Church Without Walls: Post-Soviet Baptists after the Ukrainian Revolution, 2013-14, Joshua T. Searle, 2016

lation as a whole. In the Ukrainian elections on 26" October 2014, four other Baptist Christians were elected to parliament (Verkhovna Rada). One of these was Pavel Unguryan, who now serves as Vice-Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine. In a statement to the European Baptist Federation, Unguryan reported on the persecution of Baptists in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, noting that, “The armed separatists are repeatedly breaking into the churches or believers’ homes and furiously shouting: ‘Our faith is Orthodox and you are traitors. You are American subjects and agents so we are going to eliminate you’.”** Turchynov’s brief term as President of Ukraine and the election of other Ukrainian Baptists to senior positions in government is symbolic of a deep shift in post-Soviet Baptists’ engagement in the political sphere. It is widely acknowledged that Baptist and evangelical Christians throughout Ukraine demonstrated overwhelming support for the Revolution of *! According to the Baptist World Alliance, in 2013 there were 2,363 Baptist churches in Ukraine with a combined membership of 120,963, which makes the Ukrainian Baptist Union the second largest Baptist community in Europe, after the Baptist Union of Great Britain, which had 129,430 members. Online: http://www.bwanet.org/about-us2/statistics. ° M. H. Uepenkos, “Kagpp Llepxau: mpoOsembl u 3ayqa4H XpucTHaHcKoro OOpa30BaHHA Ha BbIXOe 3 MocTcoBeTcKoro TpaH3HTa”, in Tpaduyua nodzomoe6Ku cayocumenet 6 Opamcmée eégaHeelbcKUX Xpucmuan- 6anmucmoe. Hcmopua u nepcnexmuévi (Moscow: ASR, 2013), 254-61. 3 Antoine Arjakovsky, Russie-Ukraine: De la guerre a la paix? (Paris: Parole et Silence, 2014), 67. * “Christians targeted by separatists in Ukraine”, Baptist Times (30" July, 2014). Online: http://www. baptist.org.uk/Articles/410184/Christians_targeted_by.aspx Dignity.*> Whereas previously the reaction of most evangelical Christians to political events in their country was ostensibly neutral, there is now a prevailing conviction among Ukrainian evangelicals that the church represents the interests of the Kingdom of God throughout society and in all its spheres.*° In an open letter, several leading Ukrainian Baptists insisted that, “Evangelical Christians cannot remain neutral while the state authorities are abusing their authority, while blood is being spilled by students, while corrupt courts pass tyrannical laws, and while law enforcement agencies do not protect the people and _ their representatives.”*’ The Ukrainian evangelical theologian, Viktor Manzhul, likewise reflected on the way that the Maidan demonstrations had caused a fundamental shift in attitudes towards politics among Ukrainian evangelicals: “Previously, the election of deputies, mayors and presidents was a private issue for each Christian to decide for him or herself; but Maidan forced us to understand our political beliefs in terms of our church unions and ass