Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

still quite clear..A refrain I hear frequently is this: “We are living in a special time in history when, thank God, we have the freedom to do this or that’, i.e. minister to the sick, care for orphans, visit prisoners and so on. In fact, since the 1990s, charity has become an increasingly significant part of evangelical Christian — activity and identity. This paper provides a preliminary sketch of current social service ministry among Ukrainian evangelicals, based largely on personal observa- tion and reflection - my own, those of my Mennonite Central Committee co-workers? and those of local Christians. I focus on local ministry initia- tives, rather than projects and institutions established by foreign organisa- tions or individuals, although all of the ministries I discuss depend heavily on Western financing. As well as commenting on charity in the Russian ? A group that includes citizens of the US, Canada and Ukraine. 211 empire, the Soviet Union, and present-day Ukraine, I note some possible trends for the future. Historical Background Historians of the development of charitable organisations in Russia tend to end their outlines with the period 1861-1917.° The 1861 abolition of serfdom contributed to major social upheaval in Russia, as millions of peasants headed for the cities in search of work. Rapid urbanisation led to poverty, overcrowding, hunger, poor sanitation, lack of education and disease, crying out for a response from the government and private citizens. During this period, many private charitable institutions were established to meet the needs of the poor. The 1900 directory Blagotvoritel'nye uchrezh- deniia Rossiiskoi imperii [Charitable institutions of the Russian empire] states: “In general, the beginning of significant growth in [the number of] charitable institutions dates back to 1861; from that year until 1899, 95% of all societies and 82% of all institutions functioning today were founded.”* Although the figure may be based on inexact information - the lack of systematic record keeping was a frequent complaint from delegates at congresses of charitable institutions held in 1910 and 1914 - a count made in 1900 claimed 13,918 charities in the empire.*® Further research is needed to determine the manner and extent of evangelical Christian involvement, particularly in Ukraine. However, the official existence of non-government charity ended in 1917. After the Bolshevik revolution, social welfare became the exclusive prerogative of the state, and even the definition of charity (sometimes called philanthropy) changed. The 2001 monograph Zarubezhnyi opyt sotsial'noi raboty v ramkakh rossiiskoi blagotvoritel‘nosti [Foreign social work experience in the framework of Russian charity] cites several defi- nitions of charity from reference books of different periods to illustrate > For example, V. Gorokhovyi, “Organizatsiia trudovoi pomoshchi v zapadnoi Evrope, Sev- ernoi Amer