Quaker attention on peace and Ukraine
Make a financial contribution to Quaker relief work supporting Ukrainian refugees
Meetings for worship to uphold the Ukraine situation
EMES holds a weekly meeting for worship to uphold peace and an end to war for 30 minutes every Tuesday at the following time:
13.30 Britain, Ireland & Portugal
14.30 CET
15.30 EET, Lebanon, Palestine & Ukraine
16.30 Moscow
17.30 Georgia
Register here to receive the Zoom link (which is the same every week).
Ireland Yearly Meeting are holding a weekly meeting for worship for peace in Ukraine at 19.00 Ireland time on Sunday evenings. Click here for details
The Friends House Moscow Support Association, based in the US, are holding a daily meeting for worship
FWCC EMES and Woodbrooke continue to hold 11 meetings for worship online each week on Zoom. They can be accessed via www.woodbrooke.org.uk/worship
“There are not big steps and small steps to peace. All steps are important,” was ministry given as Quakers from all around the world came together for special meetings for worship on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 February, 2022, and among those being held in the Light were people in Ukraine and Russia and all peacemakers.
Quakers in the region
The Quaker group in Kyiv hold meeting for worship on Sundays – see their Facebook page for more details
Quakers in Russia holds weekly worship on Saturdays in Moscow and by arrangement in St Petersburg – details on our website here – and on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays online – the Zoom link can be obtained here
EMES Executive Committee minute on Ukraine
EC 2022/31: Ukraine
Our secretary has given us an update on the EMES work relating to Ukraine. A page has been added to our website to share updates on Quaker activity. Staff have been in touch with Friends and friends of Friends in Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere in the region. The Russian speaking gathering due to be held on the 26-27 February was postponed and in its place two online meetings for worship were held to uphold the situation and pray for peace – one in Russian and one in English. These were clearly appreciated by Friends and we will continue to hold further online meetings. We have also bought an additional zoom account to enable the Kyiv Worship Group to host online Meeting for Worship for up to 500 people.
Friends across the region have been shocked and deeply saddened by the invasion of Ukraine. We share the sense of helplessness that many Friends feel. We are aware that Friends wish to respond, and encourage them to give support to the many organisations that providing aid in the region.
Where Friends are working directly with refugees or providing humanitarian assistance we encourage them to set up fundraising sites (eg using just giving or local equivalents) and we can then share links to these pages for Friends who would like to contribute financially.
We see the role of EMES at this time as providing opportunities for Friends to come together to uphold people in prayer and in the light, and to provide networking opportunities to link Friends working in the region.
What can I do?
Other news
The intention had originally been for FWCC EMES to hold a long-awaited gathering for Russian speakers over the weekend of the 26-27 February on the theme of “why I am a Quaker”. Around 30 participants in 10 countries were expected to take part on Zoom. Russian had been chosen as a priority language for a gathering as a common thread that connects Quakers in a part of the Section that has less formal meetings and groups.
The group of Quaker attenders in Kyiv, Ukraine, has received messages of support from all around the world, including a class of school children from a Friends School in Costa Rica who shared posters of support.
Nadyezhda, a Friend in Ukraine, shared a message of support with Kyiv Quakers for Quakers around the world: “We ask you, Friends, to continue to support us in the determination to organize our country democratically. Ukraine has chosen the path of freedom and democracy and supporting us – you support the values of the civilized world”. She also added that whatever a person is, you should never forget the central truth of the Quaker message, “That of God in Every Man”.
Quakers around the world have been sharing their individual and corporate messages of love and support for Quakers in Ukraine and in Russia, including via FWCC EMES with contact received from Quakers as far away as New Zealand/Aotearoa. This minute was received from Quakes in Nailsworth in Britain: “We, the Friends at Nailsworth in Gloucestershire in the UK, are deeply disturbed and troubled by the current events in the Ukraine. We can only begin to imagine what you are suffering in different ways in the Ukraine and in Russia and we want you to know that we holding you all in the light.”
Friends in Switzerland had already planned to meet on Saturday for a meeting for worship for business and they had a prolonged period of worship to uphold Quakers in both Ukraine and Russia, while other Quakers in Geneva attended a rally for peace in Ukraine that was held outside the gates to the United Nations. Friends in Germany were among 500,000 people who took to the streets out of concern for situation in Ukraine.
Facebook updates
Updates on our Facebook page can be found at facebook.com/FWCCEMES
Updates on the Facebook page of Kyiv Quakers are at facebook.com/QuakersKyivUkraine
Useful links and resources
Quakers in Britain page about their response to the war in Ukraine
Statement issued by Quakers in Britain on 24 February
Statement from the Mennonites to Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church
Statement by the Council of Churches in The Netherlands calling on churches to be peacemakers
Note about FWCC EMES
Friends World Committee for Consultation Europe and Middle East Section supports over 23,000 Quakers across Europe and the Middle East in meetings, worship groups and as individuals. As well as the group of Quaker attenders in Kyiv, there are also two Friends in Ukraine with international membership. International membership is a status administered by FWCC around the world for Friends where there is no formal meeting or group nearby.
FWCC EMES shares regular updates with news from around the Section. Sign up is here
