The New Reformation Movement

Belarus The New Reformation Movement

Those from among you shall build The old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations Of many generations; And you shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12

The New Reformation Movement

Contents

The New Reformation Movement Seminars and Sermons Education Cultural Projects Journalism

Belarus

Youth Ministry Academic Projects Publishing Plan 2005-2017 Contact us

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The New Reformation Movement

The New Reformation Movement

The New Reformation Movement in Belarus was founded in 2001.

Belarus

The initial members included pastors and activists from Baptist, Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations.

The purpose of the movement is: - to form a Biblical worldview in the Belarusian people; - to create unity among the Evangelical churches and denominations;

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- to assist Belarusian Protestant churches in social and political activities.

The New Reformation Movement

Seminars and sermons Seminars and sermons on social activity and the history of the Reformation have been held since 2001. A sermon on the inf luence of Biblical Christianity on society was heard by 20 000 Belarusian Christians.

Belarus

The Anniversary of the Reformation in Belarus in 2003 was also the impetus for various lectures and speeches in universities, schools, convention halls, where non-believers could hear about a Christian worldview. The seminar “The Golden Age of Belarus”, Pinsk, October 2001

The Biblical transformation of society conference, Minsk, June 2005

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The New Reformation Movement

Seminars and sermons Since the beginning of 2002, the New Reformation School has been held on a regular basis. The school has helped to equip the almost 1000 church ministers who have passed through it.

Belarus

January, 2005 was the start-up date for the work of the Nehemiah Club. The main task of this club is to help Christians in Belarus to become true patriots. Nehemia Club in excursion, June 2005

Nehemia Club, March 2006

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The New Reformation Movement

Education Sermons and seminars on Christian education have been held since 2001. As a result, in Minsk there are a few Christian groups in public kindergarten. In 2005, the Church of Jesus Christ (Minsk) opened the doors to Belarus’ first Christian kindergarten.

Belarus

The idea of home-schooling has become more popular and families are beginning to teach their children at home.

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450th anniversary of the Reformation in Belarus, the concert in Minsk, August 2003

Belarus

The New Reformation Movement

Cultural Projects

2003 was the year of a massive program celebrating the 450-th anniversary of the Reformation in Belarus. During the course of the celebration there were hundreds of concerts and seminars throughout Belarus. The National Organizing Committee on Celebrating the 450-th Anniversary

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of the Reformation in Belarus included representatives of the academic and cultural elite of Belarus, and representatives of all Protestant denominations in the country. The celebration of the anniversary of the Reformation became the largest-scale cultural project of the last few years to be carried out without any support from the state.

Belarus

The New Reformation Movement

Cultural Projects

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Since 2002 every year concerts in honor of Reformation Day have been held in Minsk on October 31. The musical “Golden Age” was first performed on Reformation Day 2003. The musical “Golden Age”, October 31, 2003

Belarus

The New Reformation Movement

Cultural Projects

The concert in honour of Reformation Day, Minsk, October 2005

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The New Reformation Movement

Belarus

Cultural Projects

On June 1, 2005 a pro-life concert was held in Minsk with the support of several Evangelical churches. With the help of this concert Christians wanted to defend the unborn babies who have right to life given to them by the Creator Himself. Pro-life posters were displayed all around Minsk, and the event was publicized for two weeks. The pro-life concert in Minsk, June 1, 2005

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The New Reformation Movement

Journalism

Belarus

At the end of 2000, the Christian Information Center was established. It actively seeks to cooperate with the secular media, and even now remains a unique center in Belarus, possessing information about Protestant churches and their activities. For the years 2001-2005, more than 50% of the information about Protestant churches that appeared in the Belarusian mass-media was directly connected with the activity of the Christian Information Center.

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The New Reformation Movement

Journalism

Belarus

Beginning in 2001, the newspaper “Evangelical Belarus” has been printed once every two months, and nearly every pastor in Belarus receives this newspaper for free. It contains information on the life of churches from the 4 mainstream Protestant denominations in Belarus as well as articles aimed at encouraging Christians to get involved in public life. The publication serves to unite Belarusian Evangelical churches. The newspapers “Evangelical Belarus”

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The New Reformation Movement

Journalism Since last year the informational website “Evangelical Belarus” www.info.belreform.org has been in operation.

Belarus

www.info.belreform.org

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The New Reformation Movement

Youth ministry Youth seminars have been held since 2004. Participants in the seminars share that they feel confident that today’s young people can be what God wants them to be - light and salt to the world - like Daniel and his friends.

Belarus

The youth seminar in Bierazino, February 2006

The youth seminar in Zaslaul, August 2005

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The New Reformation Movement

Youth ministry A youth camp is held every summer in Aksakaushchyna (near Minsk). Since 2004 it is called “The generation of winners”. More than 400 young people from different Belarusian Evangelical churches come to the camp every year to spend a week praying and studying, working together and having fellowship with one another.

