Christian Open Academy (COA) is an educational project of evangelical communities from Ukraine and Belarus. It aims to spread a holistic biblical worldview in intellectual and social spheres while fostering humanistic knowledge. It utilizes networks of Christian leaders to implement practical projects that embody Christian values in different aspects of life.
PLANNED LAUNCH:
1st of November 2020
PROJECT PRESENTATION:
THE NEED OF THE PROJECT
The COA project is designed to provide answers to national and global challenges.
It focuses on the formation of Christian intelligentsia capable to disseminate academic paradigms of humanities that influence culture and national processes. The project should help the young local Evangelical Church, which is just beginning to form its own institutions for dialogue with society and not to follow the left-liberal path, but to lay strong foundations on the biblical worldview and traditional Christian values.
GOAL OF THE PROJECT
The ultimate goal of the COA program is to create local networks for Christians across different denominations, who systematically execute projects of Christian influence in society.
The formation of these networks is underpinned by education and interaction between active Christians. A key factor in shaping such networks is the training of leaders able to combine a holistic Biblical worldview, professionalism, and a Christian character.
The purpose of COA can be highlighted in three points:
Raising the level of knowledge and formation of a holistic biblical worldview in the public sphere among the Christians, as well as encourage motivation to carry out Christian mission in society.
Formation of a new kind of Christian ministers who would consciously bring to life their calling to carry Evangelical truth into the various spheres of public life in their respective professional fields (education, media, politics, art, etc.).
Helping pastors and Christian leaders to work with intellectuals and people involved in public life. Providing educational paradigms of humanities for pastors and church ministers
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UNIVERSITIES
A key factor to the functioning of COA is cooperation and close partnership with Ostroh Academy – the oldest University in Eastern Europe – and Spring Arbor University (US) as well as other conservative universities interested in supporting external educational programs.
ACADEMIC STAFF AND CERTIFICATE
The academic staff of Open Academy consists of teachers from American, Ukrainian, and Belarusian Christian universities. In particular, from Ostroh Academy and Spring Arbor University (Michigan). There will also be other well known Christian leaders from the West and Eastern Europe.
After completing a 7-month course, students will receive certificates from Ostroh Academy and Spring Arbor University.
VALUES OF THE OPEN ACADEMY
The project of the Christian Open Academy was initiated by the Eastern European Reformation ministry. The activity of the Eastern European Reformation Ministry, and hence of the Eastern European Leadership Forum, is based on a clear worldview paradigm, outlined in «10 Points of Biblical Worldview in the Public Square»:
- We stand for the classic Biblical theology which is faithful to the Evangelical tradition approved through the ages and experienced by the mankind.
- We are against the liberal theology in its modernist or postmodern form that led the Church in Western Europe to the deep crisis.
- We stand for the traditional Christian morality based on the Ten Commandments. It has shaped the understanding of what is good and evil in our civilization.
- We are against moral relativism, the effects of the sexual revolution and various secular ethical standards that are increasingly filling in the Ukrainian church.
- We focus on the importance of a local church that understands itself as a part of the larger body – the universal Church.
- We are against "the church egocentrism", as well as against "the church cosmopolitanism”.
- We support the integration of faith and mind since man is created in the image and likeness of the wise God.
- We are against anti-intellectualism which does not allow us to "love God with all our understanding".
- We stand for the openness to the public dimension of Church ministry, the definition of the Church's mission as salt and light to the community.
- We are against the isolation mentality that divides the world into "spiritual" and "non-spiritual".
- We believe that the institution of government on earth, including the state, is established by God and should be a fair reflection of the power of God. We must support the institution of government. We stand for the civil society of educated, active and responsible citizens able to control the state.
- We are against the heresies of caesaropapism which is idolatry and leads to the fatal consequences in the lives of people, when a secular government uses the Church in its manipulative purposes. We are also against anarchy, leading to chaos which is opposite to the nature of God.
- We stand for patriotism based on the Biblical commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "Honor your father and your mother" that is a manifestation of a noble love for the homeland.
- We are against chauvinism, nationalism and racism as forms of idolatry. And also against cosmopolitanism that is contrary to the Biblical concept for nations.
- We support European civilization vector. Ukraine and Belarus initially were part of the European civilization inspired by Christian values. We believe that in God's plan Ukrainians have a unique mission toward the European family of nations.
- We are against the unhealthy messianic complex of a special Slavic pure spirituality that puts itself in contrast to "the decaying West". At the same time we are against the ideology of secularism that captivated European culture and is leading it into a deep crisis of its identity.
- We are against the utopian and inhuman ideology of Marxism-Leninism. We condemn communism and all its outcomes.
- We are for the repentance for the sins of Communism and cleansing the society of all its consequences.
- We are against the destructive ideology of postmodernism, which is the result of a serious illness of the modern civilization, although we are aware that we live in the postmodern era. We wish to communicate the Gospel in today’s world in a language which is understandable in the present time.
- We are for the eternal values of goodness, beauty, harmony and all that has its beginning in God who created the world and man in His own image. These eternal values built the Christian civilization for centuries.
