Father Chad Pawlyshyn conducts a prayer service at the Kamloops Ukrainian Orthodox Church on Friday (Image Credit: Kent Simmonds)

By Chad Klassen

RUSSIA INVASION

Ukrainian Orthodox Church holds special service to pray for friends, family back home

Feb 25, 2022 | 1:08 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Ukrainian community in Kamloops is coming together to support their people, including family members who remain in the country.

On Friday at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on 8th Street, there was a special prayer service. Father Chad Pawlyshyn says it’s really all he can do as the country is under siege from all angles from neighbouring Russia and Belarus.

“Concerns about extended friends and family that we know that are in Ukraine and whatever we can do to support them,” said Pawlyshyn.

Father Chad delievered a special online service to offer protection for the people of Ukraine, some of whom are fleeing a full-scale attack by Russia.

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His close family friends live in Lviv, in the western part of Ukraine. “It’s difficult because all the major centres in Ukraine have been hit in some way at this point,” he said. “So Lviv, even though it’s on the Western side, it’s closer to Poland, it has been affected. The villages, with that many people, are trying to stay local.”

Liz Lyne, a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kamloops, has nieces and nephews in the country still. She can’t believe what she’s seeing on TV.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Lyne said as she held back tears. “This morning when I was watching the news, I just saw all of these babas kneeling on the ground praying, and I just thought ‘How heartbreaking’ that seniors who worked so hard to build up a country would take their lives in their hands and standing in the middle of an empty street in Kyiv and pray. That’s all they can do.”

She and other church members will continue to pray for their people with the hope some Ukrainians can come to Canada eventually.

“Unfortunately, [praying] is all we can do, other than sending off some monetary help,” said Lyne. “And hoping we can bring some of those people over here and I’m sure that’s in the works.”

Father Chad says anyone in Kamloops looking to help the Ukrainian people should look at donating to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which sends humanitarian aid to the country.

He says people can also donate money to the church and designate it specifically for Ukraine. The church will then send it to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

There will also be a gathering of the Kamloops Ukrainian community on Saturday (Feb. 26) at 3 p.m. at Riverside Park.