Remembering the call for peace and disapproval of bloodshed by the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko on his birthday, Ukrainian Friends praised his resilience, when he was forcibly conscripted to army being for 10 years banned from writing poetry and yet continued to create timeless masterpieces. Following his example and leadings of Psalms 1 and 62, Quakers witnessed a determination to be true to our conscience and peace testimony in the singing ministry “I Shall Not Be Moved” in Ukrainian and English. Also, Friends shared a witness on service to society through blood donation and on advocacy of nuclear disarmament at the United Nations conference.
Artem Denysov:
Friends, I want to share with you the joy and happiness that I feel currently. Because in the last two weeks I met one woman, a volunteer and blood donor, who organizes the blood donorship promotion events in a location where I will soon live, when I will move from my current apartment. She advocates a need for blood donations to heal wounded people and civilians, and I really believe soon we will be able to help more people. Maybe with organization of events, maybe with blood donorship, we’ll see. As Jesus taught us, you feel happiness when you share something instead of taking it from other people (Luke 6:38, Acts 20:35, 2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
Yurii Sheliazhenko:
Friends, today is the birthday of our Kobzar, Taras Shevchenko. His work is an important part of the Ukrainian culture of peace. And the rhetorical question he asked two hundred years ago in the poem “Haydamaky” is still relevant: people could live in peace as brothers and sisters, so why do we separate, kill each other and die and perish? Our Kobzar explains: it is because of greed. Just like before him, George Fox, quoting Epistle of James 4:1-3 from the Bible, revealed the root of senseless wars, that is the greed of rulers. It was greed that created Putin’s tyranny and led to the conquest of Ukraine. Shevchenko faithfully criticized the greed and cruelty of those in power, for that he was forcibly conscripted, imprisoned in the army for 10 years and banned from writing poetry. But he continued to create poetry, no pressure stopped him, no pressure moved him even one millimeter away from the good cause. He obeyed God in his soul, whom tyrants and aggressors do not obey. And thanks to the divine guidance, Shevchenko’s poetry still lives in our hearts and inspires us.
The 1st and 62nd Psalms say: “Wait only for God in silence, O my soul, for my hope is from Him! He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my protection, I shall not be moved!” (Psalm 62:5-6); “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers… That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3)
Friends, we are facing today a lot of challenges: war, climate, injustice, uncertainty, persecution for refusal to kill. Now more than ever, it is important to stay true to the inward light, as George Fox wrote in his journal, that of God in thy conscience.
In my faith and conscience, I shall not be moved.
Seeking peace and justice, I shall not be moved.
Just like a tree that’s standing by the waterside
I shall not be moved.
John Reuwer:
This last week, Friends, I was in New York at the United Nations for a meeting of the countries that are parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and I met there people from all over the world who had been subjected without their knowledge or consent to all the nuclear weapons testing, so there were people from the Australian Outback, where the British tested, in the Pacific and in Algeria where the French tested, in Nevada in the Western US and in the Pacific, Marshall Islands, where the US tested, and in Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk, where the Soviets tested. And they all had the same stories of their parents or, in some cases, themselves as children being exposed, and all the medical problems they’ve had since. And they all have a common theme, and that they know that not only the five original nuclear powers but nine, or four more now, are all building new nuclear weapons, the ultimate expression of man’s belief that safety can come through violence and risking everything God created. And they’re dedicating their lives now to begging the nuclear powers to stop production of nuclear weapons and ban them all together. So, I just want to hold them in the Light.
Yevhenii Raspopov and Farooq Javed sent their greetings and blessings in a chat.