About 1000 Protestants of Ukraine running for deputies

Alexander Turchynov speaks to the participants of the forum "Ukraine before the Elections". Photo: sobor.com.ua

About 1000 representatives of various Protestant churches of Ukraine have declared their desire to run for local government bodies, reports the website sobor.com.ua.

On October 1, 2020, the forum “Ukraine before the Elections” was held under the auspices of the All-Ukrainian Council. The candidates for deputies of local councils participating in it received a “spiritual direction”.

The candidates for deputies from the Protestant churches were called upon to refrain "from possible conflicts in inter-party relations", "to closely interact with their churches" and "uphold Christian values". Also, the launch of the "Assistance Coordination Headquarters for Churches and Future Christian MPs" was announced.

Alexander Turchinov, the coordinator of the “All-Ukrainian Council”, noted in his report that “practically all the largest and richest countries in the world were built by Protestants who stood firm for the faith ... But in the last century, our brothers and sisters took it easy and many of them moved away from influence on politics, power, development of their own countries, which led to serious negative consequences in the socio-economic and spiritual spheres of many countries."

According to the chairman of the Spiritual Council of the “All-Ukrainian Council” Valery Antoniuk, “spiritual ignorance, unscrupulousness or open disregard for God's laws of candidates for leadership positions is a signal for Christians to refrain from supporting them”.

He is convinced that the participation of Christians in the leadership of the state is important and necessary. According to him, "you need to be responsible for your choice and elect people to power according to criteria that meet God's Word and our Christian expectations".

The Forum participants adopted a resolution calling on Protestant churches to “actively support in the local elections on October 25, 2020, candidates for deputies from among evangelical believers and other Christians, and especially those who signed the Declaration of a Christian candidate, taking on obligations to actively defend spiritual and moral values in their future work”.

Also, it was decided that candidates for local self-government bodies sign the “Declaration of a Christian candidate”.

The Forum participants are confident that Christians "as members of local councils will be able to do a lot to promote spiritual values in their cities, towns and regions".

In particular, they will be able to “promote the activities of local religious communities, protect and affirm family values, expand assistance to socially disadvantaged groups, work with young people, and introduce programmes on Christian ethics and preparation for family life based on Christian values in educational institutions”.

As reported earlier, OCU "priests" openly campaign for Poroshenko's party.

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