carrying out reforms. The main task of the article is to display the Ukrainian evangelicals’ uncoordinated realities. These realities, on the one hand, seek to obtain various advantages from the European Union in the context of Ukraine’s European integration, and, on the other hand, are not ready to fully implement European guidelines. In Ukraine there are three …

Activity Of Evangelical Baptist Christians In Ukraine (1991-2021), Hnat Mierienkov, Mykhailo Fedorenko, Serhii Makarchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The religious movement of Evangelical Baptists is the largest in terms of the number of believers in the Ukrainian Protestant community. The review of missionary activity and social projects of this denomination presented is an outline of the key areas of work of Evangelical Baptists in Ukraine. The largest number of Protestant educational institutions in Ukraine belong to the Baptists. All Baptist educational institutions can be divided into two types: 1) general preparatory programs of state institutions (kindergartens, schools, institutes, educational centers), and 2) theological seminaries, which aim to train ministers to meet the spiritual needs of the church. Baptist …

Armed Conflict And Protestant Volunteering In Eastern Ukraine, Valentyna Kuryliak, Maksym Balaklytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The process of development and activity of Ukrainian Protestantism due to the influence of the recently destroyed Soviet ideology is somewhat complex and unstable. Protestants became noticeable to Ukrainian society after the events of Euromaidan and the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 in the center of the capital of Ukraine. The Protestant community, however, did make real, material contributions in the territory of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in April 2014. The aim of this article is to evaluate the volunteer work of Ukrainian Protestants and to understand the difference between secular …

Online Projects For Adventist Youth During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Valentyna Kuryliak, Mariia Ovchar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article explores and presents the first online projects that were organized by young people who are members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine. It was found that the initiators of the launch of the projects were the believing youth themselves, who, faced with the problem of the lack of weekly offline communication in churches, resorted to alternative methods of interaction. Online communication was developed in a youth style and focused on the interests and problems of young people, such as finding a life partner, learning to organize their time, complications in the development of spiritual life, etc. During …

Historical Memory Of Ukrainian Adventists In The Context Of Museum Work In Ukraine, Valentyna Kuryliak, Lyudmyla Kruglova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The research is aimed at comprehensive coverage of museum affairs in Ukraine in the context of the work of the private museum collection of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The authors set a threefold goal, which is to present the real situation of national and private museums, to define national memory, places of memory, and religious memory, and to acquaint readers with the museum exhibits of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine, which were not previously represented in the cultural and scientific circles of Ukraine and the world. In Ukraine, the issue of preserving cultural and religious monuments is acute, which …

Symbols Of Sacred Filling Of Religious Musical Art Of Ukraine, Maksym Melnychuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In the spectrum of the research of this paper lies the sacred essence of religious musical art and the symbolic component of spiritual music of Ukraine. This scholarly research is aimed to reflect the content essence of spiritual art in the sphere of the Ukrainian musical culture. This phenomenon is analyzed both as a result of a creative (figurative) thinking in generalization, and the spiritual inner necessity of comprehension of the metaphysical. Symbol is represented as a component of the sacred content of religious art, which reflects the irrationality of the constituent forms of spiritual music. A retrospective analysis of …

The Effects Of The Dominant Public Discourse And The Influence Of (Non)Knowledge As A Sign Of Resistance/Support To Women's Faith-Based Peace Activism In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Halida Đonlagić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article strives to offer general insight into the subject matter of the dominant public discourse and socio-cultural construction on which it is founded and created, as well as the experience of women activists in local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina who act guided by their religious beliefs. The influence of the context on women’s peace activism is observed, with special reference to women’s faith-based peace activism. The relationship between secular and theological feminism is scrutinized as well, along with its challenges and the effects of the subordination and complementarity theories which legitimize the hierarchical patriarchal structure that obstructs the …