UNICEF’s Ukraine Emergency Fund
March 10, 2022
Showing our Support: UNICEF’s Ukraine Emergency Fund.
The EA Fund team has made an emergency donation to support UNICEF’s Ukraine Emergency Fund, which will reach children and families in Ukraine with urgent humanitarian aid.
This donation will help provide communities with safe water and sanitation supplies, urgent medical aid and healthcare services, child protection including psychosocial care, and education supplies.
If you have the means, we encourage you to join us in donating to organizations like:
or other organizations providing critical support to Ukrainians during this time.
Statement for Peace in Ukraine from the United Church of Canada website
We join with all who witness and work for peace and justice around the world
The United Church of Canada condemns the invasion of Ukraine by President Putin of Russia. This act of aggression contravenes the Charter of the United Nations (UN) and represents a serious violation of international law. We call on all parties to immediately cease hostilities and to undertake action to restore peace, including through the negotiations underway in Belarus.
The United Church of Canada joins UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his call for the protection of the lives and human rights of residents of Ukraine. In addition to an immediate cessation to hostilities there is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance to be distributed to all those who have been impacted by the ongoing violence and to allow continuous unimpeded access. Food, shelter, health care, and comfort must be provided in adherence to the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. We call on governments to keep borders open and provide safe refuge for everyone escaping the conflict and to create safe pathways for all regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or creed.
As Moderator, I am grateful to communities of faith holding in prayer the people of Ukraine and all people peacefully protesting violations of international law and human rights in the region. I join you in asking God to help us to be peace-bearers as individuals, as communities, and as nation-states. In our commitment to justice and peace, let us call on government leadership to help bring this to an end so no more lives are lost or communities harmed.
We join with all who witness and work for peace and justice around the world, even in the face of violent conflict.
I invite you also to explore whether there is a Ukrainian Catholic church, Ukrainian Orthodox church, or Ukrainian community centre close to you to whom you might write a letter of concern and solidarity or extend solidarity to people of Ukrainian descent in your community.
We offer this prayer and sample letter.
The United Church of Canada is receiving funds that will be directed to humanitarian assistance in Ukraine through its ecumenical partner, ACT Alliance, which is responding to the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation. ACT members are scaling up their presence inside Ukraine and in neighbouring countries to aid those impacted by the current armed hostilities. You can donate to the Conflict in Ukraine appeal.
May peace reign in Ukraine and for all peoples facing renewed violent conflict.
Christ’s peace,
Right Rev. Dr. Richard Bott
Moderator
Saturday, March 5, 2022 Fairlawn and Community Online Prayer Service
Fairlawn Community Prayer for Peace in Ukraine:
Many of us watching and listening to reports of the Russian invasion of Ukraine over the past week have been deeply shaken. We have felt sorrow, shock, anger, and we are in disbelief. The country and people of Ukraine are now under siege, and it is a shock to our collective consciousness. Many Russians, too, are horrified by the actions of their government and military. The global Christian community has been united in the call for an end to the war.
We here at Fairlawn Avenue United are contributing our voices to the prayers of people of many faiths – that war cease and peace be restored. We gathered on Zoom on Saturday, March 5, to pray, light candles for peace, and to support one another in this ominous time for our world.
We will keep listening. Please watch this space for future prayer service information.
The United Church of Canada, working through the global ecumenical ACT Alliance, and with partners such as Hungarian InterChurch Aid, is receiving and directing donations to those working on the ground: https://united-church.ca/social-action/act-now/conflict-ukraine
Sunflowers in Ukraine: Praying for a Miracle
God of all Creation,
God of the heights and the depths,
and everything in-between,
God of this blue-green bauble,
spinning in space,
a place of such wonderous creatures,
and abundant life…
we are praying for a miracle,
one of the smallest of changes,
one that would have immense consequence.
As people around the world
seek the end of the war
that Russia has perpetrated on Ukraine,
seek to end the death,
seek to make a peace,
what I am praying for is a change of
mind, a change of
heart, a change of
worldview,
in the Russian leadership,
who brought this into being.
Help them, God of all hope,
to see that this is the chance to
step back from the war,
to pull back the escalation,
to let go of whatever it is
that made them choose
the path that has led to
the chaos,
the destruction,
the death,
in Ukraine.
We need a miracle that will
help them to not only pull back,
their forces to within their borders,
their rhetoric of nuclear option;
but to be part of the rebuilding
of the nation they sought to overtake…
in the midst of the grief and tears
and anger and rage,
of the parents and grandparents,
of the siblings and children,
of the friends and neighbours,
of those who have been killed
in this act of aggression.
Help us to bring this to an end, God,
one that will allow the sunflowers of Ukraine
to reach their growth,
sprouting in the soil of peace,
under a hope-filled sky.
Help us to make that miracle, God,
for it is truly needed.
In Christ’s name,
in the Spirit’s power,
in the Creator’s love,
I pray.
Amen.
Written by Moderator Richard Bott
Source: https://united-church.ca/prayers/sunflowers-ukraine-praying-miracle
Image Credit: Eleana Mozhvilo, Unsplash
Previous Post:
A HOPE FOR PEACE IN UKRAINE
Friday, Feb. 25, 2022
As we have followed the news of the mad progression towards war, we have pleaded for a different logic than one based on power and competition – a logic that considers the death and suffering that any armed conflict would inevitably visit on the children, women and men of Ukraine.
We pray for a change of hearts and minds, for de-escalation. God is a God of peace, not of war and bloodshed. Though the things that make for peace may be hidden from the eyes of those driving the march to war, we pray that they may yet be opened, and that peace may yet prevail.
