Shevchuk V. Activity of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the territory of Western Ukraine in the interwar period (1919–1939).

The dissertation is devoted to the complex study of the activity of the Adventist church in the territory of Western Ukraine during the interwar period. The background for the appearance, formation and development of the Adventist Church was investigated. Four periods of its organizational establishment are distinguished: formation and development of the congregations; the unification of the congreagations in the Warsaw Missionary Field; the improvement of the structure and the isolation of the Eastern and Southern Conferences; the rise and extablishment. The spread of the Adventist teaching was due to the centralized organizational structure and planned staff policy. The Adventist Spiritual Center in Warsaw directed and coordinated the activities of pastors and colporters. The main directions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were the social, the missionary and the educational direction. The SDA Church in the interwar period had the status of a tolerated sect, which could register congregations and use the right to hold worship servises, but did not posess all the legal rights as a religious organization. Sabbath-keeping, the abstention from certain foods, military service using weapons and giving military oath made its situation in the society more difficult and the struggle for the spheres of influence defined the inter-confessional relations.