All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christians Churches – Pentecostals leader sees the threat of loss of Ukrainian independence
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Kamis, 22 September 2011
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He notes that the latest tendencies indicate the minimization of democratic development in Ukraine. Panochko feels that the decline in democratic values threatens national division and loss of Ukrainian independence. He underlines that high-ranking politicians are responsible for this situation.
“State power must be sensitive to the temperature of society,” says the Bishop.
Michael Panochko believes that the situation depends to a large extent on the position of the church since it is the institution with the highest authority in society. He believes that “the church will never agree to incite an uprising, but it must defend her members from unlawful actions sanctioned by governmental authority.”
The Bishop supports the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kiev Patriarchate, the Roman Catholic Church of Ukraine and the Evangelical Christians – Baptists, coming forward in defense of Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuri Lucenko who are still in charge. He thinks that church must respond to such facts, because it is not the Biblical position to put a person behind bars to show strength and superiority.
Panochko emphasizes that church shouldn’t deal in politics, but should “retain spiritual influence on every sphere of social life”. He points out that the church’s nature is to recondition people’s souls to ensure that spiritually healthy people will deal in politics, economy and other areas.
“Firstly, we should pray for our officials, then we have to defend our rights in respective places. We have the right to say to officials that demanding a bribe, is an unlawful action, breaks the Constitution and compromises the power which was given to him by God. If everyone acted in this way, the changes would begin,” asserts the Bishop. (CT)
