Church Movement Research Articles

ЗАРОДЖЕННЯ ТА РОЗВИТОК ЕКУМЕНІЧНОГО РУХУ В УКРАЇНІ ТА СВІТІ КРІЗЬ ПРИЗМУ МЕДІА

Since the local Orthodox Church of Ukraine received the Tomos of Autocephaly, Patriarch Bartholomew has visited all of them, the visit of Pope Francis is expected in the near future, and religious and ecumenical themes have become one of the top in the press. That is why there is a need to analyze its development and coverage in various media. The article analyzes the main stages of the ecumenical movement: from the origins that led to current issues of inter-church understanding in Europe to historical circumstances that created the preconditions for signing documents that were organized and enabled quality ecumenical dialogue. Emphasis should be placed on the functioning of the ecumenical movement in Protestant communities, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The peculiarities of the functioning of the Ecumenical Concept of the UGCC, its coverage in the press, as well as the coverage of this document in 2021, given the need for updating, are considered. The ecumenical concept of the UGCC (updated and preliminary) has found its response in major thematic online resources. After receiving Tomos, the PCU introduced its communication strategy with other denominations more actively. Therefore, the preconditions for the establishment and development of the Commission on Inter-Christian Dialogue at the PCU and its presentation in the press were analyzed. The focus is on specific agreements and memoranda signed in the twentieth century that illustrate the progress of ecumenical dialogue in religious Christian communities. The article also presents ecumenical publications in the Ukrainian press, which have their own chronological legacy, as they are based on the journalistic experience of past generations. It is emphasized that ecumenism is not just a world church movement, but a real instrument which these days is influencing religious life, as well as is being constantly renewed, changed. This is embodied especially in the updated Ecumenical Concept of the UGCC, which is also analyzed in the article. The greatest development of the ecumenical movement took place in the twentieth century. It is the lever that helps the Christian religious society seek peaceful dialogue, get rid of the historical wounds of the past, while respecting each other's denominational individuality.

Передумови здійснення московського проєкту "Відродження православної церкви" в Русі-Україні (кінець XVI - перші десятиліття XVII століття)

The new conceptual key, based on historical and dogmatic-canonical sources, examines the preconditions of the event, which is known in historiography as the "revival of the Orthodox Church" or "Orthodox hierarchy" in Ruthenia in 1620 within three components – the interest of the Moscow state in restoring / creating an alternative to the legitimate Ruthenian Union Church ununited Orthodox Church, the attitude of Polish authorities to the union process in Ruthenia and the peculiarities of the opposition of the ununited Orthodox Church supporters in Ruthenia itself to the unifying church movement. The Union (Unija) of the Ruthenian Church with the Catholic Church, laid down unique conditions for the іnternal strengthening of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) and significantly complicated the possibility of Moscow's expansion into Europe. This was all the more significant because Moscow's military defeats lasted from the 1580s (Livonian War) to the 1630s. The situation of military-political isolation and humiliation of international status threatened Moscow to be supplemented by ideological and confessional isolation. Under these circumstances, the Moscow state relied on the possibility of internal weakening of the Commonwealth by maintaining and developing relations with the Ruthenian clergy and church fraternities that opposed the union with Rome and sought to restore the legitimacy of the ununited Orthodox Church in Ruthenia. Also in the first decades of the XVII century the ununited Orthodox clergy, representing the ancient Eastern patriarchates in the Ottoman Empire, became more active. With the loss of the schism of the church hierarchy, foreign clergy, especially the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Jerusalem, were able to influence the situation and interfere in the church life of Ruthenia. In particular, the efforts of the Metropolitan of Sofia Neophyte in 1612 in the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Monastery created an alternative center of church life and administration, which was at the local level in opposition to the legitimate Metropolitan of Kiev Ruthenian Union Church (Hypatius Potius, 1541–1613). As the foreign non-aligned Orthodox clergy of the Eastern Patriarchates were closely linked to Moscow in receiving financial assistance and mutual political cooperation, Muscovy gained an additional tool to influence Ruthenia and, indirectly, the Commonwealth. It was the foreign Orthodox hierarchs – Patriarch Theophanes III of Jerusalem, Metropolitan Neophyte of Sofia, Bishop Avrahamii of Stragon in 1620 who ordained new hierarchs for the ununited Orthodox Church in Ruthenia. Led by the secretly ordained Kyiv Metropolitan Yov Boretsky, the new hierarchy was already entirely focused on cooperation with Moscow, financially dependent on Moscow and dependent on ideological and political cooperation with schismatic Moscow.

