Pastor Sunday Adelaja at the God Embassy Service

The programme was repeated on Monday, 27 June, 2005, at 2030 BST.

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In this week's Crossing Continents, Julian Pettifer is granted exclusive access to an event that will challenge the authority of Pope Benedict XVI just two months after his inauguration.

And while the Catholic Church is facing challenges, the programme shows how in other Christian churches across Europe a new wind is blowing:

Pastor Sunday Adelaja arrived in the Ukraine from Nigeria on a Soviet student scholarship in 1993.

Twelve years later he is the head of the "GodEmbassy", the largest evangelical church in Europe, with flock of 25,000 Ukrainians in Kiev, and churches in 32 countries around the world, all originating from Ukraine.

Julian Pettifer asks why churches like the GodEmbassy in Ukraine are booming while the traditional, established churches across Europe are dramatically diminishing in number.

Presenter: Julian Pettifer
Producer: Daniel Tetlow
Editor: Maria Balinska