Eastern Europe Partnership Network toolkit: Learn

At the 225th General Assembly (2022) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the overture “On Expanding Mission Engagement and Education with Eastern Europe” was adopted. The text of it reads:

Direct the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to strengthen our accompaniment in the region impacted by the war in Russia and Ukraine and listen deeply and broadly to the many voices in the region, through the following actions:

Direct the Presbyterian Church U.S.A, in collaboration with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and the Office of Public Witness, to:

a. continue communication with church and civil society organizations, including Orthodox and Protestant churches and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

b. publish articles that help Presbyterians understand the complexities within the region and our own country’s engagement.

c. develop and promote a reading list and study guide/tool kit in cooperation with the Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia Mission (BURM) Network for churches and individuals interested in learning more.

d. identify opportunities for youth engagement across the region and include youth from the United States.

e. prayerfully consider and take action to stay engaged with the ongoing refugee and humanitarian crises and offer other practical responses.

Within the Eastern Europe Partnership Network (EEPN), we engage with Christian partners in Eastern Europe to come along beside them, encourage them, pray with them and for them, and to learn and be encouraged by them. We want to approach people we may not understand boldly but humbly to learn who they are, how they think and how they pray. We want to lead with love and not labels. We can be motivated by the Holy Spirit to follow the example of Christ, to plant seeds, to water and to let God provide the harvest.

In 1054, the political East-West schism bisected East Europe between Roman Catholic and Orthodox church influence. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) and swiftly took over the Balkan peninsula. The Ottomans defeated Hungary in 1526 and, in 1683, besieged Vienna.

The Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth was formed in 1569. It covered about 400,000 square miles with a multiethnic population of roughly 12 million people. It ruled until its dissolution in 1797. It was responsible for breaking the Ottomans’ 1683 siege of Vienna.

In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Empire took control of the western half of East Europe, in opposition to Ottoman control in the east. The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, ignited the Great War.

The end of the Great War (World War I) in 1918 brought the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian empires to an end. The national boundaries were realigned.

In 1945, after the end of World War II, expansionist Nazi Germany was defeated and territory divided among the Allies: France, England, Russia and the United States. The Cold War ensued. In 1989, the Berlin Wall was dismantled, and regimes tumbled. The USSR came to an end in 1991.

Here are links to maps that provide important information about the history of countries and people who live in Europe. Moving borders of Europe is an animated presentation of the borders and populations of Europe from 400 B.C. to 2017: visualcapitalist.com/2400-years-of-european-history. The webpage “38 maps that explain Europe,” produced in 2014, shows the changing borders plus economic data and trade alignments: vox.com/2014/9/8/6103453/38-maps-that-explain-europe. See accompanying European Maps.

Major ethnicities of the region have been in place for centuries.