On the day of hardly believable and yet pleasant pledges by Ukrainian and Russian leaders to cease fire if other side will be quiet, when the Catholic and Orthodox Churches reconciled in celebrating Easter the same day, Ukrainian Quakers revered at the meeting for worship the everyday miracle of presence of resurrected Christ in our lives. Following the prompt from Advices and Queries to search out whatever in your own way of life may contain the seeds of war, we were challenged to consider whether during all known history there was hardly even one day without war, and we were moved to tell the truth about omnipresent eternal love of Christ that makes peace always present inwardly and outwardly and always greater than all wars: for alongside every bloodshed there are those who refuse to kill, who alleviate rather than increase suffering, alongside every battlefield there are countless peaceful spaces filled with heavenly peace, for every moment of sorrow there are many moments of joy. Friends believe in perfection, the freedom from sin by active faithful commitment to the Light; in the words of Quaker theologian Robert Barclay, after Christ arose and perfected the work of our redemption, He has made salvation possible to everyone and proved that no one is absolutely condemned for sins. We don’t feel peace indeed when we see injustice; we need to be compassionate and treat with care every living being suffering from war, and we need to resist injustice nonviolently. But we also need to share the joy and happiness of every living being that finds peace in the soul and around, and we need to strengthen this peace, turning spaces of peace into the universe, turning moments of peace into eternity, bringing peace to everyone. We need to follow a vision of George Fox who saw an ocean of darkness and death, but there was an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. We need to save the world from wars refusing to kill, because there is no place for transcendent scourge of war in the ocean of light. Putins of all the hell could destroy hundreds of our churches, but they can’t destroy the peaceable kingdom of faith and action. Inward light of Christ will always lead every soul through conscience to a more perfect world without wars.
Introduction:
Friends, Christ is risen, and even the cruel-hearted are speaking of peace and silencing weapons of war. Quakers do not consider this day to be more holy than any other day, because Jesus lives in our hearts every day, but we are happy to celebrate the spirit of Easter with the Ukrainian Christian people today. As the Gospel of John 1:9 says, Christ is the true Light, Who comes into the world and gives light to everyone. For the next half hour we will worship in stillness and enjoy this light, and our meeting will be recorded and published, because the light must shine to everyone.
Yurii Sheliazhenko:
Friends, I was pleased to hear from Moscow a promise to cease fire on Easter, and I am happy that President Zelensky promised in response that Ukraine will stay quiet if Russia will stay quiet. It is reported that some fights are going on. Let’s hope and pray it will be ceased and honest efforts to observe ceasefire will be made. Jesus rightly said that injustice and hypocrisy bring only sorrow (Matthew 23:25), and peacemakers will be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9). To say fairly, one day is too short, we need a lasting peace. Let’s pray for a lasting peace in Ukraine and in the world.
Robert Barclay, a Quaker theologian of 17th century, wrote in his “Apology for the True Christian Divinity” that we ought to reject all traditions, even our own ones, because traditions create disagreements, similar to disagreement between the Greek and Roman churches how the Easter must be celebrated. This year Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew, God give good health to both, agreed that the shared date of Easter today is a good sign. And we see that the spirit of Easter might unite not only the spiritual leaders of different branches of Christianity but even the earthly rivals such as Putin and Zelensky. Maybe it is not for long, but when tradition unites, not divides, I could love this tradition.
Friends are used to read Advices and Queries at the Meetings for Worship, so I will do this.
We are called to live ‘in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars’. Do you faithfully maintain our testimony that war and the preparation for war are inconsistent with the spirit of Christ? Search out whatever in your own way of life may contain the seeds of war. Stand firm in our testimony, even when others commit or prepare to commit acts of violence, yet always remember that they too are children of God.
Bring into God’s light those emotions, attitudes and prejudices in yourself which lie at the root of destructive conflict, acknowledging your need for forgiveness and grace. In what ways are you involved in the work of reconciliation between individuals, groups and nations?
We could achieve justice and peace without violence, and overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
We are inspired by Sermon on the Mount, Evangelical commandments of Christ on perfect universal love to everyone, on refusing to kill or even to be angry (Matthew 5: 21-26, 43-48).
We love the Peace Testimony and are ready to uphold it as valiantly as it was upheld before by twelve Quakers in 1660, by George Fox in 1651, by early Christian martyr Maximilian of Tebessa, and many other good people.
We care about all life and live our lives as a holy experiment without any dogmas but seeking and working for truth and perfect love, worshipping in peace and walking cheerfully in the light.
We believe in the inner light of truth, love, dignity and conscience in every person, regardless of the spiritual or humanistic tradition in which a person grew up; everyone could tell truth and everyone should be heard.
We expect to preserve our hope that the prophecy will once come true that “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3).
Farooq Javed:
Let’s be happy and celebrate resurrection of Christ!
Evgen Makarenko:
Friends, hello everyone. Thank you for the half hour I spent with you. I only learned about the existence of Quakers in Ukraine yesterday, but, analyzing my personal experience with the help of Chat GPT, I found that your views are very similar, and during this worship for peace, when I sincerely prayed for peace, the following question came to me. Why, throughout our known history, there were practically no days on Earth when there was no war? From Chat GPT I learned that in the 15th-20th centuries there was not a single day when the Earth was completely without war, at least one hot spot existed every day, according to the Brecke Conflict Catalog, Correlates of War, and Uppsala Conflict Data Program databases.
