Ukraine In Disarray: What’s What and What’s Next for Its Churches and Missionaries?

Ukraine In Disarray: What’s What and What’s Next for Its Churches and Missionaries?
Presented by Dr. Mark Elliott, Editor, East-West Church and Ministry Report

Political upheaval has engulfed Ukraine in recent months, including mass demonstrations in Ky-iv leading to the overthrow of pro-Russian President Yanukovich, Russia’s seizure and annexation of Crimea, and Ukraine’s faltering attempts to hold the rest of its territory intact. The Ukrainian crisis has presented the nation’s churches and missionaries with or deals’ and opportunities hardly imaginable a year ago. The country’s complex web of competing Orthodox jurisdictions, its energetic, Western-oriented Eastern-Rite Catholic community, and its vibrant and growing Protestant churches and missions defy tidy summations or analyses, especially now that an international political crisis has further complicated the picture. Still, our attempts to understand Ukraine and its crisis, its churches, and its dedicated missionaries will prove rewarding, worth the effort, and even inspiring.