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Emergency open letter of pastor Gennadiy to Christians, pastors and bishops in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

The adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the European Convention, a resolution to same-sex couples to adopt children, opens a new page in the spiritual history of our countries and requires us to awareness of certain realities, and a special level of responsibility, which, I believe, lies with the Church!

What happened in the Ukrainian parliament (and probably in the near future may happen in Russia and Belorus) requires us to consolidate and to make a decisive action. It’s time to put aside disputes between denominations, to unite in action to prevent the practice that begins to be approved in the legislative arena. 

I see three directions to make a move in; 


        1. The radical strategy of the national adoption of orphans us Christians! 
        This is (no matter how strange it sounds) is the simplest of what we can do to prevent a national shame as the child taken away from our country by a same-sex couple. If every church has two or three to five families who will be able to take foster children into their homes, we can in a short time empty all the orphanages in our countries! Abandoned orphanages and shelters, and long queues of prospective adoptive Christian parents – the easiest way to solve this problem! All that is needed – all of us to wake up from spiritual lethargy in the field and seriously raise the topic of adoption in our churches! Experience shows that communities in which this question is put to a proper level, can radically change the situation in their towns and villages! Statistics say that it is possible, and therefore we simply must do it! 
The simple answer to this challenge, Ukraine (Russia, Belarus) – without the orphans!  Let our European and local gays and lesbians try to take a place in long queues of thousands of believers, let these queues be so long that the question “how many people are ahead of me in the queue?”  get an impressive, shocking impression and discourage the hunt to adopt in our countries! 


     2. Immediate, well-organized and coordinated response of Christian churches of all denominations on this legislative initiative: 
– Firstly, it is the official request of individual Christians to guide the country through all possible channels of the public reception of deputies to the administrations of Presidents! The number of such statements should give a very clear signal to politicians that the public opinion “will not eat in silence,” this abomination, 
– Secondly, it’s official treatment of pastors, bishops, and interfaith councils in the country’s leadership for the same purpose-to give a clear radical message about what society’s response on this issue. 
I also believe that this event should become an occasion to emergency special meeting of the bishops of all the Christian groups to produce joint statements and activities. 
          3. In case after the decision  the ratification of this convention will be followed by further legal action by politicians, we should plan, organize and conduct national-level interfaith day of rallies and marches of the Christian community with the relevant requirements, at least in the key cities of our countries. 
I am confident that the actions of individual Christians as well as joint, coordinated action of the Christian community, church leaders and denominations are quite capable to prevent this disgrace in our countries, quickly and efficiently to solve one of the most acute problems of our countries – the problem of abandonment and sexual minorities to stop lobbying for their interests at the legislative level. 
If we do not wake up today and do not join in confronting this evil, the curse will fall on our land and our children with you, who have to live in completely different society in 10-15 years. 

With prayer and respect to all brothers and sisters, Gennady Mokhnenko- 
Pastor of the Church of Good Changes 
President of the Children’s Rehabilitation “Pilgrim Republic” 
Board member of the Alliance “Ukraine without orphans” 
One of the initiators of the project of national adoption, “You will be found” 
Adoptive father of many children 
Mariupol, Ukraine