Artem Denysov:
In my opinion, evil does evil. There are both evil people and good people. No person bears any responsibility for the worldview and actions of another person, but we all, of course, have empathy, pray and try to improve this world and take actions that will help people who do evil, rethink their actions, their deeds and come to peace. Unfortunately, it all starts with the fact that all people are different and some people choose the path of light for themselves, other people choose the path of darkness for themselves, but some people find the strength and desire to come out of darkness into the light.
We must also remember that evil is always limited, and even if evil reigns somewhere for a certain period of time on the territory of the Earth, this time is always counted, it will always end. Only the will of God reigns on Earth and will continue to reign.
Therefore, we must understand and refuse temptations, not succumb to evil and not look for easy ways. This understanding, when it reaches the majority of people, can really help reduce violence and end wars.
As long as some people find it easier to take away than to create, they will unfortunately turn away from what is good. But God will not let evil go too far, nor will God allow evil to continue forever.
God will wipe out every tear from all eyes, and all sorrow will pass away (Revelation 21:4).
Yurii Sheliazhenko:
Evgen, we are glad to meet a seeker of truth and recognize in your challenge a prompt from Advices and Queries: search out whatever in your own way of life may contain the seeds of war.
Although we must also remember that within us, in every person, there is the inward Light, the root of peace.
I see that Artem also focused on this during prayer. I also thought about this and am moved to say that this is not just a question of choosing between good and evil, but a question of our ability to see the truth.
Because, of course, our feelings, our grief, our compassion for people can push us to such an emotional quick conclusion that wars never end, they continue everywhere.
And indeed, as long as at least one creature in the world suffers, we must sympathize with this suffering.
But we must also not forget that alongside suffering there is the love of Christ, the joy of life. There is always happiness.
And peace is always present with us even during the fiercest, bloodiest, most unjust wars. There are people who refuse to fight. In many homes there is no war.
Near any frontline of bloodshed, there is a peaceful place full of flowers and stillness, where life triumphs over death, where the sun shines and there are people who do not go to the battlefield, who go to the sun, to the light, to Jesus. Peace lives always and everywhere in the hearts of those who refuse to kill, the conscientious objectors. Peace lives in homes and churches even in times of war, and nobody could kill all peaceful souls and destroy all peaceful places. Even if Putin destroyed more than 600 Ukrainian churches, as President Zelensky said the truth, all churches cannot be destroyed, and peace is always present in churches. I will explain to you why.
The true church is not a building, the true church is in our hearts. Jesus lives inside us, and not everything can be destroyed, there is always life and there is always peace in our hearts.
Peace always lives around, there is always respect for the sanctity of human life and refusal to kill, and we must be able to notice and embrace the peace around even in hardest times when peace is fragile and needs efforts to see and develop the peace.
Some say, “The 20th century was a century of world wars.” But the First World War was from 1914 to 1918, the Second World War was from 1939 to 1945, that is, only 10 years out of 100, the remaining 90 years there were no world wars. Of course, there were wars in some parts of the world, but in other parts of the world there were no wars. It turns out that for most of the 20th century, most parts of the world were at peace. These are simple statistics.
We must remember this and we must see this peace, value it and develop it, because it is so fragile, we must take care of it, so that not only those who live in peace can enjoy peace, but also those who suffer from wars can also receive the necessary help and be able to enjoy peace.
Friends, we must also remember that we are not having debates, but a meeting for worship, where we embrace the spirit of peace, the spirit of agreement. Although, of course, the search for truth and the truth-speaking are also a contribution to the search for common peace.
I thank to you, Evgen, for the search for truth, and we are always happy to welcome you to our meetings for worship. Share your spiritual experience, it may be a challenge for others, but it should also be a contribution to our peace and understanding. Thank you for your ministry.
I want to add that Friends have a theological idea of perfection, the possibility of living a life essentially free of sin, in holiness, and according to this idea, human nature is not hopelessly corrupted by the curse of any sin, including the great sin of war, because Jesus saved us from these sins and because we strive to be perfect as Jesus taught us (Matthew 5:48). You can read more in numerous theological works about the doctrine of perfection that Friends believe in for a long time, it helps us to understand that the world is not doomed to live in the sin of war, there is always a place for the kingdom of God among us thanks to our faithful life.
Salvation is real, perfection is possible after Christ arose and perfected the work of our redemption, as Robert Barclay points out in the Apology; and we need to strengthen the peaceable kingdom around in this world full of suffering.
We don’t feel peace indeed when we see injustice; we need to be compassionate and treat with care every living being suffering from war, and we need to resist injustice nonviolently.
But we also need to share the joy and happiness of every living being that finds peace in the soul and around, and we need to strengthen this peace, turning spaces of peace into the whole universe, turning moments of peace into eternity, bringing peace to everyone.
We need to follow a vision of George Fox who saw an ocean of darkness and death, but there was an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.
We need to save the world from wars refusing to kill, because there is no place for transcendent scourge of war in the ocean of light.
Ivan Kokhan:
Dear Friends, I would also like to say a few words. I want to say that the resurrection of Christ is the victory of life over death. And I want to wish everyone happiness on this day, peace and serenity.
Liudmyla Holchanska:
May there be peace in the whole world.
Conclusion:
Friends, our meeting for worship brought peace, delight and inspiration into our lives. Let’s hold in the light all those who suffer from wars and other injustices. Have a good day and join our next worship.