Rev. olexa Harbuziuk Legacy
Пастор олекса Романович Гарбузюк
The Sunday morning worship service was held in the chapel at Lancaster Bible College.
The youth choir sang nicely under the direction of Diana Gavlishin on Saturday evening in the hall of the Ephrata Christian Fellowship.
800 attend 75th UEBC conference
Historical video
Here is a link to a video (7.5 minutes long) showing historical photos in the life of the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention in the U.S. This video was shown during the 75th convention on Labor Day weekend 2021 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
If you are a former member or a current member of a Ukrainian Baptist Church in the United States, you are part of that history!
(You may have to copy the link below into your browser.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yJZQucYhXE
Slavic Baptist Church in Stevens, PA, hosted the historic event
Stipends were presented to six college students (one recipient was absent) by Rev. Viktor Kuzmenko, vice president for domestic missions.
The youth choir poses for a photo. (Thanks to Denis Sichkar for providing this photo and several others.)
More than 800 people experienced the 75th jubilee conference of the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention in the U.S. that was held September 3-5, 2021 in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area.
Spiritual blessings abounded during the event, with the theme of "Let's Build the Church," based on the Scripture passage in 1 Peter 2:5 -- "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
The conference began its activity the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 3, with a working meeting of an enlarged committee chaired by Rev. Roman Kapran, president of the UEBC, who greeted the brothers and offered a prayer. This meeting took place in the prayer house of the Slavic Baptist Church of Stevens, Pennsylvania, where the pastor is Brother Andrii Dribnokhod.
Pastors, deacons, and ministers of various churches had the opportunity to hear the reports of the head of the association, Pastor Kapran; the leader of women’s ministries, Svitlana Khrystenko; and the leader of youth ministries, Brother Denis Sichkar. In addition, the audit and resolution commissions were elected. The meeting ended with a prayer, fraternal fellowship over a delicious dinner prepared by the sisters of the local church and a group photo.
The official opening of the 75th conference began on Friday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Ephrata Christian Fellowship. The service was held in an atmosphere of worship and thanksgiving to the Lord. The participants and guests had the opportunity to glorify God together with the brothers and sisters of the church in Stevens, which hosted the jubilee conference. The main sermon from the Word of God was delivered by Pastor Mykola Romanyuk of Ukraine.
The morning of September 4 began with a prayer breakfast, in addition to coffee and sweets. At 10 o'clock, the convention continued its work with interesting and practical seminars, which covered the main theme of the convention: "Let's build the church." The main speakers at the seminars were local pastors and ministers, as well as guests. Among them: Pastor Mykola Romanyuk from Irpin, Ukraine, covered the topics "What church structure is best for church growth" and "How to find your place in the church and be fruitful". Pastor Ivan Mileyev (speaking in Russian) covered the topic "The Immigrant Church. Its Present and Future".
Pastor Mike Golay (from the organization Behold Israel) presented timely and exciting seminars in English on "Where we are in the prophetic timeline" and “Ezekiel’s vision being fulfilled today.“ He outlined eight biblical benchmarks pointing to the end times.
Sister Lesya Vodolazhska conducted a seminar for women titled: “Look and live. The daily application of the Gospel in the life of a Christian lady.”
In addition, Pastor Yuriy Kovch from House of Gospel in Richland, New Jersey; Pastor Ioan Ustenko from Regeneration Church in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania; and Rev. Anatoly Moshkovsky, a past president of the UEBC; did a fine job of presenting seminars on topics related to building up the church.
Saturday's events ended with a youth service, in which the youth glorified our God with wonderful musical numbers, including superb singing by the youth choir, conducted by Diana Gavlishin. "Jesus Christ, My Living Hope" was sung by the congregation. An inspiring sermon, based on 1 Peter 2:4-10 was delivered by Pastor Ivan Skachko from Cornerstone Church in Parma, Ohio.
The last day of the 75th conference began on Sunday, September 5, at 11 a.m. at Lancaster Bible College with a festive gathering attended by more than 800 people.
After prayers and greetings, the congregation praised God together with the general choir, which consisted of members of several churches of the association under the leadership of conductor Ivan Velenchuk, from Grace Ukrainian Baptist Church in Warminster, Pennsylvania. One of the choir songs – “Bless the Lord, O My Soul“ – included an outstanding solo part performed by Jenea Postevka. During another interesting choir song, the congregation was invited to participate by repeating the phrase "His mercy endures forever" from Psalm 136 (in Ukrainian) which begins “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.” The choir also sang an upbeat, lively song titled “Praise the Lord from the Heavens” (Psalm 148) that stirred the hearts of many listeners.
The convention was attended by the heads of other associations in America, who greeted everyone present. They were Pastor Paul Demyanik, head of the Western Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention; Pastor George Harlov, head of the Russian-Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Union; Pastor Ivan Mileyev, head of the Pacific Coast Slavic Baptist Association; and Pastor Vasyl Furta, representing the Baptist Union of Ukraine.
The sermon from the Word of God was delivered by Pastor Mykola Romanyuk, who called on the listeners to practically build the Church of Christ.
Pastor Leonid Bliznyuk, the head of the audit commission, read the financial report and thanked Brother Alex Kolesnik for his good work as the association’s treasurer.
The resolutions of the 75th conference were read by the chairman of the resolutions committee, Pastor Viktor Shchypailo, from the Ukrainian Baptist Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In addition, a joint resolution endorsed by the four aforementioned associations was read. This resolution highlights the attitude of the associations’ churches to today's challenges, including gender issues.
An especially heartening part of the service was the presentation of stipends to six college students by Rev. Viktor Kuzmenko, who is the UEBC vice president for domestic missions.
The 75th convention ended with a prayer by Pastor Avdiy Chripczuk from the Ukrainian Baptist Church in North Port, Florida, who was a past president of the UEBC.
Afterward, all the guests and delegates engaged in farewell conversations and left for their homes full of inspiration, joy and hope for future meetings with each other.
The 75th conference originally was scheduled to be held in 2020, but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Poet and composer Dmytro Voyevoda recited a poem he wrote about the association's history. He is 93 years old.
Pastor Mike Golay
The Saturday evening youth program was led by Brother Denis Sichkar, director of youth ministries for the association and a member of the First Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Church of Philadelphia.
Special shirts were being sold during the event.
Rev. Mykola Romanyuk, a pastor from Ukraine, was the main speaker.