LUM Global Secial -- Pray For Ukraines Sunday elections. Russian Ministries leader urges prayer during this weekends Ukraine elections
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
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ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA Friday, January 15, 2010 Russian Ministries leader urges prayer during this weekend's Ukraine elections UKRAINE (ANS) -- As all evangelical believers in Ukraine are mobilized to pray for and raise support to help the victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake, they're facing their own political challenge in their country as they make decisions in this weekend presidential elections to could have a significant impact on their country.
Russian Ministries Senior Vice President Sergey Rakhuba is appealing for urgent prayer during Ukraine's presidential elections this weekend. Sergey's main concern is if front runner Viktor Yanukovych comes to power, it could have significant implications for religious freedom for evangelical Christians throughout Ukraine. "Viktor Yanukovych the leader of the Party of Regions, who is currently ahead of his main rival Yulia Tymoshenko in the polls has spoken out in the past against the Evangelical church, saying that all priorities should be given to the Orthodox church because who wants the whole nation to follow this tradition," explains Sergey. He added: "Because he's supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, which monopolizes all religious activity back in Russia, it means if he wins, the evangelical church and all ex-patriot mission activities could be limited as they are in Russia under the current administration. It would mean they wouldn't be able to do their social ministries such as reaching out to needy children in orphanages and helping poor families, without an approval from the Orthodox Church.
"They won't be able to reach out to poor families or conduct evangelistic events or any outside church activities without special permission from the authorities and approved by their local Orthodox priest. From our experience in Russia none of the Orthodox priests would approve any religious activity especially involving the evangelical church but theirs. "So lots of Christian leaders have concerns that if this pro-Russian candidate wins the election he might apply the same approach to restrict religious freedom and will limit all other pro-active groups. So they would give a more prominent role to the Orthodox Church which is enjoying that cosy relationship in Russia, but also they have all the power to push everybody else out of Russia." No candidate is expected to win 50% or more of the votes in Sunday's election. The latest polls suggest that Viktor Yanukovych, seen as the pro-Russia candidate, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, will likely face off in a second round. Yanukovych is ahead of Tymoshenko in the polls, but given the high number of undecided voters, the result seems too close to predict. One thing seems certain, however: President Viktor Yushchenko, who led the so-called Orange Revolution of pro-democracy protests in late 2004, stands almost no chance of winning. Sergey says any hope of democracy for Ukraine, lies with the next generation of emerging leaders: "In the current Ukrainian presidential race, I don't see many good candidates because all have lost the trust of the people, but the next generation is the key for success there. "There are 18 candidates altogether. Only one out of those unknown ones, businessman Sergiy Tigibko, came through in the polls as possible and that's what Ukraine needs new political figures. People are simply tired and those who discredited themselves need to go out, so myself and many fellow nationals, really hope that new people come into office with fresh ideas for democracy. I urge people to pray that they will lead that country toward a democratic future that will allow the Gospel to continue to be spread throughout all of Ukraine's poor towns and change families, change communities, change people for Christ. "Ukraine has a chance as the country is so strategic in terms of geography and the economy. Ukraine is a gate to Europe as it lies between Asia, Europe and Russia so everybody wants to have a foot in Ukraine. So we really hope Ukraine will continue its pro-democratic course and be able to ally with Western democratic countries and I believe that's the chance for a successful future for that country." Russian Ministries works in eight countries in the former Soviet Union including Ukraine. For more details about their work go to: http://www.russian-ministries.org
** You may republish this story with proper attribution. <!--BYLINE:By Peter Wooding |
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