Sunday Adelaja (Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian: Сандей Аделаджа) is the founder and senior pastor of God’s Blessed Kingdom Embassy for All Nations, an evangelical-charismatic mega-church and Christian denomination in Kiev, Ukraine.

Sunday Sunkanmi Adelaja was born in the village of Idomila Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria. His name Adelaja means “the crown has settled this fight” in Yoruba. He was raised by his grandmother and became a Christian in March 1986, just before he graduated from high school.

In 1986, after graduation, Adelaja left Nigeria because he received a scholarship to study journalism at the Belarusian State University in Minsk, Belarusian SSR.

After graduation and the collapse of the USSR, he left Belarus for Ukraine in December 1993.

He claims that he was threatened by the authorities there because he had a picture of Jesus in his house, but he nevertheless started Christian activities in Belarus during his studies. He got married and took a job in Kiev.

In 1993, he and 7 people founded in his apartment the “Embassy of the blessed Kingdom of God for all nations”.The church was officially founded in 1994 under the name “World of Faith Bible Church”. In 2013, the church claimed 25,000 members in Kiev, 100,000 members in Ukraine and 1,000 churches in the rest of the world.

Thousands of people are fed daily in the church’s soup kitchens in Kiev. The church also has a program that helps the homeless learn skills, enabling them to return to normal life and work. According to the church, 2,000 children have been helped off the streets and returned to their families. In addition, the church operates a 24-hour hotline, called the “Trust line,” for people in need to call for help. The church also works with addicts and has a program to help them break free from their various addictions. The main organization is called “Love Rehabilitation Center”. According to the church, more than 5,000 drug and alcohol addicts have been freed from their addictions through the work of the church.

Homeless people are served food in one of the rooms of the “Stephania” soup kitchen at Embassy of God Church. The photo was taken on December 30, 2006. The New York Times made the following statement about Adelaja: “Could there be a more unlikely success story in the former Soviet Union than that of the Rev. Sunday Adelaja, an immigrant from Nigeria who developed a fervent – and enormous – following across Ukraine?”

He founded numerous church-related educational institutions, the most well-known of which include the Joshua Missionary Bible Institute in Ukraine, the Center of Restoration of Personality and Transformation of the Society in Ukraine, the History Makers Bible School in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, and the Institute for National Transformation in Nigeria.The church is credited with playing an active role in the grassroots rallies that ultimately led to the Orange Revolution. Sunday Adelaja, however, denounced its implicit initiation of the Orange Revolution in the Ukrainian media. The mayor of Kiev, Leonid Chernovetsky, is a member of the Embassy of God, but he opposes the main actors of the Orange Revolution, including Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. President Viktor Yushchenko presented Adelaja with a certificate of thanks for his support of the Orange Revolution. During the protests, the church erected a tented chapel on Independence Square and offered shelter to thousands of people who came to Kiev.

In October 2010, Sunday Adelaja was one of the foreigners in Ukraine who was awarded “The Most Influential Expats 2010” by the Kyiv Post newspaper.

In May 2009, Sunday Adelaja became the Face of Kyiv 2009. The annual contest was organized by Afisha magazine and Adelaja won the first place with more than a third of the votes, beating the most popular actor of Ukraine Bohdan Stupka in second place, heavyweight boxer Vitali Klitschko in third place, one of the richest entrepreneurs of Ukraine Viktor Pinchuk in fourth place, and the mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetskyi in fifth place.

At the Azusa Street Revival Festival on Saturday, April 25, 2009, Sunday Adelaja received the first William J. Seymour International Award. This award is given to ministers who exhibit the characteristics of William J. Seymour. A statement from the award committee said, “This year we will recognize one international and one national winner: The international winner will be Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian-born leader with an apostolic gift for the 21st century. In his mid-thirties, Pastor Sunday has already proven to be one of the most dynamic communicators and church planters in the world. He is considered the most successful pastor in Europe with more than 25,000 members and daughter and satellite churches in more than 35 countries around the world.

In March 2008, the Archbishop Benson Idahosa Award for Missionary Achievement was presented to Rev. Sunday Adelaja in recognition of his missionary achievements and social commitment in Kiev, Ukraine and around the world.

