The elections were held at a meeting of the Council of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith Pentecostals on October 9, 2020. Eduard Grabovenko received an unprecedentedly high number of votes: 99%.
The annual meeting of the Council members was held online. A total of 82 ministers participated — members of the Board, heads of regional associations, departments and ministries. The meeting was led by the head of administration Ivan Borichevsky.
In 2020, the 7-year term of Bishop Eduard Grabovenko as the leader of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith Pentecostals came to an end. According to the Charter of the organization, the head bishop and his deputies report on the previous term work and resign. Then the elections are being held.
Only one candidate was nominated for the elections — Bishop Grabovenko. At the meeting, he made a speech on the election program, which was previously sent to all members of the Council.
The foreword to the program states, “This document reflects my ideas formed as a result of a thorough analysis of the work during the previous years, consultations with ministers, prayers and reflections on the key areas of development of Russian Church for the next seven years.
The Bishop emphasized three principles on which the work should be based in the next seven years: cooperation, effective resource allocation, and openness to society. The main directions will be: evangelistic movement, planting new church, spiritual work (prayer movement, education, spiritual growth), development of media communications, support of churches in the construction of church buildings.
Also, Bishop Eduard suggested some changes to the structure of the organization: to create a coordinating council for evangelization and church planting, prayer ministry and youth council.
The members of the Council supported all items of the program, voted for the election of Eduard Grabovenko as the Head Bishop for another seven years and re-elected the first deputies: Vassily Evchik, Pavel Zhelnovakov, Nickolay Zalutsky.
Bishop Eduard Grabovenko thanked the ministers for their high trust. He stressed that he was sure that the church “must go forward, reach new heights and transform. The next few years will be very difficult: the society will face economic and political challenges. They will not pass over the church. We need to have a firm, clear position, to understand what and how to do. This is the time of the church, which will actively serve and help those who are dispersed, who are in conflict, dissatisfied, angry. We need to accommodate everyone with their political views and economic instability — do what God has called us to do.”
The Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith
