German Evangelical Lutheran head says Ukraine’s European integration inevitable

2013/10/31 14:12:24

“The integration process will be accompanied with the fight against corruption, economic crimes, ‘cronyism,’ the modernization of industrial facilities, improved level of public services, improved law enforcement, medical and insurance systems, etc.,” said Bishop-elect Serge Maschewski, the first GELCU bishop born in the former Soviet Union.

 


KYIV, Oct 31, 2013 (UBO) - Representatives of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine (GELCU) positively evaluate Ukraine’s movement toward the European Union, although there are processes taking place in the EU that they do not like, Bishop-elect Serge Maschewski, head of the GELCU, said during a RISU web conference.

 

“From my point of view, the European integration of Ukraine is inevitable and in many aspects it will have a positive impact on the lives of ordinary citizens,” he said.

 

According to the bishop-elect, European integration will provide increased levels of material well-being to Ukraine’s citizens and guarantee certain political freedoms.

 

“The integration process will be accompanied with the fight against corruption, economic crimes, ‘cronyism,’ the modernization of industrial facilities, improved level of public services, improved law enforcement, medical and insurance systems, etc.,” said the bishop-elect.

 

Meanwhile, he says that in moving closer to the EU, the church will face a new challenge – secular society.

 

“On the other hand, the question arises about the risks of the juvenile justice system, gender policy, the system of education, and the forcible introduction of models of family arrangement that are alien to our society,” he said.

 

The incoming head of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine also said that soon the church would publish more details on this issue.

 

More on the church and its new bishop, the first born in the FSU

 

Today the GELCU counts in 30 communities about 3,000 evangelical Christians. The spiritual and organizational center is the Church of St. Paul in Odesa*.

 

Bishop-elect Maschewski will become the first GELCU bishop to have been born in the former Soviet Union.  Maschewski comes from Kazakhstan, where his family was resettled during the Second World War. He studied theology in the United States and Kazakhstan and was parish priest. Since 2009 he has worked as a pastor in the Lutheran church of Dnepropetrovsk. Maschewski is married and has two children.

 

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*The article above appears through courtesy of the Religious Information Service of Ukraine. Access RISU at www.risu.org.ua

 

*St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Odesa has a very lengthy and quite interesting history dating back to its founding in 1803. For anyone interested in reading more about this church and the Lutheran movement in Ukraine, link below:

http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_ ... story/stpaul/history.html

 

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