Ukraine

On May 29 the Evangelical Reformed Seminary of Ukraine (ERSU) celebrated its “20th” anniversary (really 21st since COVID delayed the celebration). Since 2000 ERSU has been training pastors and other church leaders for Ukraine and surrounding countries. That was the year that ERSU united the work of Odessa Presbyterian Seminary (organised by PCA missionaries) and the informal “kitchen seminary” in Kyiv (organized by missionaries from the Reformed Church of Netherlands (liberated)).

ERSU is the official seminary of two national Ukrainian denominations – the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ukraine (EPCU) and the Ukrainian Evangelical Reformed Church (UERC) and is governed by a Ukrainian Board of ten men appointed by (and from) each denomination. While during our first ten years of existence, almost all of our faculty members and guest lecturers were from Western countries, in the past ten years we have gradually and increasingly been able to find well-qualified local men to teach. In 2019 we appointed our first Ukrainian voting faculty member, and our latest good news is that, God willing, we expect to appoint two more local men to faculty by the end of this year. All of our lecturers subscribe to the Reformed Confessions (Westminster/3 Forms of Unity), but we welcome applicants from any evangelical denomination, as long as they desire to serve the church in some capacity. Indeed about 60% of our 33 students are from other denominations (or countries).

During our ceremony on May 29 the academic lecture was given by Dr Willem VanGemeren, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament and Semitic Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He taught our course in Wisdom Literature and Poetical Books the following week. The previous week I taught our course in Acts and the Pauline Epistles.

ERSU’s graduates to date include at least 18 men serving as pastors, 5 as seminary lecturers, 2 as chaplains, 2 as consultant Bible translators, one as a biblical counselor and one as a missionary.

Indeed, for those of us on faculty, the main reason for joy on May 29 was not so much in marking a round date as celebrating the graduation of four of our best students and sending them on into new stages of ministry in God’s Kingdom! Unfortunately, Sergei and Ben, who were due to fly from Minsk for graduation could not attend in person as planned due to the cancellation of all air travel from Belarus after the recent “plane-jacking”! They joined others via live online broadcast. As Academic Dean (and incoming president from September) I had the privilege of giving the charge from God’s Word to these men to “keep on keeping on,” despite all challenges, until the end, for the honour of Christ. In many ways, these men’s graduation is the real fruit of ERSU’s existence, insofar as God has allowed us to contribute to their preparation. I would like to share with you their brief stories in their own words of how God has been calling and using them already.