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

esult and fresh elections were called, which resulted in a majority for the reformist President, Viktor Yushchenko. Unfortunately for Ukraine, the new leaders of the Orange government were unable to unite and soon succumbed to infighting, which gave the opportunity for Yanukovych to be elected in 2010 with the help of Putin’s Russia, which spent millions of dollars on Yanukovych’s election > Matthew Luxmoore, “Journalists gather for Mezyhirya Fest investigate conference at fugitive ex-president’s estate,” Kyiv Post 8" June 2014. ° Andrew Wilson, Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West (Yale: Yale University Press, 2014), 2. rae Ibid., 36. * Kpucruna Bepaunckux, €0du: Tenai icmopii 3 Maiidany (Kyiv: Bright Star Publishing, 2014). campaign. The result was an unmitigated disaster for Ukraine, as the country was brought further into Russia’s sphere of influence and corruption became even more endemic at every level of Ukrainian society. One of the key differences between the 2014 demonstrations and both the Declaration of Independence in 1991 and the Orange Revolution of 2004-5 was the unprecedented ecumenical mobilisation of all the main Ukrainian churches in defence of fundamental human values of dignity and freedom. For the first time in post-Soviet history, all the major churches stood in solidarity with society against the state. This is important because recent surveys have shown that the church enjoys the highest level of trust among all sectors of Ukrainian society.’ The support that the churches gave to the Revolution of Dignity seems to have further consolidated this trust among the general population. At the height of the protests in December 2013, my friend and former colleague, Dr Mykhailo Cherenkov, commented that, “While the government is paralyzed, the church has become a source of support. People are hiding in churches from the repression of the police, church representatives are calling on the people to take peaceful action and on the authorities to fear God. The main force behind the protests is young people and students — the future of Ukraine.” For the first time in post- Soviet history, the church in Ukraine was found to be on the side of social reform. The response of the Ukrainian churches to the recent revolutionary events will be a major focus of this lecture.'° The Plight of Baptists in Ukraine Today Now that the protests on Kyiv’s central square are over and a new democratic government has been elected, Ukraine is now under a concerted attack and occupation by regular Russian armed forces, who have joined forces with local pro-Russian militia in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine. In July 2014, the major Baptist seminary in Eastern Ukraine, Donetsk Christian University (DCU), was forcibly seized by Russian special forces, operating under the cover of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”. This significant hub of Baptist education, where my wife and I worked from 2011 to 20