World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Secretary General Rev. Botrus Mansour offered a prayer in Arabic at Ukraine's third National Prayer Breakfast, held on 23 August 2026 in Kyiv. The gathering brought together more than 1,500 participants from 17 countries under the patronage of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who addressed world leaders, religious figures, military chaplains, and the families of fallen soldiers. Mansour attended as part of a high-level evangelical delegation visiting the country while the war continues.
Mansour, a Palestinian Arab pastor from Nazareth, travelled with a ten-person delegation of evangelical leaders organised by Rev. Alan Donaldson, Secretary General of the European Baptist Federation, and joined by Rev. Jan Wessels, General Secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance. Over two days the group visited Lviv, Irpin, and Bucha — the town where Russian soldiers carried out an early massacre — before reaching Kyiv, and at one point took shelter in a metro station as air-raid sirens sounded in the city centre. The visit underscored the solidarity of the global evangelical community, which the WEA represents across 164 nations, with a church that has now endured 1,642 days of full-scale war.
Reflecting on the trip, Mansour described a combination of deep sadness at the suffering war produces and encouragement at how the Lord is using the Ukrainian evangelical church in these dark years. President Zelenskyy spoke of the unifying power of prayer, paid tribute to military chaplains and clergy who stand with their communities, and noted that churches have become vital safe havens. Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence also addressed the gathering, affirming that Ukraine would never surrender. On 24 August, Mansour joined President Zelenskyy and leaders of the country's religious communities at St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv for a prayer marking 35 years of Ukrainian independence, and he urged Christians worldwide to keep praying for the Ukrainian people and the church.
Source: World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) — worldea.org
