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

ociations.”**® Like the Baptists, other Christian communities in Ukraine likewise discovered a new prophetic mandate to demonstrate solidarity with the Ukrainian people.*® In the wake of the Revolution of Dignity, explains Mykhailo Cherenkov, “Protestants became ‘Ukrainian Protestants’, having begun to speak about the Ukrainian people as their own, historical churches as ‘brotherly’ institutions, social injustice as a plea for Christian solidarity, and politics as a common affair.” They were not consciously seeking solidarity, but, rather, they “found it manifested in their solidarity with the Ukrainian people, as if it were a gift.”*° The denominational leaders of the Ukrainian Baptist community have consistently supported the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity and have been involved in costly and courageous attempts to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in the occupied territories and to refugees throughout Ukraine. The current President of the Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine, Valeriy Antonyuk remarks that, “The church of Christ in Ukraine is an integral part of the Ukrainian nation, so we are aware of our spiritual responsibility to our people, especially in conditions of war.””*! Similarly, Vice President, Igor Bandura, observes that the Revolution of 3 Topgees, Llepxoes na maudane, 268-84. a Topaees, Llepxoes na maudane, 183-86. [7“OrKpbIToOe HCbMO XpHcTHaHcKoMy cooOmecrsy Yxpaunsr’ (11 December, 2013). Online: http://www.christianmegapolis.com/20 13/12/4923. Buxtop Marxyu, “IIporecrantu3m B Yxpanue 2014 roa. CoOnirua, TeHeHI{MH, BbIZOBbI, HepCleKTHBE!”. Online: risu.org.ua/ru/index/expert_thought/analytic/58704. *» On this point, see the excellent article by Maryana Hnyp, “Ukraine’s Spiritual Awakening”, New Eastern Europe 3-4 (May—August 2015), 55-62. on Mykhailo Cherenkov, “Ukrainian Protestants After Maidan”, Euxeinos. Governance and Culture in the Black Sea Region 17 (April, 2015), 42. * AnrontoK, CeanzerocoKka Hu6a 3 (2014), 2. Dignity, and the war between Russia and Ukraine which followed, helped to impress on the Baptist community “the importance and value of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and the separation of church and state.” He adds that Ukrainian Baptists now have a greater understanding of their responsibility for raising a prophetic voice to uphold the justice, dignity and rights of the Ukrainian people as whole.” The Revolution of Dignity can thus be understood not merely as a political or even social event, but as a catalyst of deep, tectonic shifts in thinking about the interrelation between the church and the world, the nature of prophetic witness and the role of mission. The main difference between the Revolution of Dignity and earlier episodes of revolutionary ferment in post-Soviet Ukraine has been the unprecedented ecumenical mobilisation of all the main Ukrainian churches in support of the civil demonstrations in defence of fundamen