Skip to content

ASSIST NEWS

Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times

Primary Menu
  • Dan Wooding, Founder
  • Our Writers
  • Story Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Log In
Live
  • Home
  • ANS Reports
  • In Luhansk People’s Republic, Baptist Churches Are forced to Halt Services
  • ANS Feature
  • ANS Reports
  • Persecution

In Luhansk People’s Republic, Baptist Churches Are forced to Halt Services

Jeff Thompson March 20, 2019 2 min read
Luhansk People's Republic

Luhansk is a breakaway region in East Ukraine

Luhansk is a breakaway region in East Ukraine

Luhansk People’s Republic, Ukraine – Officials of the unrecognized Luhansk People’s Republic threatened Baptist Union pastors not to meet for worship, sending “a clear message that they will not tolerate such meetings for worship any more”. Officials regard all Protestant churches as “illegal”. The 82-year-old independent Baptist pastor Anatoly Tolstenko faces court on 21 March.

This news story of the persecution of Protestant Christians in the Russian dominated Luhansk region of Ukraine was first published by Forum 18 News Service in Oslo, Norway.

Officials of the unrecognized Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine have ordered Baptist Union churches to halt their public worship or risk punishment. “Officials earlier didn’t insist that our churches should not meet for worship,” Pastor Igor Bandura of the Ukrainian Baptist Union told Forum 18. “But they have now sent a clear message that they will not tolerate such meetings for worship anymore.”

“All Baptist churches that have prayer houses will halt meetings in them, so Sunday worship and other services from 17 March onwards will not take place,” Pastor Bandura added. He said church members fear that if they do not halt their worship, officials could raid their worship meetings or arrest church leaders.

The LPR authorities have rejected all registration applications from Protestant communities. “Unfortunately the situation for all Protestant churches is bad,” a Protestant from a different community in contact with fellow church members in the region told Forum 18 from the Ukrainian capital Kiev on 14 March. “We do not have registration in the LPR and do
not have the right to meet in our buildings, which have been closed.”

Meanwhile, about ten masked and armed fighters raided a worship meeting in February of Path of Salvation independent Baptist church in the city of  Luhansk. The church’s 82-year-old pastor, Anatoly Tolstenko, is due again in court on 21 March accused of leading illegal worship.

During a search, the men seized books which the authorities of the unrecognized entity have banned as “extremist”, including Jehovah’s Witness publications. Friends of the community insist the armed fighters planted the books. “These were not their books – the men planted them,” Sergei Kosyak, a Protestant and former resident of Donetsk, told Forum 18.

Jeff Thompson

In 1978 at the age of 21, Jeff moved to Vienna, Austria to smuggle bibles behind the Iron Curtain. His book, “Leaving The American Sector” available from www.mercyprojects.org chronicles many stories from that time period. He leads Mercy Projects in Murrieta, CA assisting vulnerable children and families in Ukraine, Kosovo, and Armenia. He enjoys espresso from around the world, and this gives him the energy to tell his grandchildren stories of being banned from Russia twice in his lifetime. Dan Wooding and Jeff have known each other for many years.

See author's posts

Continue Reading

Previous: Alabama Recognizes the Assyrian, Armenian, Greek Genocide
Next: ‘Palau’ movie: Big dreams, remembering roots

Related Stories

Iraqi Christians struggle to survive 20 years after war
10 min read
  • Persecution

Iraqi Christians struggle to survive 20 years after war

June 6, 2023
Muslim man leaves Christian wife in safari park to be eaten by wild animals
3 min read
  • Persecution

Muslim man leaves Christian wife in safari park to be eaten by wild animals

May 30, 2023
Al-Queda frees Australian doctor held seven years
1 min read
  • Persecution

Al-Queda frees Australian doctor held seven years

May 26, 2023
Support Assist News

Introduction To Assist News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=mbFxZL-bL7g

Search

Support Assist News
  • Dan Wooding, Founder
  • Our Writers
  • Story Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Log In
Copyright ASSIST NEWS © All rights reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.

logo

Get Updates in Your Inbox