Biography

18 January 2010

Leonid Padun - senior pastor (senior bishop) of Ukrainian Christian Evangelic Church (UCEC), pastor of Christian church "Word of Life" in Donetsk, member of Ukrainian Christian Churches Representatives Council, member of Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches of Ukraine, and also member of the Board of Ukrainian Bible Society.

Leonid Padun was born in Donetsk on October 10, 1960 in a large family of a coal miner. Mother of Leonid Nikolaevich was a deep- believing-woman, and that made a grand impact on Leonid's life and the life of the whole family in particular. At the age of 17 , he decided to devote his life to Jesus Christ, and since that time his only wish is to serve God.

Leonid Padun started his working life in 1979. The same year he was called up to the Soviet Union Army. He was subjected to very hard times because of his faith in Jesus Christ. Notwithstanding the obstacles he experienced in the army, his spirit was not broken, and he became firmly convinced in his faith in God.

After demobilization from the army he continued his working life. All this time Leonid Padun had a distinct feeling that his mission was to serve God and people. In 1990 Leonid Padun started his pastoral ministry. A small community of 8 believers, that preached sermons in the streets, increased quickly and was amounted up to several hundred people in 1991.

In 1991-1992 he studied at the Bible centre "Word of life" in Uppsala (Sweden). After his returning back home, he continued pastoral ministry in Ukraine. In 1993 Leonid Padun organized and became a head of Spiritual Centre of independent christian churches of the Whole Gospel in Ukraine (Ukrainian Christian Evangelic Church since 1999), of which he still remains the head.

In 1993 Leonid Padun established a Bible school at the "Word of Life" Christian church. In 1995 this school was reorganized into a Bible Institute "Word of Life"
Married, together with his wife Yulia, they raise two sons.

For the present moment Leonid Padun is a pastor of the "Word of Life" church in Donetsk, which has 4000 parishioners, and he is a senior pastor of UCEC, that consists of more than 300 religious organizations all over Ukraine. Leonid Padun is one of the active representative of evangelic-protestant movement at all-Ukrainian level and he also a member of generally recognized inter-confessional organizations in Ukraine.

In 2008 Leonid Padun was awarded with the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise 5th grade for distinguished personal contribution to the development of spirituality in Ukraine and also for long-term productive church activity.