The Political Economy of Village Level Theocracies in the Ìlàjẹ Coastline, Southwest Nigeria

In 1947, a group of fishermen from the coastal area of Ìlàjẹ, Ondo State, Nigeria who were members of the Aládúrà, an independent Church movement in southwest of Nigeria, came together to establish a theocratic settlement, which they named Ayétòrò. A few years after, other theocratic settlements emerged in quick succession and by 1980 there were more than fifty such villages along the Ìlàjẹ coastline. The pertinent question is why this form of community organization is pervasive among the Ìlàjẹ. The main argument of this article, following ethnographic data collected from four theocratic settlements, which are regarded as the core village theocracies, is that a flexible land tenure regime and a loose traditional political system, among other factors of environmentand kinship structure, ensured easy access to land and served to authenticate the spiritual leadership claims of founders of theocratic settlements. The conclusion reflects on the future of theocratic settlements against the background of increasing modernization along the Ìlàjẹ coastline.

THE INDIGENOUS MUSIC OF CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH IN NIGERIA AND THE DIASPORAS: A PROOF OF CHRISTIAN TRANSFORMATIVE MUSICALITY

One of the distinguishing identities of any Church movement is music. Christ Apostolic Church (C.A.C) in Nigeria and the Diasporas at her inception came with her peculiar music firmly rooted in the Pentecostal theology of the church and in indigenous African musical culture. It became a great tool in the spirituality, evangelisation and proselytisation processes in the Church. Today, not only has C.A.C. influenced Nigerian Christian music greatly, but also dominated the gospel music, one of the most popular music genres in Nigeria. This paper, hinged on transformative and functionalism theories, aims at exhuming the philosophical theology, performance practices and the evolution of this Pentecostal brand of music, both at home and abroad. Employing theological, musicological and historical approaches, the paper as a sacred musicological study, discovers that C.A.C. music is highly functional with deep metaphysical connotations. From indigenous native airs, anthems, hymnody, art music and lyric-airs to gospel music, its style forms one of the manifestations of indigenous Pentecostalism; as it has been instrumental to the diverse operations, spread and acceptability of the Church. The Church extended overseas through migration, had her music ‘carried’ along, though not without re-contextualised modifications. This paper concludes on the note that the Church, bearing in mind her leadership roles, should strive to uphold the legacies that earned her identity; especially her musical culture.

한국형 선교적 교회 연구: 현상학적 질적 연구 중심으로

This study aims to find the missiological characteristics of missional church movement in South Korea by focusing on phenomenological qualitative research. Since the early 2000s, the discourse of missional church has been addressed from many missiologists. However, there are not many examples of qualitative studies on this movement. For this reason, we attempt to do research and analyze twenty five models of missional church, and then find out the four types of missional church: (1) The Missional Village Community Type, (2) The Missional Public Church Type, (3) The Missional Discipleship-Culture Type, and (4) The Missional Alternative Community Type. We also categorize eight crucial subjects, and finally, we make a concluding remark about the main characteristic of the missional church through data.

Infernal Affect: Christianity, Urbanization, and Economic Anxiety in China

Abstract This article examines the making of uneasy relationships between Protestant Christianity, capitalist reform, and urbanization in China. Drawing on analysis of Chinese Christian media sources as well as ethnographic research conducted in the city of Nanjing, I demonstrate how religious communities become attuned to the excesses of urban life—specifically the anxiety, discontent, and mania surrounding housing ownership—and respond to tensions between spiritual feelings and economic activities. These tensions, I argue, in turn generate new vectors of desire and possibilities for collective life. In a heterogenous Chinese Christian landscape, I situate this affective reorientation in the emerging Reformed urban church movement, which has inspired a separatist ethos among underground “house churches.” In doing so, this article illuminates how religious groups work as affective communities in critically orienting to consumer culture and neoliberal individualism.

