The Ukrainian Baptist Church of Chicago ordained Peter Gregorovich Ivanov for pastoral ministry during the Sunday morning worship service on March 15, 2020.
He is serving alongside Senior Pastor Aleksandr Kalinin and assistant pastor Aleksandr Makovetskiy.
Brother Ivanov was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine, and immigrated in 1994 to Chicago, where he served as a deacon, preached frequently and sang in the church choir.
In Ukraine, he attended Zhitomir Technical College in 1984. He was baptized in June 1985 by the Ukrainian Baptist Church in Zhitomir. He taught Bible study courses in a secular middle school in Zhitomir from 1987-1990. In 1991, he completed a school of evangelism organized by Rev. Billy Graham in Moscow, Russia. He was ordained as a deacon in December 1992. (His father also was a deacon.)
Peter and his wife, Dina, have been married for 33 years and have a son, Ruslan.
During the ceremony ordaining Rev. Ivanov, age 55, the Ukrainian Baptist Church of Chicago also ordained three young men as deacons: Benjamin Morgun, Igor A. Kalinin and Aleksandr Antonyuk Jr.
The ordination ceremony included participation by Rev. Anatoly Moshkovsky, a past president of the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention in the USA. He traveled from the East Coast and also preached the main sermon. Besides Rev. Moshkovsky and Rev. Kalinin, other ministers who participated in the laying on of hands and prayers were Rev. Aleksandr Makovetskiy, assistant pastor; Rev. Aleksandr Antonyuk and Rev. Illya Shmilikhovskyy.
Laying their hands on Peter Ivanov and praying are (from left) Rev. Aleksandr Antonyuk, Rev. Aleksandr Kalinin and Rev. Anatoly Moshkovsky, past president of the Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Convention.
Rev. Aleksandr Kalinin addresses the candidates for ordination and their wives: (from left) Lana and Benjamin Morgun, Snezhana and Igor Kalinin, Peter and Dina Ivanov, Aleksandr and Julia Antonyuk.
