Last week, on day 40 of the war in Ukraine, I found myself doing an interview on the radio about the Diocese in Europe’s appeal for humanitarian aid. 40 days. It felt strangely appropriate given the season. However, the war and its horrific effects are not ‘for a season’. They will be with us for all time. Each Wednesday through Lent we held online ‘Vigils with Prayers for Peace’. Our people in Ukraine and Russia have cherished prayers offered by thousands who joined from across the continent and beyond.
Prayer is not ‘all we can do’ – It is the foundation for everything we do.
Despite it all, we have seen God at work through Lent: Shelter for refugees in churches and in the homes of parishioners. Small gifts that have given Ukrainian people the dignity of being able to head to a café in Warsaw and buy food and drink for themselves and their children rather than waiting in line for handouts. Bowls of water for pet dogs arriving with refugees at the railway station. The hugs given by the 7-year-old boys at football training as they welcome a refugee child to their team. Chaplains who asked for Orthodox liturgical suggestions for new congregation members in Switzerland and Norway but wondered whether what really mattered was the welcome, the coffee, and the (not so lenten) cake. God is at work in all this.
War has overshadowed everything this Lent, but as my dear friend the Reverend Canon Malcolm Rogers reminded us in his address from his Church in Moscow at the start of the war:
‘The darkness has fallen on the people of Ukraine. They are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Today, for them it is not the beginning of Lent. It is already Good Friday.’
But he concluded:
‘We are followers of the crucified but risen Son of God.
We know that Good Friday was not the end.
Three days later Jesus Christ rose from the dead.’
Andrew Caspari
Diocesan Secretary, Church of England Diocese in Europe
