Ukrainian Baptists adopt resolution scoring Soviets for religious persecution (10/23/83)

Ukrainian Baptists adopt resolution scoring Soviets for religious persecution

ELMHURST, Ill. - The Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention has adopted resolutions criticizing the Soviet Union for persecuting Christians; condemning the Soviet Union for shooting down the Korean airliner and killing 269 persons; and memorializing the Great Famine in Ukraine.

The resolutions were passed during the 38th annual convention held September 2-4 at the First Ukrainian Baptist Church of Chicago. Members of churches from across the nation participated in the conference.

Elected as the new president for a three-year term was the Rev. Jaroslaw Paprockyj, pastor of the First Ukrainian Baptist Church of Philadelphia.

Dr. Myron Kuropas personally delivered greetings on behalf of the Ukrainian National Association.

Resolution 1 points out that the new Soviet regime under Yuri Andropov is reverting to the brutal methods of repression used during the Stalin era.

The resolution states that the number of prisoners of faith is increasing steadily, pastors of the Council of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches are dying in concentration camps, and cruel treatment against wives and families of imprisoned believers is intensifying.

Therefore, the delegates expressed their indignation against persecution and cruel treatment of Christians and called upon the Soviet government to release all imprisoned believers and to halt persecution against Churches.

The delegates also appealed to a nations of the free world to pressure the Soviet Union to adhere to the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and the Helsinki Accords.

The resolution urges all Christians to pray for their suffering brethren and to inform the world about their plight.

Resolution 2 condemns the Soviet Union for shooting down the Korean airliner with 269 passengers aboard.

The delegates expressed Christian mercy, sympathy and love for human life, as taught in the Bible, and called the Soviet attack on an unarmed civilian passenger jet a barbaric act.

The resolution calls upon all governments in the free world to punish the Soviet Union appropriately to discourage similar incidents in the future. The resolution expresses deep sympathy to the families of the victims and asks God to comfort the bereaved.

Resolution 3 scores the Soviet Union for creating the world's greatest holocaust - an artificial famine in Ukraine during 1932-33 - in order to wipe out resistance to collectivization in Ukraine and other places where Ukrainians predominated.

The resolution notes that between 7 and 10 million innocent Ukrainians perished during the famine and millions of others - including a significant number of Ukrainian Baptists - were exiled to Siberia or imprisoned.

The delegates mourned the memory of the victims of the terrible genocide of the Ukrainian nation and vowed to continue informing the world about the perpetrators of this holocaust, the Communist government in Moscow.

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