Many churches in eastern Ukraine have stopped meeting after Russian-backed rebels ordered a ban on services.
Rebel leaders in the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic, seized from Ukraine in 2014, have declared all unregistered religious groups illegal.
Protestant, Seventh Day Adventist and Pentecostal churches have all had their applications rejected: the 48 Baptist churches in the region did not apply to register on principle.
Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine while they are unable to meet.
Baptist leaders say that they are complying with the ban because they fear that their services will be raided or they will be arrested. Other churches have closed too and some pastors have reportedly left the region. Local Christians believe they are under surveillance.
Already, certain Baptist leaders have been targeted for persecution. Pastor Anatoly Tolstenko, who is 82, is on trial for leading ‘illegal worship’ after rebel fighters raided his Path of Salvation Church in Luhansk last month. Militants say they found banned ‘extremist’ literature at the church: local Christians say it had been planted there.
Russian-backed rebels control about a third of Ukraine’s Luhansk Region and about half of neighbouring Donetsk Region.
- Ask God to give wisdom and strength to church leaders in the Luhansk region.
- Pray that Christians in the area will find alternative ways to meet and have fellowship.
- Thank God that the government of this region – and of the whole world – is on His shoulders and that ‘in all things God works for the good of those who love Him’ (Romans 8:28).
(Source: Forum 18)