United Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith in the Republic of Belarus

The first followers of evangelical Christianity have been known on the territory of the Republic of Belarus since 1882 in Chechersk . The first community, grouped around Elizabeth Chertkova , received assistance from St. Petersburg ^[2] .

The spread of Pentecostalism, as well as other branches of Protestantism, was facilitated by the First World War - the Belarusians, drafted into the Russian army and captured by the Germans, visited partially Protestant Germany. In the 1920s, preachers of Christians of the Evangelical faith and evangelical Christians-Baptists, among whom prisoners of war stood out, actively acted on the territory of modern Vitebsk, Gomel, Minsk, Mogilev regions. The rapid growth in the number of all Protestant communities attracted the attention of the RCP (b) and KP (b) B in 1925, which began to study the Protestant movement ^[3] . In Western Belarus, Protestant creeds spread faster due to a three-year occupation by the German army, the active departure of the population abroad and the subsequent return of foreign missionaries, especially until 1924, when the Polish government banned missionary activity. The region of the greatest spread of Pentecostalism was Polesie: in Pruzhany in the 1930s, there were up to 500 Christians of the evangelical faith. In total, in Polesie Voivodeship in 1934, there were 3,794 Pentecostals, of which 894 lived in Pinsk and 409 in the Stolin County. In the mid-1930s, the spread of Pentecostalism began in the north, in Molodechno and its western environs, as well as in other settlements ^[4] .

The post-war “August Agreement” on the organizational union of evangelical Christians - Baptists and Christians of the evangelical faith allowed most Pentecostal communities in the BSSR (83) to legalize. However, there was opposition to this initiative: 28 communities refused to register with the Council for Religious Cults under the USSR Council of Ministers for the BSSR and unite with the Baptists. At the end of 1949, the leaders of the Pentecostal movement in the BSSR were arrested. The representative of the Council for Religious Cults K. Ulasevich openly admitted that the repressions undertaken would have a positive effect on “undermining the sectarian movement in the BSSR” ^[5] .

At a conference in Minsk on November 18, 1989, the Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith was created. In February 1991, the first congress of the Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith was held, at which the charter was adopted on February 8. In 1997, the third congress of the Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith in the Republic of Belarus was held. On May 7, 2007, the Union of Christians of the Evangelical Faith in the Republic of Belarus decided to rename it, and has since been known under its modern name ^[1] .

As of January 1, 2009, there were exactly 500 Christian communities of the gospel faith in the country, including ^[6] :

• Brest region - 155;
• Vitebsk region - 51;
• Gomel region - 68;
• Grodno region - 32;
• Minsk region - 133;
• Mogilev region - 39;
• Minsk - 22.

According to the Theological Institute of XBE, in addition to registered religious communities, in 2012 there were “over 100 unregistered churches” in the country. The total number of baptized believers is estimated at 32 thousand people, the number of visitors to divine services - at 55 thousand people ^[1] .

• Bishop of the United Church of the XBE in the Republic of Belarus - Tsvor Sergey Pavlovich (since March 15, 2014, who replaced Khomich Sergey Sergeyevich ) ^{[7] [8]}
  • Deputy Bishop of the United Church XBE in Belarus - Leonid V. Biryuk
  • Deputy Bishop of the United Church of the XBE in Belarus - Sergey Podnyuk
• Bishop of the XBE Association in the Brest Region - Tsvor Fedor Pavlovich
  • Deputy Bishop of the XBE Association in the Brest Region - Kreidich Vasily Mikhailovich
• Bishop of the XBE Association in Minsk and the Minsk Region - Mikhail Vladimirovich Voinilovich
  • Deputy Bishop of the XBE Association in Minsk and the Minsk Region - Sergey Mikhailovich Stasilevich
• Bishop of the XBE Association in the Gomel region - Zavadsky Vasily Vasilyevich
  • Zavatsky Alexander Stepanovich, Deputy Bishop of the Association of Churches of the XBE in the Gomel Region
• Bishop of the XBE Association in the Mogilev Region - Alexander Gulko
• Bishop of the Association of Churches of XBE in the Vitebsk Region - Pavel Chinikailo
  • Deputy Bishop of the Association of Churches of the XBE in the Vitebsk Region - Alexander Zaretsky
• Bishop of the XBE Association in the Grodno Region - Evening Grigory Arkadevich

• Protestantism in Belarus

• Official site
• Grace Magazine (print organ)