Eating, singing and laughing together

Thomas Baldwin reports on the work of a hub hosted by a Renfrewshire church supporting people fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian war.

A SCOTS church is hosting a welcome hub to support people fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian war and their new host families.

Around 50 people attend Park Parish Church in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire every Saturday to make new connections and share their experiences as they settle into their new communities.

Volunteers provide face-to-face English lessons to people who don’t speak the language, to help them find jobs and rebuild their lives.

The project also provides an opportunity for hosts – people who have opened their homes under the Homes for Ukraine scheme – to get to know each other and share ideas and advice.

Known as Ukrainian Hub Giffnock, the project is spearheaded by Oksana Mavrodii, a professional musician who is originally from Ukraine and has been living in Scotland for 17 years.

The 43-year-old said: “Ukrainians started to arrive in Glasgow in April and I immediately recognised the issues and the problems that they were facing and I thought it would be awful if they had to go through that by themselves so I asked our minister for help.

“It is so important that hosts are involved because this is a new learning experience for these brave people.

“By meeting and chatting to each other they manage to solve lots of problems faster than they would have done otherwise and that is absolutely great.

“This project brings Ukrainians and people in Scotland together - we eat together, we sing together, we laugh together and try to bring back the normality of life for those who have suffered so much.”

Ms Mavrodii is the musical director of the Eastwood Choir which meets in the church and recently organised two charity concerts and raised around £5,000 in aid of people affected by the war.

She said many of the Ukrainians who use the hub are traumatised by the horrors they have witnessed: “It has left a massive impact on people, it will be always with them and the only thing they can do is learn to live with it.”

“Many of them will find it difficult to access mental health services because they do not speak good English so my hope is the group will provide a type of therapy as they talk and share their experiences.”

The Rev Calum Macdonald, minister of Park Parish Church, said welcoming the stranger was at the heart of the Christian message and the Church has always been a place of sanctuary for people in times of stress and struggle.

“We’re delighted to offer the halls as a meeting place to give people who have been through so much the opportunity to come together and make new connections as they seek to rebuild their lives,” he added.

“It is important that host families have the opportunity to compare notes and offer support and assistance where it is required.” 

As of August, Church of Scotland congregations and individuals had raised £408,000 to help support the Ukrainian Church and those in surrounding countries to help people seeking refuge from the war.

CHRISTIANS KILLED IN DRC

AT least 17 Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been killed in targeted attacks, thought to have been from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militant group affiliated to Islamic State.

This latest spate of attacks took place through the last week of July into August, across several villages in the region in the Boga area of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Two Anglican ministers were killed in the first attack on July 24, followed the next day by an attack on two churches, which were both set alight, killing at least seven churchgoers.

Further attacks took place on July 27, 29 and August 1. Reverend Marcel Kisembo, Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Boga explained that the church has registered an estimated death toll of 17 at the hands of the ADF from the attacks.

The Rev Besisa Birahure of the Anglican Church in Mugwanga, which was attacked by the ADF on August 1, said: “We are overwhelmed, what can we do? As things become harder may God sustain us to stand firm.”

Although the DRC is 95 per cent Christian, believers face violent persecution from Islamist extremists who are especially active in the east of the country. In ADF-controlled areas, expression of Christian faith is dangerous. Jihadists have killed those wearing Christian symbols and meeting with other Christians can lead to abduction or killing.

In 2021, the DRC’s government announced a state of siege in the northeastern provinces to stem violence by the ADF. But attacks on communities and churches are continuing unabated. In conflict regions, violent attacks have left villages and churches empty. In areas largely controlled by the militants, anyone speaking out against Islamist groups risks severe violations.

Currently, much of the violence against Christians, especially converts, takes place with impunity, according to researchers for Open Doors’ World Watch List, which ranks where Christians face the most extreme persecution and discrimination. DRC is currently at number 40 on this ranking.

(Open Doors)

UKRAINE SOLIDARITY

DURING a solidarity visit to Ukraine in August, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation met with various state institutions working with religious issues, listening and learning from the victims of the ongoing war and asking for support in giving permission to the members of the delegation of Ukrainian Churches to leave the country and attend the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe.

“We came here to show our solidarity with people in Ukraine, and to make sure the voice of Ukraine is present at the upcoming WCC assembly in Karlsruhe,” said WCC acting general secretary the Rev Prof Dr Ioan Sauca to Olena Bogdan, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Affairs and Freedom of Conscience.

The Office of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Affairs and Freedom of Conscience has reported that at least 183 religious sites in 14 regions of Ukraine are fully or partly ruined by the attack of the Russian Federation. These include churches, mosques, synagogues, educational, and administrative buildings of Ukraine’s religious communities, destroyed between February 24 and July 23 2022.

During the visit, the WCC delegation met also with Oleksandr Tkachenko, minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, who said that the war is a fight against Ukrainian identity, which includes all religious communities in Ukraine.

Tkachenko also informed that the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has appealed to 150 international organisations in the world to suspend the Russian participation in them while Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues, and asked if the WCC could do the same.

“The World Council of Churches was founded to foster dialogue between churches who are not in agreement between themselves,” said Sauca during the meeting. “Therefore we aim not to exclude, but to challenge our members to work for justice and peace.”

The central committee, the WCC governing body which met in July this year debated in depth the proposal of suspension which came from some churches and concluded in unanimity that the WCC should keep its identity of an open platform where churches meet and challenge one another, looking for ways of reconciliation and healing based on just peace.

Hearing the WCC perspectives and approach, Tkachenko asked that an adequate number of Ukrainians be included as participants at the WCC assembly so that they speak for themselves about the situation and realities in Ukraine today.

Oleksiy Dniprov, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, participated in the meeting of the WCC delegation and with the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations, and conveyed thanks to Sauca for all the statements of support issued by the WCC.

(WCC)