The ROCU considered topical issues of church-state relations and planned events for the current year
On March 20, 2025, a meeting of the Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine (CEPCU) was held in Kyiv under the chairmanship of Senior Bishop Oleksandr Zaitsev of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church, which considered a number of issues of church-state relations, analyzed previous activities, and considered issues of further work of the Council.
Viktor Voynalovych, First Deputy Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), in his speech expressed gratitude to the Evangelical Protestant churches for their spiritual, humanitarian and social service to the Ukrainian people during the war, He also informed the participants of the meeting of the Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine about the draft regulations being developed by the State Department of Economic Development and Trade, the status of implementation of the governmental resolution on the reservation of clergy and the procedure for foreign travel by church representatives for religious and humanitarian purposes.
The heads and authorized representatives of the churches analyzed the advocacy activities of the RECCU to convey truthful information on the international level about Russian aggression against Ukraine, religious persecution by the occupation authorities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as humanitarian initiatives to help Ukraine at the present time and in the context of post-war reconstruction.
The participants of the meeting of the Council discussed a number of issues related to the performance of pastoral ministry during the war and planned to hold the second Interfaith Forum of Military Chaplains “United in Service” in October this year. The members of the Council supported the initiative to exchange experience and coordinate activities in the field of military chaplaincy.
The participants of the meeting supported the proposal of the Secretariat of the Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine to hold events on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine, in particular, in June 2025, a solemn meeting of the Council and other events throughout the year. As you know, the Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine was established in 2005 to coordinate dialogue and cooperation between various evangelical churches to promote freedom of religion, spread Christian values and morality in Ukrainian society.
As of today, the RECCU consists of 20 evangelical churches (17 churches are members of the Council, 3 churches have the status of observers).
Special attention at the meeting was paid to the discussion of moral and spiritual education in secondary schools, and appropriate decisions were made to support developments in this area and implement them in cooperation with other Christian churches.