Accepted Power: Black Authority and the Multiethnic Church

Black people, specifically American descendants of slaves, and the American church have had a complex and painful relationship. From the slave plantation, to Jim Crow, to the Civil Rights Movement, and Black Lives Matter, the relationship between Black Christians and the church seems to have improved. Black slaves are no longer being beaten or imprisoned for secretly having their own worship services, nor are Black Christians openly being told they can't sit on a pew in a White church, nor are Black Christians the only ones speaking out about racism and injustice, as many White Christians have joined in the fight. In an effort to unite Christians in America, the multiethnic church movement has gained momentum. But what does the dynamic between Black Christians and the American church look like now? I investigate this question through study of the contemporary multiethnic church movement. While Black and White Christians have come together in churches, it is not without relational issues that are the result of the unreconciled past.

Polycentric mission leadership: Toward a new theoretical model: OCMS Montagu Barker Lecture Series: “Polycentric Theology, Mission, and Mission Leadership”

As the world faces rapidly increasing cycles of disruption, challenges, and disorder, mission leaders are stretched to adapt, trying to catch up with the pace of change and provide leadership to further the mission God has given his Church. This paper, presented at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies Montagu Barker Lecture Series: “Polycentric Theology, Mission, and Mission Leadership,” focuses on ways leadership is changing, suggesting a new theoretical model for mission leadership. It reviews the idea of polycentrism through mission history, mission and church organizations, movement theory, and governance, identifying themes of an emerging theory of polycentric mission leadership.

An outline of a stereotype of a Catholic and Catholicism in a discourse of the radical Orthodox Church movement in modern Russia

The paper is an attempt to compare a medieval stereotype of Catholics and Catholicism existing in Rus against a contemporary stereotype functioning in the radical Orthodox Church environment. The main source of the research material are publications available at the website Москва — Третий Рим (https://3rm.info/), which publishes and aggregates content generated by radical Orthodox Church circles. The starting point is an analysis of the image of Catholics presented in one of more important chronicles of medieval Rus, which was conducted by Marianna Andreitcheva. The text answers a question about the extent to which this image is preserved in a contemporary stereotype of Catholics and Catholicism found in a discourse of the contemporary ultra-radical Orthodox Church circles, based on a sense of confessional identity, similarly to the discourse of Ruthenian authors.

“Liturgy emerges from a wound”

AbstractSerious academic reflection and scholarship on the Fresh Expressions of Church (FXoC) movement in the United Kingdom is developing significantly, but there exists almost no such work in South Africa. What has been produced deals with scholars reflecting on their experiences of Fresh Expressions in the United Kingdom (Ian Nell and Rudolph Grobler, “An Exploration of Fresh Expressions as Missional Church: Some Practical‐Theological Perspectives,” NGTT DEEL 55:3–4 (2017), 747–68). This is an unfortunate situation. While there has been a generous response by many churches, there has been little interest, by and large, from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA). FXoC is, then, an under‐researched entity in South Africa. This article, part of a larger study, seeks to ask questions about how liturgy might develop from below in a new ecclesial community of marginalized people.

Charismatic Leadership in the Catholic Church

The article analyzes the ideas of charismatic leadership developed in the Catholic Church in the second half of the 20th century. These ideas are connected, on the one hand, with the biblical revival, with the attempts to rediscover the heritage of the Church of the first centuries, and on the other hand, with new social phenomena, which are typical for the era after the Second World War. The social dimension of charisma and its role in the creation of associations were rediscovered in Catholicism during the Second Vatican Council. At the same time, a huge number of new social and evangelical initiatives appealing to charisma appeared. The new church movements became the most prominent and well-known examples of catholic “charismatic associations”. The author shows how the Catholic hierarchy managed to streamline and incorporate the charismatic leadership of lay associations into the reality of the universal church structure. The article emphasizes that the concept of charismatic leadership in the Church is in the process of evolution. The author concludes that the documents of church governance, proclaiming the absence of a conflict between charisma and institution in theory, reflect the political processes of the contemporary Catholic era: the emergence of Catholic movements with a predominant role of laity, the change of generations of Catholic elites and the formation of a new balance of responsibility between movements and the church hierarchy.

