November 27, 2015

Letter from religious leaders to President Barack Obama

More

Below is the text of the November 9 letter from representatives of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations to U.S. President Barack Obama. (Copies of the letter were sent to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.) A story about this letter appeared on the front page of last week’s issue, dated November 22.

Dear Mr. President:

We, the undersigned of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, and representing Ukraine’s diverse religious community appeal to you on behalf of our people to help address the humanitarian catastrophe gripping our country. The needs are enormous, ranging from medical supplies to everyday items such as food, water, and clothing.

While the global news media regularly reports on Russia’s war against Ukraine, government reforms and financial challenges, there is rarely any mention of the extraordinary dimensions of the human suffering caused by military action in the east of Ukraine. While Ukraine certainly needs greater military, financial and political assistance, our focus here must be on the humanitarian aspect.

As you know, according to the U.N., over 5 million people, including 1.7 million children, are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Eight thousand people have died and over 17,000 have been injured and wounded. There are over 1,390,000 displaced people, including 174,000 children. The challenges of this human tragedy are overwhelming. Even the most conservative estimates show that over 65 percent of projected needs have yet to be met – even on the level of pledges.

As representatives of the interfaith community, we witness on a daily basis the challenges and the needs of people suffering because of this war. And with the onset of winter, an already dire situation will only get worse. We pray for their lives and for the future of our country.

While we are grateful for the assistance provided by the United States government to date, we know that the need is so much greater. Thus, we appeal to you to increase assistance and to activate the full potential of the National Guard State Partnership Program and the Partnership for Peace (PfP) as instruments for alleviating the humanitarian catastrophe. One of the stated goals of the PfP is to “provide a framework for enhanced political and military cooperation for joint multilateral crisis management activities, such as humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping.” Ukraine was the first post-Soviet country to join the PfP in 1993.

In addition to the assistance provided by the U.S. government, some of us could also personally witness the great generosity of the American people during our travels throughout the United States – which was expressed through numerous spontaneous initiatives to ship medical and humanitarian supplies to Ukraine.

Time is of the essence, Mr. President. The people of Ukraine must know that they are not forgotten in their time of need! The instruments anticipated by the National Guard State Partnership and Partnership for Peace programs will allow the American people to more effectively and rapidly access and deliver already available medical and humanitarian supplies to Ukraine – literally within days. We each represent distribution networks that cooperate with each other; we now ask for the resources to meet the growing human needs.

We pray that God grant you guidance, wisdom and bless you and the great American nation. God bless the United States and Ukraine!

Sincerely,

Filaret (Denysenko),
Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine, Ukrainian Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate

Sviatoslav (Shevchuk),
Major archbishop of Kyiv-Halych,
Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

Yaakov Dov Bleich,
Chief rabbi of Kyiv and all Ukraine

* * *

The identical text in Ukrainian has also been signed by:

Archbishop Petro Malchuk,
Ordinary of Kyiv and Zhytomyr,
Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine

Sheikh Ahmed Tamim,
Mufti of Ukraine, Spiritual
Administration of Muslims of Ukraine

Valery Antoniuk,
Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Union
of Churches of  Evangelical
Christians –Baptists

Mikhailo Panochko,
Senior bishop of the All-Ukrainian
Union of Evangelical Christians
Churches – Pentecostals

Vyacheslav Horpynchuk,
Bishop, Ukrainian Lutheran Church

Leonid Padun,
Senior bishop, Ukrainian Christian Evangelical Church; rotating chairman
of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations

Comments are closed.