22 August 2026 Friends of Ukraine were happy to meet and worship together with Melissa Rycroft, Friends General Conference (FGC) Rising Presiding Clerk.
In her ministry, Melissa said that Kyiv is a beautiful city and she came to pray for peace and for Ukraine with many different people of faith across the globe.
Local Friends were moved to express gratitude for her presence and all the light of worldwide family of Friends, shared experiences of coping with darkness caused by Russian war of aggression and violent conscription to Armed Forces of Ukraine without recognition of human right to conscientious objection, denial in requests to work for peace at alternative nonmilitary service.
FGC is an international association of over 600 Quaker meetings and churches spread across North America. At the invitation of the Ukrainian government, Melissa is FGC’s official representative to an interfaith prayer breakfast in Kyiv with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Pavlo Unguryan participating. Barry Crossno, FGC General Secretary, wrote to Friends in Ukraine and organizers of the prayer breakfast: “We celebrate your work for religious freedom, an ideal we also work towards in North America. We send Melissa to convey our shared commitment to freedom, human dignity, peace, and faith.”
We worshipped together with participation of Friends across Ukraine, Europe and the world via videoconferencing and had a conversation about life and sufferings of Friends in Ukraine.
We enjoyed songs and friendly chat after the worship, and being dedicated Publishers of Truth, presented Melissa several publications, including the “Advices and Queries of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Ukraine”, the “Ukrainian Quaker Songbook”, and “Great Peace Have Those Who Love Your Law: A Concise Quaker Guide to the Bible”.
The meeting was attended by Melissa Rycroft, Yurii Sheliazhenko, Liudmyla Holchanska, Serhii Vedmediev (in person), Misha Elizbarashvili, Artem Denysov, Serhii Yamkovenko, John Reuwer, Farooq Javed, Lorraine (UK), Sasha (Germany), Susanne Odeh, Margaret Tracy, Kristen Richardson (online). We had read a letter with Friendly greetings from Nadiya Spassenko, who was received into the family of Friends in Cornwall Monthly Meeting of NYYM in 1965, became an International member after moving to her father’s family’s home city, Pereyaslav, in 1995, now a member of the Central European YM and recently celebrated her 90 years jubilee.
Melissa had read her travel minute, and we responded with endorsement.
It was a moving spiritual encounter, full of Peace, Light and Truth, and at that moment Christ was among us (Matthew 18:20), so we are grateful and inspired.
