On August 15, 2024, the Ukrainian School of Elites had the honor to sign a Memorandum of Partnership with the Business Coalition of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA BC).
Here are some interesting facts about this organization that you may not know.
Catholics have their center — the Vatican. The East Orthodox Christians look to Constantinople (now Istanbul), home to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. But where is the center for Evangelical Christians (or generally “Protestants”, as seen in Ukraine)?
There are nearly 900 million people worldwide who identify as Protestant (Baptists, Pentecostals, Evangelical communities, etc.). WEA BC facilitates global cooperation among them.
So where is the “center” for Protestants? There are several such organizations worldwide: the Anglican Communion, the World Evangelical Alliance, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Methodist Council, the Lutheran World Federation, the International Pentecostal Community, and the Lausanne Movement, among others.
The largest of these organizations is the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), founded in 1846 in London, England.
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is an interdenominational organization of Protestant (Evangelical) churches that unites about 600 million believers, including 9 regional and 143 national evangelical alliances, as well as over 100 member organizations and several international Evangelical denominations.
The roots of WEA trace back to the first Evangelical Alliance, founded in the late 19th century by representatives of 52 denominations, in London.
The Business Coalition of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA BC) unites Christian leaders and organizations worldwide for strategic partnerships and collaboration. Timo Plutschinski has led the coalition as Director since 2014.
Timo Plutschinski, an Evangelical Theologian, Director of the Business Coalition of the World Evangelical Alliance and member of the Wider WEA Leadership, a Fellow at the Olivet Institute for Global Strategic Studies and Partner of MIC Corporate Finances, author of the books “Office with a Purpose – Faith in Daily Business Life” (2012) and “The Call – When Christians change politics and society” (2017).
The representative of the WEA BC in Ukraine is Oles Dmytrenko, who has served in this volunteer role since 2018. In 2012-2018 Oles served as a Vice President for Development and Communications at the leading interdenomintational seminary in the country, the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary (UETS) founded by Rev. Anatoliy Glukhovskiy and led by Rev. Ivan Rusin. UETS was the official representative of the Lausanne Movement in Ukraine. Since 2018, Oles is a member of one of the largest protestant movements in Ukraine, the Sobor of Independent Evangelical Churches of Ukraine, and the leadership team of the New Life Evangelical Church with 1,000 members in Kyiv. With 20 years of managerial experience in business and leadership in Christian ministry, Oles has bridged strategic people in Ukraine sharing God’s Kingdom values.
On August 15, 2024, the Ukrainian School of Elites NGO had the privilege of signing a Memorandum of Partnership with WEA BC. It supported the School’s initiatives, including a strategic EdTech project equipping Ukrainian teachers with quality online resources for remote learning during wartime. Additionally, WEA BC supported charitable projects providing psychological and physical rehabilitation of the war-affected people to include veterans and their families, IDPs, and socially vulnerable people. The work of GoFriends NGO and the New Life Evangelical Church was notably supported to address these critical needs.