Central Ukrainian Conference

The Central Ukrainian Conference started operating in 1990. Due to increased membership, it was subdivided into more fields and became a mission, and then a conference again in 2009.

Territory and Statistics (2017)¹

Territory: (Cherkasy until 1996), Chernihiv, Kyiv (with City of Kyiv until 2002), (Poltava until 1996), and Sumy Regions

Population: 3,927,946

Membership: 4,542

Churches: 88

Origin of Seventh-day Adventist Work in the Territory

Adventist missionary work in the Russian Empire started in Ukraine in the late nineteenth century. As the work prospered, the Russian Mission was subdivided into numerous church units. As the Iron Curtain fell across the continent, information about the Church in the USSR ceased in the Yearbook between 1931 and 1981. The last known church unit to have covered the territory of the Central Ukrainian Conference and its previous Districts was the Black Sea Conference (1919–1930).²

Organizational History

In 1967 the Kiev and Odessa Districts were organized, and then the Cherkassy District in 1978. Each covered the Region of the same name, except the Odessa District, which covered not only the Odessa but also the Nikolaev Region.³ In a few years, the Odessa District grew to include also the Dnepropetrovskaya, Kharkov, and Poltava Regions—or perhaps the territorial description is inadequate in the first years.⁴

In 1987 the Ukrainian Districts were reorganized. The Cherkassy, Kiev, and part of Odessa District merged into the Central Ukrainian District. It comprised the Cherkassy, Chernigovskaya, Kiev, Poltava, and Sumy Regions.⁵ Shortly after, the Central Ukrainian District became the Central Ukrainian Conference.⁶ Initial membership was 2,334.⁷ Initial officers were President V. V. Prolinsky, Secretary E. A. Hrits, and Treasurer A. T. Shulga.⁸

In the following years, members increased by the thousands. Around the turn of the twenty-first century, territory was removed from the Central Ukrainian Conference to form new church units, and the conference turned into a mission. In 1996, the Cherkasy and Poltava Regions were cut off from the conference, and the Dnieper Conference was organized.⁹ Another division occurred in 2002, when the city of Kyiv was removed from the conference and the Kiev Mission was organized.¹⁰ The remaining territory of the Central Ukrainian Conference became the Central Mission or Central Ukrainian Mission.¹¹

In 2008, the Central Ukrainian Mission became the Central Ukrainian Conference,¹² now with a smaller territory.

The Central Ukrainian church unit has always had headquarters in Kyiv. The address was first ul. 50 let Oktyabrya 27, Boyarka,¹³ and then ul. Vasilkovskaya 89&2, Novoselki.¹⁴ In 1992 the headquarters was listed at ul. Yamskaya 70,¹⁵ in 1993 at ul. Lukyanovskaya 9-A,¹⁶ and in 2002 at Mykytenko Street 20A.¹⁷

List of Presidents

Cherkassy District Senior Pastor: No listing, 1978–81; A. T. Shulga, 1982–87.

Kherson District Senior Pastor: No listing, 1978–81; I. A. Vishnevsky, 1982–85.

Kiev District. Senior Pastor: No listing, 1967–81; A. S. Parasey, 1982–87.

Odessa District Senior Pastor: No listing, 1967–81; G. G. Galan, 1982–87.

Central Ukrainian District: A. F. Parasey, 1987–89.

Central Ukrainian Conference: V. V. Prolinskiy, 1989–91; V. N. Nikityuk, 1991–94; Yury G. Kuz’menko, 1994–2000; P. I. Kirilyuk, 2000–2002.

Central Ukrainian Mission: V. F. Kovtyuk, 2002–2008.

Central Ukrainian Conference: V. F. Kovtyuk, 2008–2010; M. G. Dzherdzh, 2010–16; Vjacheslav I. Kulaga, 2016–.

Sources

Samoylenko, Victor V. “The Central Ukrainian Conference.” Unpublished manuscript, 2018.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Various years. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Notes

1. All statistics from “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2018), 79.↩

2. See Jón Hjörleifur Stefánsson, Black Sea Conference.↩

3. “Cherkassy District,” “Kiev District,” and “Odessa District,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1982), 336.↩

4. “Odessa District,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1986), 364. When all the ten original districts with their descriptions are mapped out on a map of Ukraine, four regions are not listed under any of them: Chernihiv, Dnipopetrovsk, Poltava, and Suma. See “Association of the Seventh-day Adventist in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1982), 335–36.↩

5. “Central Ukrainian District,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1988), 374.↩

6. “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1990), 349.↩

7. “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1990), 349.↩

8. “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1990), 349.↩

9. “Dnieper Conference” and “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1998), 119, 118.↩

10. “Kiev Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2003), 99.↩

11. “Central Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2003), 97. It is named Central Mission in 2002 and 2008 in the Yearbook, but Central Ukrainian Mission in the years in between.↩

12. “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2009), 99.↩

13. “Central Ukrainian District,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1988), 374.↩

14. “Central Ukrainian District,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1989), 336.↩

15. “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1992), 107.↩

16. “Central Ukrainian Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1993), 101.↩

17. “Central Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2003), 97.↩