The March issue of ONE magazine was to feature the formation of seminarians for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church — a mission CNEWA supports through sponsorships and program funding. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February — while we were still in production — disrupted usual seminary life, and after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy that day, the seminary was shuttered and evacuated.
The seminarians remain in Ukraine and in close communication with their rector and formators, as they assist in humanitarian efforts closer to home. Their commitment to serving the people of God in Ukraine remains steadfast, as it may take on different forms of service during this time of war.
This beautiful video presents the community life and the diversity of comprehensive formation for the priesthood at two Ukrainian Greek Catholic seminaries — the Lviv Theological Seminary of the Holy Spirit and the Kyiv Theological Seminary of the Three Holy Hierarchs — just weeks before war, which has devastated Ukraine.
These interviews were recorded with formators and seminarians during the first week of February 2022, by photographer and video journalist Konstantin Chernichkin. Konstantin submitted his moving final edit on 23 February, though post-production of the video was completed in-house this past week.
We ask for prayers for an imminent peace in Ukraine, for all Ukrainians, for wisdom for all of the world’s political and religious leaders, and for Konstantin, from whom we have not received word since 23 February.
We ask that you to stay informed about the situation in Ukraine by accessing reliable sources of information.
And we ask you to consider supporting the current humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. To make a donation, go to: https://cnewa.org/campaigns/ukraine/
Update: CNEWA was pleased to hear from Konstantin on 21 March from Lviv, where has been working to document the war and the humanitarian crisis as a fixer and photographer, after evacuating his family to Poland.