MODERN UKRAINIAN PENTECOSTAL THEOLOGY: FROM HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT TO CONTENT OF RESEARCHES

The article reflects the main historical stages of the formation of Ukrainian Pentecostal theology over the past thirty years: from the “birth” of the first church schools to the defense dissertations of doctoral level. Author has presented connection between post-soviet Pentecostal dogmatic system with evangelical traditional of dispensationalism and literal hermeneutic method in study of the Bible. Obviously, that Pentecostal Churches were strongly influenced through the Baptist Bible Courses in Moscow, because many Pentecostal leaders completed them. The author demonstrated the role of Bible Seminaries founded in independent Ukraine by western missioners of leading church`s unions, like the Assembly of God and the Church of God. The article identifies two models of the Pentecostal education (“church” and “academic” approaches) that address to the different needs of church society. “Church” type of theological education tries to teach important topics connected with applied questions of church ministry. However, this approach has a weak side hidden in methodology of research. As a result, not all research papers completed by graduates of the church-oriented school are interesting for Ukrainian scientific society. For control of quality in Ukrainian theological schools, EAAA was founded. Another direction of the development of the Ukrainian pentecostal theological model thinking is the “academic model” of theological education, that today develops in cooperation with state institutions. Through the analysis of the topics of defended dissertations, the author identifies key trends in the development of the Ukrainian Pentecostal movement. Among key topics, there is introspective research of the own roots, reasons of spreading alternative church movement in USSR, and its place on the World religious map. Like prognostic conclusion of all the text, the author identified several topics that may be interesting for Western academic partners, like “theology of Maidan”, “Church peaceful strategies for East of Ukraine” and “Ecological theology in light of Chernobyl’s tragedy”.

해방 후 재일대한기독교회(KCCJ)의 사회운동 :1970~80년대의 활동을 중심으로

해방 후 재일대한기독교회(KCCJ)의 사회운동 :1970~80년대의 활동을 중심으로

Changing the Narrative Language of Prosperity in Africa: A Pentecostal Hermenéutica! Challenge

Pentecostals' central theme in proclamation and practice since the beginning of their movement is holistic healing and wellbeing, resulting from what they term the "Full Gospel". At first, it did not include a prosperous lifestyle. However, a new emphasis on prosperity since the 1980s characterized a part of the African independent church movement with affinities to Pentecostal worship practices, designated as the Neo-Pentecostal movement. The research question for this article is why the narrative language of prosperity within the Pentecostal context changed in Africa and how the damages that it caused can be reversed, and the answer is found in hermeneutical challenges and solutions.

Veneration of saints in Anglicanism

The Anglican Communion, which unites forty-one local Anglican Churches, traditionally honors holy ascetics and heroes of the faith, among whom there are both saints glorified after the English Reformation and general Christian teachers and martyrs known to the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Some Anglicans honor the saints, turning to the One God with gratitude for certain examples of a great righteous life, and ask Christ to send down the same good deed. Other Anglicans, on the contrary, appeal to the saint directly, like Catholics and Orthodox Christians. By themselves, Anglican views are very specific and strongly dependent on a particular church movement (there are “parties” of Anglo-Catholics, Anglo-Orthodox, Anglo-Evangelicals, etc., who have their own opinions on this issue), however, among the Orthodox there is a common misconception that being a Protestant means unequivocally rejecting the cult of saints. In this article, the author reveals in detail to the Russian reader the peculiarity of the Anglican practice of veneration of saints and provides examples of the presence of prayer appeals to saints in modern Anglican practice, dispelling the popular misconception about the lack of veneration of saints and appeals to saints in the Protestant world.

Towards the Arab National Renaissance: the Struggle for the Throne of Antioch in the 2nd Half of the 19th Century and Russia

The article is focused on little known pages of the Russian support to the Arabic church and national movement during the last decades of the 19th century. Supporting the Arab Orthodox population of Syria and Lebanon was an important part of the Russian policy in the Near East. The attempt to convert part of the Melkites to Orthodoxy in the 1860-s was not successful, but already in 1869 the Russian Consul in Beirut managed to ensure the election of a pro-Russian Arab Gabriel Shatila as Metropolitan of Beirut. After few failures of the Arabic candidates in the struggle for the Patriarchal see, in 1899, despite the opposition of the French diplomatic representatives (who supported the candidates of the Holy Sepulcher brotherhood), the Russians achieved the enthronement of Patriarch Melety Dumani. The newly discovered archive materials show the details of these events and contribute to their understanding in the course of the French-Russian confrontation in the region.

