The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine refers to

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

and its members in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. In January 1991, there were 40 members in one congregation in Ukraine. In December 2022, there were 10,344 members in 46 congregations. In 2022, LDS Membership dropped from 11,216 to 10,344, likely due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

History

Since 1922,

was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) under

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

control, which restricted most religious institutions. Near the end of the Soviet Union, a new law was passed granting freedom of individual religious practice and allowing independent religious organizations. During this time of change, the first LDS missionaries arrived in Ukraine. The president of the Austria Vienna East Mission, Howard L. Biddulph, visited in June 1991 and Ukraine's first branch was organized in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

with 40 members. In September of that year,

Boyd K. Packer Boyd Kenneth Packer (September 10, 1924 – July 3, 2015) was an American religious leader and educator who served as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (LDS Church), president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jes ...

and

Dallin H. Oaks Dallin Harris Oaks (born August 12, 1932) is an American religious leader and former jurist and academic who since 2018 has been the first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was ...

of the

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

visited, so that Packer could dedicate the nation for missionary preaching, and the LDS Church was officially registered with the Ukrainian government. In early 1992, shortly after Ukraine's secession from the Soviet Union, the Ukraine Kyiv Mission was created with 35 missionaries, and Biddulph serving as its first president. Another mission was created in

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: Names of European cities in different languages (C–D), cities' alternat ...

in July 1993. Until June 28, 1998 the LDS Church did not have its own meetinghouses in Ukraine, so church services were held in rented buildings with baptisms being performed in the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

or in swimming pools. In the early years, the church sought to offer aide to the Ukrainian nation by organizing humanitarian donations of food and clothing from members in the United States and Germany from 1992–1993, and a large donation of medical supplies in 1995. The church announced in 1998 that it planned to construct a

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

somewhere in Kyiv. This would be the second temple in Eastern Europe, after the

Freiberg Germany Temple The Freiberg Germany Temple (formerly the Freiberg GDR Temple) is a Temple (LDS Church), temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), located in Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. The church announced the temple in October 1982, ...

, which was the closest temple for Ukrainian members. However, construction was postponed due to delays in acquiring the needed land. Ground was finally broken in 2007, and the temple was completed and dedicated on August 29, 2010. The

Kyiv Ukraine Temple The Kyiv Ukraine Temple is the 134th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Located in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, it is the 11th temple of the LDS Church in Europe, the first located within the territo ...

was to accommodate members from Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. On May 30, 2004, the Kyiv Ukraine Stake, Ukraine's first, was organized. During the

2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the Eastern Ukraine, eastern and Southern Ukraine, southern regions of Ukraine in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dig ...

, all missionaries of the Ukraine Donetsk Mission were removed from the country and reassigned elsewhere. Because of slowing of convert baptisms in previous years, the Ukraine

L'viv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Mission was closed in 2018. On January 24, 2022, due to Ukraine-Russia tensions, the LDS Church announced that out of abundance of caution, full-time missionaries assigned to both the Ukraine Dnipro and Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova missions were being temporarily reassigned to locations outside of Ukraine. This follows a statement from the US State department recommending all U.S. citizens in Ukraine depart the country promptly On February February 16, 2022, Representatives of the LDS Church took part in celebrations for the Day of Unity. On February 22, 2022 the Europe East Area Presidency released a statement saying they understand the challenges facing Ukrainians and that the church in Ukraine remains open. In February 2022, the temple was closed, due to

Russia's invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, but reopened on October 16 of the same year.

Stakes and Districts

As of February 2022, the following stakes and districts were located in Ukraine: Book of Mormon ukrainian

Missions

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Mission *Ukraine

Mission (closed in 2014) *Ukraine

/Moldova Mission *Ukraine

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Mission (closed in 2018)

Moldova

In the mid-1990s some Latter-day Saints moved to Moldova for work and started conducting meetings. Elder Charles A. Didier of the

Seventy 70 (seventy) is the natural number following 69 and preceding 71. In mathematics 70 is: * a sphenic number because it factors as 3 distinct primes. * a Pell number. * the seventh pentagonal number. * the fourth tridecagonal number. * the fif ...

along with Romania Bucharest Mission President, Robert F. Orton, met with members in Chisinau, Moldova in September 1997. The first missionaries arrived shortly after but couldn't openly proselyte and relied on member referrals. On 9 November 1997, a branch was organized in Chişinau. The first baptismal service in Moldova included 5 individuals being baptized on 11 November 1997. The institute and seminary programs began in 1998. The Romanian translation of the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude date ...

was published on 23 December 1998. On 16 May 2001, Moldova was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel. A Russian-speaking branch was created on 23 November 2014 with the other branch being conducted in Romanian and English. The Romania/Moldova Mission closed in mid-2018 and Moldova was reassigned to the Ukraine Kyiv Mission, which was renamed the Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova Mission.

Temples

The Kyiv Ukraine Temple was announced in 1998, then completed and dedicated in 2010.

References

External links

Newsroom - Ukraine

ComeUntoChrist.org
Latter-day Saints Visitor site
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Official site
A History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine, The