In March 2007, Sunday Adelaja became an honorable member of the International Eurasian Chamber of Commerce.

In May 2004, the Dutch mission of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) thanked Pastor Sunday Adelaja for his participation in what God is using to reach the Dutch people.

Pastor Sunday was honored to be featured on the front page of a Wall Street Journal article on July 21, 2006.

Pastor Sunday was honored to open the US Senate in prayer on April 23, 2007.

Pastor Sunday was honored to speak twice at the United Nations on August 23, 2007.

In November 2008, Adelaja was accused of being involved in the dealings of King’s Capital, a financial group headed by a former member of his congregation. The company, which promises returns on investment of up to 60 percent, attracted many investors from the church. Afterwards, several former church members went to the authorities saying they had not been able to get back the money they had invested, leaving many of them bankrupt. Police later arrested one of the leaders of King’s Capital, Aleksandr Bandurchenko, on suspicion of fraud.

On February 5, 2009, criminal proceedings were initiated against Sunday Adelaja for acclamation and suspected fraud. Investigators say they have evidence that Adelaja was involved in the financial schemes allegedly committed by the King’s Capital financial group. Kiev Mayor Chernovetsky, himself a member of the church, had previously said that Adelaja was not involved in the King’s Capital financial scheme.

In September 2009, the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine admitted that it had exhausted its possibilities in the criminal case against Sunday Adelaja. Since the Ministry of Interior has always delayed and refused to bring the case to court, the Embassy of God Church and Sunday Adelaja filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Interior and the Police of Ukraine for illegal accusation and defamation. The judge asked the Ministry of Interior to present its evidence for its accusation of fraud, but after five hearings, they still have not provided any evidence to support their accusation.

On October 12, 2009, Kiev investigators questioned Adelaja in connection with the fraud charge. At a press conference on October 14, 2009, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko said the preliminary proceedings revealed that from October 2006 to May 2008, Adelaja and others had embezzled the property of people, most of whom were believers in the Embassy of God church. The total amount of damage due to these actions amounted to more than UAH 1.5 million, according to evidence provided by several witnesses, according to the minister.

Adelaja considers the decision of the police to investigate him for involvement in the machinations of the financial group as an implementation of the political order. And said that the cause of the financial problems of the financial group King’s Capital was the economic crisis rather than deliberate fraud.

As of April 2011, the case has not been brought to court.

On December 28, 2008, nine leaders of evangelical churches in Ukraine signed a statement in which they disassociated themselves, among others, from Sunday Adelaja and his activity. They accuse him of trying to create a cult of personality, and accuse him of using methods and activity based on self-promotion, exaggeration of personal merits, teaching the doctrine of prosperity and the sin of love of money, and his practice of cursing church members and parishioners who do not share his opinion.

In addition to Embassy of God, there are two other mega-churches in Ukraine: Victory Church and Hillsong Church. Their pastors, Henry Madava and Evgenij Kasevich, did not sign the statement.

Adelaja supports Ukrainian nationalism. According to him, Ukraine can only become independent through a nationalist mindset. He believes that it is unfortunate that patriotism does not apply to all Ukrainians. “Only through the nationalistic mood can the Ukrainian nation become independent. If Ukrainians do not become more nationalistic, I fear that this country will return to the Russian, Polish, Hungarian or other yoke.”

Adelaja believes that racism is not typical of Ukrainian society. “I think it’s more of a Russian phenomenon, which has happened here. But Russia also sees how bad racism is for the reputation of a country.”

Adelaja was a strong supporter of the Orange Revolution. “Twelve years ago, we were freed from communism. Although we have had a different government with different uniforms since then, the same corrupt people have remained in power. Today, Ukraine for the first time has the opportunity to choose its own free way of life.” He said of Viktor Yushchenko, then a candidate and then winner of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, “He is a committed believer who takes his faith seriously and is influenced by God and the Bible.” However, during the 2010 presidential elections, Adelaja decided and called on all affiliated churches to vote for Victor Yanukovich, the opponent of the “Orange” leaders (Timoshenko and Yushchenko).