Belarus

The youth camp in Aksakaushchyna, July 2005

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The international academic conference “The Reformation and society”, November 2003

Belarus

The New Reformation Movement

Academic Projects

In 2002-2003, three international academic conferences devoted to the Reformation and its inf luence on different spheres of social life were organized. This project included a writing contest for students and young researchers on the topic of the Reformation in Belarus. A website, dedicated to the Belarusian Reformation, was established in 2002: www. belreform.org www.belreform.org

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The Catechism, edited in 1562

Belarus

The New Reformation Movement

Academic Projects

‘The Catechism’ (Christian teaching in questions and answers for simple people who speak Belarusian) was reedited in 2005. This book was edited for the first time in 1562 and is the second most important book in Belarusian culture, but until 2005 there were no copies of this book in Belarus. In June 2005, the reedited Catechism was presented in the National Library of Belarus. News of this event was even broadcast on national TV. The Catechism, reedited in 2005

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The New Reformation Movement

Publishing

Belarus

The book “The Golden Age of Belarus” was printed in the Russian and Belarusian languages, with a total circulation of 10,000 copies. This book is the first analysis in the history of Belarus of spiritual sources of the 16th century, the Golden Age of Belarus. In just 3 months, more than 7,000 copies were sold, which is unusual for Belarus.

Audio tapes are recorded with the materials of seminars and sermons teaching Christians to take an active position in the life of society.

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The New Reformation Movement

Publishing

Belarus

Besides the book “The Golden Age of Belarus”, several other books, booklets, calendars, songbooks, and other materials have been published.

Also, the books “Liberating the Nations” and “Watchmen on the walls” have been translated from English.

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The New Reformation Movement

Plan 2005-2017

Goal: To unite the Evangelical churches of Belarus in a number of issues, to publicize the Church’s stances and to inf luence society.

Belarus

2005-2011 – to create necessary structures to facilitate work with the Church to insure that Evangelical Christians will strive to inf luence society. 2012-2017 – to carry out programs that will inf luence the society.

1. To create a fellowship of Evangelical leaders who have a single purpose for Belarus. To cooperate with representatives of other denominations. 2. To carry out educational projects for the Church: a. to lead educational seminars and conferences; b. to establish two educational centres (Minsk, Brest) with the infrastructure, needed to constantly carry out educational projects; c. to hold an annual conference of the New Reformation movement;

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d. to start an educational Internet-project (e-libraries, conference materials, sermons, teaching materials).

The New Reformation Movement

Plan 2005-2017

3. Education: a. to create a Christian educational system (kindergartens, schools, universities); b. to establish a support centre for Christian education;

Belarus

c. to found an Association for Christian education (teachers, pastors); d. to establish international contacts in the sphere of education.

4. Culture: a. to create cultural product as an alternative to the secular culture; b. to help Christians to spread Christian culture; c. to start a Christian cultural centre (musicians, artists, theatre workers; training, product release, production centre); d. to organize an Annual Christian music festival; e. to organize celebrations of Christian holidays and known dates on the national level (Christmas, Easter, Reformation Day, etc.)

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f. to start a film studio (documentaries, educational films, advertising)

The New Reformation Movement

Plan 2005-2017

5. Mass media a. to found the Informational agency ‘Evangelical Belarus’ (informational and analytucal magazine for Christian ministers, social and political magazine presenting Christian view of events; web-site);

Belarus

b. to start an association of Christian journalists; c. to start an association of Christian informational initiatives; d. to print a Christian cultural and educational magazine or newspaper; e. to run a radio station, to cooperate with other radio stations; f. to establish a board for TV programs; g. to publish a youth magazine.

6. Politics a. to forme providential political thinking in Evangelical Church; b. to start a Christian political movement.

7. Youth a. to start a Christian youth movement based on Christian and patriotic values; 22

b. to create a youth centre as a base for youth programs.

The New Reformation Movement

Plan 2005-2017

8. Prayer for Belarus a. to start a prayer movement for Belarus on the national level.

9. Reformation Institute

Belarus

a. to create an academic and analytical centre to work on the problems of providential history, church history, social doctrine of the church and analysis of different spheres of life.

10. Mega-programs a. 2007 – repenting for Communism (19171937-2007); b. 2008-2009 – Christians for Belarus; c. 2013 – 600th anniversary of the Evangelical church in Belarus; d. 2015 – the year of Mikalay Radzivil the Black; e. 2017 – 500th anniversary of Reformation, 500th anniversary of Skaryna’s Bible.

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The New Reformation Movement

Contact us

Belarus

E-mail :

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[email protected]