Delegation of Ukrainian Clergy Visiting Houston

Members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) will be attending services in Houston on Sunday, November 5th.

A few weeks ago, I heard about a group of Ukrainian clergy coming to the USA, which I thought was great knowing as I do just how much American and Ukrainian Christians - and other faiths – have in common.

So, I was particularly excited when the group’s sponsor Razom for Ukraine reached out to me to see if I could recommend a mega-church in Houston that the group might be able to connect with. 15 members of UCCRO, including leaders from the Jewish, Muslim, Crimean Tatar, and Orthodox Church religious communities, will join the trip along with Evangelicals, Catholics, and others.

I sent them three churches I had recently visited on Back to Bucha’s Texas Scouting Tour:

• Northside Christian Church (Spring)
• Sagemont Church
• St. Martin’s Episcopal Church

Lo and behold the group said that they would like to visit all three! In the end though time allows for just two including a morning service at Northside Christian and an evening service at St. Martin’s. Together with the tremendous reception organized at Ecclesia’s West Side Campus last night the delegation will see a wonderful slice of what Houston’s Christian community offers its faithful. It will be the finale of a whirlwind trip for the group which started Oct. 28th in Washington, DC.

​Here is a list of the delegates:

1. Yevstratiy (Zoria), Metropolitan of Bila Tserkva, spokesman of the Kyiv Metropolis, Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
2. Oleksa Petriv, Head of the Department of External Relations in Ukraine of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, archpriest
3. Vitalii Kryvytskyi, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, Ordinary of Kyiv-Zhytomyr
4. Anatoliy Kozachok, Senior Bishop of the Ukrainian Pentecostal Church
5. Anatoliy Raychynets, Deputy Secretary General of Ukrainian Bible Society, pastor
6. Ivan Rusyn, Deputy Senior Bishop of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church
7. Stanislav Nosov, President of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine, Chairman of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations
8. Yaakov Dov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine, Founder and President of the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine
9. Akhmed Tamim, Supreme Mufti of Ukraine, Head of the Religious Administration of Ukrainian Muslims
10. Ayder Rustemov, Supreme Mufti of Crimea, Head of the Religious Administration of Muslims of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
11. Oleksandr Zaiets, Board Chairman of Institute for Religious Freedom
12. Maksym Krupskyi, Head of the Department of Public Affairs and Religious Freedom of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ukraine, pastor, interpreter
13. Pavlo Feldblium, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Jewish Religious Organizations
14. Maksym Vasin, Executive Director of Institute for Religious Freedom

​I am honored and excited to be acting as their guide on the 5th!

​“The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) was established in 1996 as an interdenominational institution, aiming to unite the efforts of various denominations to focus on the spiritual revival of Ukraine, coordination of interconfessional dialogue in Ukraine and abroad, participation in a legislative process on church-state issues, and the implementation of comprehensive charitable actions. Today, it is one of the largest non-governmental institutions in Ukraine, representing over 95% of all religious communities in Ukraine. UCCRO works closely with the Ukrainian government, civil society, and international organizations, including on the issues pertaining to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”

Click here for the press release.