Home Christian News Across US, Worshipers Seek Solidarity at Ukrainian Churches, Pray for Peace

Across US, Worshipers Seek Solidarity at Ukrainian Churches, Pray for Peace

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CHICAGO (RNS) — Everybody at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral has family in Ukraine, said Tamara Nosa. It’s why she brought her family to the church in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village on Sunday morning, knowing how many people would turn out for the Divine Liturgy, including Roman Catholic Cardinal Blase Cupich and Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk.

Nosa, 38, of suburban Plainfield, Illinois, said Sunday (Feb. 27) she is happy to see so many people protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But, standing outside the cathedral surrounded by signs sporting the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag and emblazoned with messages of support for the country, Nosa still felt discouraged. Nothing is changing, she said.

The invasion continues. She checks in each day with her family outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, where they’re hiding in their basement. They can hear sirens blaring outside.

What else is left to do but pray?

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“I’m teaching my kids let’s go to church and pray. I think like God’s maybe going to help, I’m hoping, because nobody is helping right now,” she said. “I think we lost hope, you know? And it’s really, really bad.”

In cities with some of the largest Ukrainian populations in the United States, worshippers prayed for peace and an end to war Sunday as Russia threatened its western neighbor for the fourth straight day.

“Today we are all Ukrainians,” said Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago.

In Chicago — where more than 54,000 people in the metropolitan area identify as having Ukrainian ancestry, according to 2019 U.S. Census estimates — several Catholic churches held special Masses and rosaries over the weekend to pray for peace in Ukraine and an end to the war. All rang their bells at noon Sunday in solidarity with the Ukrainian people — something they’ll repeat on Ash Wednesday, when Pope Francis has asked all believers and nonbelievers alike to fast and pray for peace.

Sunday’s liturgy at St. Nicholas was sung by a choir of mothers and daughters — fitting, Cupich said, as “this moment is an opportunity for the whole world to reflect on what kind of world we want to leave to future generations.

“It is our moment in the history of the world to say, ‘Stop. No more. We want a different world for our children.’ That is what this moment is all about. That is why the entire world is raising its voice in outrage, but also support,” the cardinal said.

In New York City’s East Village neighborhood, Saint George Ukrainian Catholic Church welcomed Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, to join them in prayer.

New York City is home to the largest community of Ukrainian immigrants in the U.S., with around 130,000 in the five boroughs and tens of thousands more across the river in New Jersey. Many of them live in the East Village.

Bishop Paul Chomnycky, Ukrainian Catholic eparch of the Stamford diocese that envelops New York and much of New England, said one of the first phone calls he got after the invasion was from Dolan, offering support.

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“It is exactly in times like this that true friends show themselves,” Chomnycky said.

Dolan previously had visited Saint George in 2014, during the Russian takeover of Crimea, he reminded the congregation, which included Roman and Ukrainian Catholics and even a congresswoman — Carolyn B. Maloney, the East Village’s representative in Washington.

“When you and I don’t know what else to do, we pray,” the cardinal said.

Near Pittsburgh, a banner outside St. Peter and St. Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church also urged prayer for Ukraine.