Following an appeal by the Mayor of Kyiv, a high-level delegation of world religious leaders is travelling to the Ukrainian capital today to bring their solidarity to Ukrainians and pray together for a just peace in Ukraine.
As war between Ukraine and Russia enters its fourth month, more than a dozen faith leaders from the major world religions, including the Catholic Church, started a three-day solidarity visit to Kyiv on Tuesday during which they will pray together for peace, distribute humanitarian aid and meet Ukrainian religious and political leaders. The high-level religious delegation travelled by bus from Warsaw and will return to the Polish capital on May 26.
After their arrival on Tuesday morning, the religious leaders held a public outdoor prayer service at Babyn Yar, which was the site of massacres carried out by Nazi forces during World War II . It will be followed by another prayer service in Kyiv at noon on Wednesday. The organizers also plan to appeal to the Russian authorities for a prayer vigil for a just peace to take place in Moscow.
The host partner is Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, a non-governmental organization that created the first modern Holocaust museum in Eastern Europe. Also collaborating are several organizations, including Sojourners, a Washington based Christian NGO dedicated to articulating the biblical call for social justice and peace, and members of the Jesuit Georgetown University (USA).
According Mr. Maksym Rabinovych, CEO of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, bringing together leaders from different fields – religious, politics, science, culture – can show the way to stop the war, save lives and restore peace. “For five years our Memorial Center has been studying the history of the Holocaust to prevent genocides and promote human dignity and we are committed to this aim today in particular, when peaceful Ukrainian cities are suffering from shelling, a lot of houses of civilians are destroyed and so many people are tortured and killed in barbaric manner”, said Rabinovych.
More photos: here
