Ukrainian faith communities pray for invaded motherland
Photo by Lynne Deliman
Father Timothy Tomson led his congregation at St. Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in a prayer service for the Ukrainian invasion Feb. 27. To assist their worship, Tompson brought out a replica of an ancient icon believed to have staved off a Ukrainian city from Ottoman invasion during the 17th century.
Photo by Lynne Deliman
Oksana Kukhar, along with daughters Sophia and Victoria light candles at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks to pray for the citizens of Ukraine following the Russian invasion. -WAR-
By Jamie Wiggan
As Russian troops fired on Ukraine’s second-largest city throughout Sunday, Orthodox faith communities here in McKees Rocks gathered to pray.
“We pray God will turn the hearts of the Russian soldiers and the president of Russia,” Father Timothy Tomson said to his parishioners at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in McKees Rocks. “Take it from stone and turn it into gold.”
About 30 parishioners participated in the regular morning service at St. Mary’s on Feb. 27. Most were born here to Ukrainian parents or grandparents, but many are Ukrainian natives who made the McKees Rocks parish their spiritual home after emigrating to America.
“My life is both [American and Ukrainian],” said Vitaliy Kukhar, a Ukrainian native who initially thought he would only stay temporarily in the United States to work and save money. He and his family have been worshiping at St. Mary’s since 2009.
Kukhar said his sister was living in a city in Eastern Ukraine before the invasion began last week, but hoping to avoid the path of destruction forged by Russian tanks, she moved in with her parents at their rural home further from the border.
“They’re really worried,” Kukhar said of his family. “We need help now.”
Another worshiper, Anastasiia Hanson, receives regular pictures and messages from family still in Ukraine updating her on the situation. By Sunday, her cousins had spent the past several days in an underground train station to avoid the bombings. Although their younger child has developed an ear infection since holing up underground her parents don’t dare venture to a hospital while the blasts continue.
“She can’t get help because they can’t leave,” said Hanson. “I’m very scared.”
For Hanson, who has lived in America since 2006, watching helplessly as Russian forces march through Ukraine evokes a familiar feeling. Originally from Crimea, Hanson has already seen troops march through her homeland when Russia annexed that former Ukrainian territory by force in 2014.
“Putin, he just decided one day it was his place now,” she said.
One hundred years before Hanson and Kukhar arrived here as recent immigrants, St. Mary’s Church was built in 1906 to accommodate large inflows of Ukrainians who made their homes in the New World during the first 30 years of the 20th century.