KYIV – Every year in December, members of Plast National Scout Organization of Ukraine come to Vienna to join dozens of Europe’s scout organizations in one of Austria’s massive cathedrals. The international community gathers there to be among first in Europe who receive the Bethlehem Peace Light, a symbolic fire lit at Jesus’s birthplace at the Grotto of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
From that Viennese church, this light of good will and peace spreads all around Europe and beyond. A few hours after Plast’s representative had received the symbolic light on December 14, the candle with the Bethlehem Peace Light was flown into Kyiv. It was presented to the public in St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, one of the central churches in Ukraine’s capital, on December 15.