You do praise by law, and by the crime of law you do disgrace God? Romans 2: 23
For Coordinator of Mission to the World
Paul D. Kooistra
from member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Odessa (Ukrainian)
Viktor Birkus

The present letter is addressed by me in the address of the management MTW in the connection with the fact that the system disturbances of Law of Lord God and laws of the country of Ukraine, by the Council of Elders of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of city of Odessa are incompatible with the morals of Christian church and are not solved at the level of the Council of Elders and Presbiteries of Ukrainian Presbyterian churches.
Since MTW continues to achieve tutorship on by this church I assume that the Missions are not indifferent facts of the intentional, systematic deviation by the Council of Elders of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of Odessa from the payment of taxes to the government, ignoring and violation of the requirements of the Book of Church Structure. The actual manifestation of data of disturbances are:
1. the theft of money by the members of the Council of Elders from the government in the form of deviation from the taxes from the wages (cash under the table) servants and the workers of church, and also with the payment of works with the fulfillment of other projects of those financed by church from the money, obtained from the mission MTW,
2. the illegal awarding of imperious authorities in the form of arbitrary designation on different kind of trustees and other officials without their election at the church meeting.
I am the member of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of city of Odessa since 1999. In 2006 I became a Deacon of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of Odessa. In this time, on the council of Deacons, by me were opened some systematic corruptions of the Book of Church, structure, and legislation of Ukraine by the Council of Elders of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of Odessa. These disturbances are:
1. Continuing also on the present time: conscious deviation by church from the payment of taxes from the wages of the servants of church and double entry bookkeeping.
On 06.02.06 the council of Deacons made a decision about the need for the urgent correction of the disruption of law, about which it was officially brought to the Council of Elders attention on 07.02.06.
The Council of Elders , after prolonged examination at its sessions of these questions, refused to carry out the resolutions of the council of Deacons.
2. Ignorance by the Council of Elders of requirements, presented in [KTSU]- 25-7 (“ The officials of church organization, regardless of this fact appropriated to them the title of trustees or any other title, they must be selected from the number of its members at the meeting…”), and also other most important questions of those influencing the development of church. Thus , church community is actually removed from the real possibility of participation in resolution of the most important questions of the inner church life.
In the connection with the fact that these questions were examined at the council sessions of elders and there was no positive solution by them, in the correspondence with the requirements of the book of church structure I directed the complaint in the address of Presbyteries of Ukrainian churches but it obtained no answer. Through several months I again sent letter in the address of Presbyteries of Ukrainian churches. To my second letter I obtained the answer, in which to me it communicated that my complaint was obtained in connection with the fact that it was very complex and it was examined by different committees or commissions of Presbyteries of Ukrainian churches.
I did not receive any more information about the analysis of my complaints, the revealed disturbances continue, which thus places our church in the position of the lawbreaker established by Lord God, The Books of the Church Structure,and the Laws of the government in which we live.
Data of disturbance bear destructive nature, decompose the servants of church, harm the process of the development of church and rallying of community, are not compatible with the Christian morals the churches of Jesus Christ.
Official commission on the council of Deacons, to Deacon, critical for financial questions of church to grant the report of expenditures in the previous month was not executed for the reason for checking and distribution by the deacons only of that part of the finances, which are collected with the donation in the Evangelical Presbyterian church of Odessa. (I hope that till the present day this has changed).
As a consequence all this makes possible for individual servants to use money not according to the ultimate purpose, deacons did not have a possibility to govern and to control all the finances of church.
I am sincerely convinced, in the need for the urgent correction of those disturbances, which in 2006 by the Council of Deacons of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of Odessa were acknowledged as necessary to the correction, but not accepted by the Council of Elders of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of Odessa and left without the actions and the answer in my address Of the Presbyteries of Ukrainian churches.
The present letter is directed along the following addresses of the mission http://www.mtw.org/home/site/templates/splash.asp MTW: info@mtw.org cr@mtw.org PartnerServices@mtw.org Inquiries@mtw.org SpiritualLife@mtw.org HMA@mtw.org supportneeds@mtw.org
With the original texts in the Russian and English it is possible to become acquainted on this site: http://church-problems.narod.ru , which, in the case of the absence of constructive solutions by the problems presented, I will be forced to open for the consideration by the Christians of the disturbances outlined above.
With the respect,
the member of the Evangelical Presbyterian church of Odessa

Victor Nikolayevich Birkus
18.06.08