As the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches, the full extent of the devastation of war is being assessed. 7,200 civilians have been killed and almost 12,000 injured. 8 million people have fled as refugees and 5 million are displaced within the country.
In this Religion Media Centre briefing, faith leaders discuss the way churches have played a critical role in providing humanitarian aid with the need for food and shelter developing into provision of “psycho-social support” for the many dimensions of living in a country torn by war.
The fracturing of the Orthodox church was discussed, with churches, priests and congregations changing their allegiance from Moscow to Constantinople instead. And in the UK, where more than 150,000 refugees have settled, civil society and church groups have been mobilised to care for people who arrived with nothing. Catholic Ukrainian churches were on the front line, and now there is a brand new church in the UK, the Ukraine Orthodox church, still looking for a building to call home.
Leo Devine hosts this discussion with Peter Robertson, from Christian Aid, a senior journalist on humanitarian aid who has recently visited Ukraine to report on the front line; Rev. Fr. Myroslav Pushkaruk, who is establishing additional Ukrainian Orthodox parishes in the UK; Father Taras Khomych, Catholic Priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and senior lecturer in early Christian literature and Byzantine theology at Liverpool Hope Univechurchrsity; Sergei Chapnin, from the Orthodox Christian studies centre, Fordham University, New York; and Krish Kandiah, founder of Sanctuary UK who has mobilised places of refuge for Ukrainian people.
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Churches ‘critical’ in supporting Ukraine’s people
The full extent of the devastation in Ukraine is in sharp focus on the first anniversary of the war, as faith leaders review the way churches have contributed to humanitarian aid and psycho-social support.
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