Teologi Kitab Kisah Para Rasul dan Sumbangannya dalam Pemahaman Sejarah Keselamatan

Salvation is a mighty work that Jesus did for all mankind. This is a serious problem for humans, namely the settlement of sins, which can also be explored from the Book of Acts. Yet many people feel that the Book of Acts is merely church history and does not have a strong contribution to the history of salvation. Based on the above facts, it is necessary to present the theologies in the Book of Acts and their contribution to the work of salvation for mankind. And the Book of Acts is also the starting point of a movement for God's church which is the basis of the gospel message to all people. Through the theological concepts that appear in the Book of Acts of the Apostles will be implemented for believers and the church today, so as to become a strong foundation for the movement of God's church in the work of the history of salvation until the end of time.

Sultan Mehmed Reşad Döneminde İstanbul’daki Bulgar Cemaati: Nüfus, Yerleşim ve Ekonomi

In the middle of the 19th century the Bulgarian community began to take on an important position in the economic life of Istanbul. The Bulgarian community increased in number through the engagement of more and more Bulgarians as merchants, shopkeepers and textile workers, and the Bulgarians in Istanbul became the protagonists of the Bulgarian Church Movement. In 1870 Sultan Abdulaziz issued the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Bulgarians became a new Orthodox millet. They established their millet organizations and institutions and started to be registered as a separate group in the official Ottoman population registers. Although there are a few studies about the population structure and economic activities of this community, the Ottoman archival sources have not yet been utilized properly. This study aims to present the population structure,the settlement areas, as well as the professions and cultural organizations of the Bulgarian community in Istanbul at the beginning of the 20th century by utilizing Ottoman population registers and other archival documents. In this way, the estimated figures and information about Bulgarians in Istanbul taken from memoirs, will be corrected with more precise figures taken from archival registers and consequently a more realistic picture will be given. Moreover, the paper also tries to evaluate the general role of the Bulgarian community in the social and economic life of the capital of the Empire.

СТАНОВЛЕННЯ КРАКІВСЬКО-ЛЕМКІВСЬКОЇ ПРАВОСЛАВНОЇ ЄПАРХІЇ В ПЕРІОД ДРУГОЇ СВІТОВОЇ ВІЙНИ

The article deals with the history of the Orthodox Church in German-occupied Poland (Generalgouvernement), which remained autocephalous and continued to be headed by Metropolitan Dionisii Valedynskyi. In February 1941 Palladii Vydybida-Rudenko was ordained in Warsaw as archbishop of Cracow and the Lemko region. He swore to work solely for the benefit of the Ukrainian Church and the Ukrainian people; complete obedience to Archbishop Ilarion Ohiienko; and to vote during synods exactly like Ilarion, never against. After the German invasion of the USSR and the attachment of Galicia to the GG, Palladii was subsequently also named bishop of Lviv, and was elected chancellor of the Orthodox Church in the Generalgouvernement. Newly created Cracow-Lemko region eparchy numbered approximately 40 parishes. Archbishop Palladii transferred perceived Russophile priests from the region to Warsaw and replaced them with younger, Ukrainian clerics. The Ukrainian accent or language were used during church services; what constituted a ‘legal basis’ for nationalization. However, the eparchy has limited opportunities for the development of the Ukrainian national and church movement due to the opposition of the Greek Catholic lobby in German administration, lack of patriotic priests and war time difficulties. That is why Archbishop Palladii, which constantly living in Warsaw and served in Metropolitan cathedral, met with little success in the Ukrainization of Orthodoxy in Lemko region. In 1942 the synod of bishops adopted certain internal statutes that were later acknowledged by the German authorities as well. The statutes spoke very clearly about the prevailing Ukrainian spirit in the Church. The further growth of the Orthodox Church in the Generalgouvernement was, however, impeded with the withdrawal of the Germans and subsequent chaotic developments. Both Archbishop Ohiienko and Archbishop Vydybida-Rudenko sought refuge in the West.

Art, Faith, and Culture in Mission: The Legacy of Pulidindi Solomon Raj

Pulidindi Solomon Raj (1921–2019), born in a tiny village in India, went through a “journey of ascents,” crossing national and denominational boundaries, scaling ministerial pinnacles, and attaining many laurels, all with the help of two little tools—his pen and his paintbrush. He achieved a global reputation for his artwork in diverse media, such as woodcuts, batiks, etchings, and icons; for his many essays presented in academic settings around the world; and for his seminal work on the “small” church movement in Andhra Pradesh and its sequel on indigenous mission.