On January 22, the Ministry of Justice registered the civic association All-Ukrainian Council. Evangelical Churches, known religious and public figures initiated the foundation of this association, the Institute of Religious Freedom reports. The Spiritual Council of the All-Ukrainian Council includes the chairman of the Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine, Senior Bishop of the Ukrainian Church of the Evangelical Christians Mykhailo Panochko, Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists Valeriy Antoniuk, Senior Bishop of the Ukrainian Free Church of Evangelical Christians Vasyl Raichynets, Head of Ukrainian Christian Church New Generation Andriy Tyshchenko, Bishop of the Council of Independent Evangelical Churches of Ukraine Anatoliy Kalyuzhny and others leaders of religious organizations.

Oleksandr Turchynov was elected coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Council. The commencement of the unification of religious and civic organizations in the association to ensure the Christian way of development of Ukraine was announced during a large-scale celebration of Thanksgiving which took place in September 2018 on Khreshchatyk in Kyiv.

According to the coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Council, it is highly symbolic that the All-Ukrainian Council was registered on the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Unification Act between the UNR and the ZUNR. “This is a beautiful symbolic beginning of the activities of our Council whose goal is also unification. The rallying of religious, public organizations and all active enthusiastic citizens around the idea of ​​Christian development of Ukraine,” said Oleksandr Turchynov. He added that “only the foundation of eternal Christian values ​​can build the greatness and power of our state.”

The main tasks and directions of the activity of the All-Ukrainian Council are the spread of Christian values ​​through cultural, educational, volunteer and youth projects, popularization of a healthy lifestyle, counteraction to negative social phenomena, etc. All-Ukrainian Council is not a political party and is not an ecumenical association. (Quelle: www.risu.org.ua, 23. Januar 2019)