Ukraine is sending its largest-ever delegation to a gathering of politically influential Christian leaders in Washington this week, searching for to put out an argument that defending non secular freedom is a powerful cause for persevering with U.S. assist to withstand Russian aggression.
The Ukrainian pastors, members of Parliament and army chaplains who will probably be attending the Nationwide Prayer Breakfast say they hope the message of combating non secular persecution will resonate with the Trump administration officers and members of Congress who’re positive to even be there.
The prayer breakfast, a serious occasion on Washington’s social calendar since 1953, presents a possibility for enterprise executives, non secular leaders and diplomats to jockey for entry to influential coreligionists in authorities to sway insurance policies. Whereas the assembly is open to all faiths, its objective, based on its web site, is ”gathering collectively within the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth.”
The Ukrainians will argue to these gathered that additional Russian advances would increase a zone of repression of a number of Christian denominations, in addition to the destruction and looting of churches and the arrests of pastors and clergymen — actions that rights teams have documented in areas already beneath Russian occupation.
“Russia doesn’t simply kill individuals, doesn’t simply destroy our cities — Russia additionally destroys and bans non secular communities” in areas beneath its management, mentioned Roman Lozynskyi, a member of Parliament with the opposition Holos Get together.
Mr. Lozynskyi is a member of the Greek Catholic Church, a part of a department often called Japanese Ceremony Catholicism that follows the Vatican, that’s persecuted in Russian-held elements of Ukraine. He recalled the deportation of a good friend and Greek Catholic priest within the Russian-held metropolis of Melitopol for instance of the suppression of Catholic congregations beneath occupation.
Greater than 100 Ukrainian pastors, politicians, army chaplains and clergymen, together with the pinnacle of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphanius I, are in Washington for the prayer breakfast on Thursday and associated occasions by the week, mentioned Pavlo Unguryan, a former Parliament member organizing the Ukrainian effort.
Ukrainian Orthodox clergymen and parishes are among the many targets in japanese Ukraine. An estimated 50 clergymen in Russian-occupied territories — together with essentially the most senior church official in Kherson, who refused to hitch the Russian Orthodox Church — have been killed over the past three years, Metropolitan Epiphanius I mentioned in an interview. Different clergymen have been pressured to depart or to have a good time Mass in secret.
The Ukrainians additionally intend to focus on the plight of evangelicals, mentioned Mr. Unguryan, who’s Baptist. Inside its borders, Russia has focused evangelical Christians with investigations and has arrested Jehovah Witnesses. The repression extends to occupied Ukraine.
“Ukraine is the middle of the Bible Belt of Europe,” mentioned Mr. Unguryan, and expressions of evangelical religion there at the moment are beneath risk. About a million Ukrainians attend evangelical companies weekly, he mentioned.
Russia occupies about 19 % of Ukrainian territory and is making slow but steady gains. Ukraine is defending itself in fierce trench preventing alongside an about 600-mile entrance.
“Part of this struggle is non secular,” Mr. Unguryan mentioned. “It will be significant for America to learn about this.”
The Ukrainians attending the prayer breakfast need to showcase the vitality of Christian church buildings within the nation, the place about 70 % of the inhabitants say in surveys they’re non secular.
The trouble is geared toward swaying supporters of Mr. Trump, who has voiced skepticism concerning the Biden administration’s heavy army and monetary assist to Ukraine. This week Mr. Trump mentioned continued assist might be exchanged for U.S. access to Ukrainian minerals.
Earlier non secular outreaches in the USA have already yielded outcomes for Ukraine.
Final summer season, the speaker of the Home, Mike Johnson, gave a video handle to a Christian gathering in Ukraine. Ukrainian Baptists have appealed to him for army and diplomatic help for his or her nation. Mr. Johnson is a Southern Baptist who has put his conservative Christian religion on the middle of his political profession.
Ukrainian church buildings and the nation’s Parliament have despatched delegations to the breakfast because the early 2000s, however lately have ramped up attendance, calling the annual go to “Ukraine Week” in Washington. In previous years, a number of dozen non secular and political leaders turned up. The bigger delegation this 12 months, Mr. Unguryan mentioned, is in recognition of the significance of Christianity for a lot of supporters of Mr. Trump.
“These are completely essential points which might unite Ukraine, a really conservative, Christian nation, with a really conservative, Christian America,” mentioned Mr. Unguryan, who has promoted conservative social insurance policies in Ukraine.
Ukrainian protestant pastors have volunteered broadly as army chaplains in the course of the struggle, Liudmyla Filipovych, a Ukrainian scholar of faith, mentioned in an interview. Ukrainian evangelicals have opened about 100 church buildings in different European international locations to supply Ukrainian-language companies to the nation’s refugees, she mentioned.
Russia beneath President Vladimir V. Putin has sidelined or banned church buildings exterior what the Kremlin has referred to as the 4 “conventional” religions — Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. Russia is on a U.S. authorities record of “international locations of explicit concern” for proscribing freedom of faith.
In occupied territory in Ukraine’s east and south, Catholic and Protestant church buildings face “threats, interrogations and arbitrary arrests,” based on a report launched in January by Mission Eurasia, a bunch selling evangelical Christianity in former Soviet States.
“The Russian occupation authorities have additionally extensively engaged in unlawful imprisonment and convictions on fabricated costs of extremism, torture and even homicide,” the report mentioned. It described situations of closing and looting church buildings, and eradicating their crosses. General, Russia’s invasion has destroyed, broken or led to the looting of at the very least 630 non secular websites, the report mentioned.
Metropolitan Epiphanius’s go to to Washington is a part of his efforts to win worldwide recognition of his church and help from non secular leaders for its stand towards Russia. His church gained independence in 2019 from the Russian Orthodox Church, however some congregations continued to observe the hierarchy in Moscow.
Final 12 months, Ukraine banned the Orthodox branch aligned with the Russian Church, drawing criticism from the Kremlin and from Pope Francis. Ukrainian officers have mentioned the restrictions have been obligatory, as some clergymen served as Russian spies or inspired congregants to hope for the pinnacle of the Russian church, which has blessed the invasion.
“The Russian church has tried to dam our exercise overseas, and we try to unblock it, as a result of the church is likely one of the most essential components for the way forward for the existence of the Ukrainian state,” Metropolitan Epiphanius, the Ukrainian church chief, mentioned in an interview in December in Rome. “We try to destroy these blocks, talking the reality, as a result of fact destroys the partitions.”
Lately, he has preached that message to as many spiritual leaders as he can attain. He says he talks repeatedly to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the non secular chief of the world’s Orthodox Christians.
With discussions swirling amongst Western officers over easy methods to negotiate an finish to the struggle, Metropolitan Epiphanius mentioned the end result for Ukraine was unpredictable, however he left little doubt of his hopes for Ukraine’s future.
“We imagine that God may create the miracle, the identical as he created a miracle for Syria, and Assad left Syria,” he mentioned. “We ask all people for the non secular weapons, the prayers.”
