Ukraine names Baptist pastor as acting president.

Acting President Turchynov was elected to Parliament in 1998. (source: Christianity Today)

“Oleksandr Turchynov, a well-known Baptist pastor and top opposition politician in Ukraine, took office on Sunday, Feb. 23, as acting president after the Parliament voted to oust President Yanukovych,” reports Christianity Today.

“The collapse of the Yanukovych regime follows three months of growing protests that exploded in last week’s violence, which claimed more than 88 lives,” the article notes. “Many of these protests took place in the Maidan, or Independence Square in the capital city of Kiev.”

Ukrainian evangelicals are calling for national prayer, forgiveness and reconciliation in the wake of the traumatic recent violence.  According to CT, Valery Antonyuk, vice president of the All Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Churches, Baptist, issued the following statement:

A Message of Reconciliation:

During this time of fateful change in the life of the Ukrainian nation, the Church and each Christian…