Bishop of Council of Independent Evangelical Churches of Ukraine:Language Law is Crime

The Bishop of the Council of Independent Evangelical Churches of Ukraine and pastor of the New Life Church in Kyiv, Anatolii Kaliuzhnyi is of the opinion that the passing of the Law “On Principles of State Language Policy” is a crime against the nation and contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine. So reported invictory.

The pastor also expressed hope that Ukraine’s President V. Yanukovych and Speaker of the Parliament, V. Lytvyn will not sign the law. He is convinced that the bill was passed on purpose before the visit of the Russian President V. Putiv.

“Apparently, they reached some agreements, namely that our authorities are to pass the bill and Russia is probably to make some concessions regarding the gas contracts,” he noted in an interview to InVictory News.

Speaking about the consequences of the law, Kaliuzhnyi said that it contains an economic trap.

“To introduce one or two regional languages is very costly. They have not made calculations yet. According to experts, it is a colossal amount. Take just the school textbooks. At the time when Ukraine is at the brink of a default, these problems would be a bit too thick,” complained the minister.

According to him, the bill also finally divides Ukraine into the West and East.

Anatoli Kaliuzhnyi also spoke about spiritual consequences of signing the law. He used the example of one of the Bible commandments: “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” 

“These are very profound words which apply not only to our physical parents but also our roots. “Honour your father and mother” means to honour also your language, nation and culture. If we do not honour and learn our language, we will have no long years of life or prosperity,” said the bishop.

The bishop could say from his experience of 15 years of underground ministry and 20 years of the ministry in the independent Ukraine that the ministers who came to Ukraine and worked here taking into account the national specificities were rather successful. Whereas those who brought their own culture (American, Korean, etc.) faced serious problems and were not successful in their ministry. The pastor also said that when he introduced an additional service in Ukrainian, it yielded positive results. “Many people came to the church as it was one of the first Kyiv churches with Ukrainian-language services. In addition, more people repent during the Ukrainian services. Communication in Ukrainian brings me joy and pleasure. Not only I but the whole of our office has been declared a Ukrainian-language zone. Russians and Moldovans began to speak Ukrainian in our Church,” concluded the pastor.