‘The Communists were the first to ask for Bibles’: Roman Vovk describes remarkable developments in Ukraine

Roman Vovk, General Secretary of the Ukrainian Bible Society, photographed in May 2004. Photo: Norwegian BS/Torstein Hansen (UKR04DJ-30.JPG)

By Bernt G. Olsen, the Norwegian Bible Society’s Head of Fundraising

KIEV, Ukraine — Eight months ago the Ukrainian parliament declared 2004 the Year of the Bible. Of a possible 450 votes, the resolution was passed by a thumping 397. In practical terms this means that all government offices will mark the event in some way or another, and will be asking the Ukrainian Bible Society to advise them how they can celebrate the Bible in some way appropriate to their particular area of responsibility.

For outsiders it is hard to appreciate the depth and breadth of what’s happening in Ukraine. After all, just 15 years ago atheism was the official ideology. And initiatives the Society started in 2000, lobbying churches to support their request to the authorities for a Bible Day in Ukraine and submitting “several applications” to the Ministry of Religion, proved fruitless. As recently as 2003, the Society wrote inviting the President, the Prime Minister and the Head of Parliament to its celebration of the centenary of the first translation of the Bible into Ukrainian. Not one of the dignitaries came.

The Society’s suggestion that it give each member of parliament a Bible, however, met with more success: all accepted.

“The first party contacting us to have Bibles were the Communists!” says Mr Vovk. “We also started collecting money in the churches for children’s Bibles for poor children and children living in orphanages. The authorities were made aware of this, because we actively try to reach children no-one else cares about.”

That seems to have set the ball rolling because since then the Society has found itself being invited to important meetings, not just in Kiev, but all over the country.

“I was summoned to a meeting with Viktor Bondarenko [chair of the State Committee for Religions], and was asked to send him a letter about our plans for celebrating Bible Day.”

The case was supported by the Church Council, the body that the President consults on religious matters, and in the last week of February, after a debate, Parliament passed the proposal by a large majority.

A committee was then charged with setting up local celebrations and, so far, the Society has received 31 enquiries from different organisations requesting Bibles, audio Bibles and even a picture gallery of the four people who translated the Bible into Ukrainian.

No preaching

Church and state are of course separate in Ukraine but, equally, the Bible Society is interdenominational and will give the Bible to anyone who asks for it, preaching no doctrine.

“This makes the Bible Society welcome at any schools,” says Mr Vovk.

And where have all the atheists gone, who were the leading ideologists of the greater part of the twentieth century? “A lot of them have become active believers,” says Mr Vovk.

The demand for Bibles, he adds, has increased, even since February’s historic decision.

“We see this as a unique opportunity to strengthen the meaning of the Bible within our nation,” he says. “We notice a greater openness towards our work. We have wanted a shop in Kiev for a long time and have applied to the authorities for premises without response. Then, just recently, we were asked to send copies of our application to the mayor, so I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a realisation of our dream.”

So radically and so suddenly has the situation changed that a shortage of Bibles is now a distinct possibility.

Two million Bibles

“Considering the needs presented to us by schools and other institutions, we need approximately two million Bibles, which is completely unrealistic at first sight. These are Bibles that have to be paid for by others, because the users themselves have no money. We need children’s Bibles especially. There lies our greatest need and our first priority.”

There are indications that another ‘growth sector’ will be the prisons.

“I was recently contacted by the governor of a prison in one of the larger cities. His prison housed 40 inmates serving life-sentences. They were to be transferred to other prisons in a few days, and he wanted them all to have a Bible on their way there. He wanted to know if the Bible Society could help in any way.”

And at Easter, in another prison, Mass was held for Russian Orthodox inmates.

“Seven hundred were present,” says Mr Vovk, “and the Bible Society provided Bibles for each and every one of them. Our stock won’t last long with that kind of demand.” (WR 388/24 - 10/11.04)