Why Ukrainian Churches Don't Have Steeples

If you notice in this picture of the front of the First Baptist Church in Chernivtsi, there is no steeple nor cross on top.

First Baptist isn't the only one like that. None of the Baptist churches do.

At first when I was here in 2001 I thought it was a relic left over from the officially-atheistic Soviet era, but it turns out it may not be.

Finally in my role of historian I had a chance to ask Brother Benjamin, the superintendent of the region's Baptist association, why there were no steeples.

He repeated to me his story of being beaten by his village's Orthodox priest using the crucifix around the priest's neck. Apparently his tale isn't the only such story passed down by the generation that still remembers the Orthodox persecution of Baptists during the time between World War I and World War II when Romania ruled the Chernivtsi region and Baptist churches were suppressed.

Between the negative reinforcement of crucifix-carrying priests and active destruction against minority churches in pre-war Romania and all churches during the Soviet era, there has never been any desire to build steeples.

It's also worth noting that the large Pentecostal church that we pass frequently also does not have a steeple nor cross over it.

Only the Orthodox and Catholic churches have them, such as this Orthodox prayer chapel located just a block away from First Baptist Church.