Praying For Ukraine At Sundown In Phoenixville

PHOENIXVILLE — They held their heads down, some holding candles and sunflowers, others flying blue-and-yellow flags. Many wept.

As the sun went down Friday night, more than 250 men, women and children, prayed in darkness for loved ones suffering in Ukraine at a vigil in Reeves Park.

Many of the participants are Ukrainian immigrants who have relatives living there under fear of death.

The gathering was sparked by a neighborhood Facebook post by Alysia Weintraub of Phoenixville, who welcomed everyone to the vigil.

Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Choir sang the United States and Ukraine national anthems before the keynote speaker Andrij Chornodolsky, whose parents were born in Ukraine, documented the long history of Ukraine being attacked by Russia before getting to the current war.

“Czar Putin” must be stopped.

“There is a new aggression in Ukraine, which started with the seizure of Crimea by Russia in March 2014,” Chornodolsky said.

Now, he said, “Czar Putin” is trying to take over Ukraine.

“This aggression will not stand,” Chornodolsky said. “This attempt to drive a culture that is 1,000 years old into the dirt is not acceptable.”

Chornodolsky expressed thanks to the incredible fraternity of the people in the United States and the entire world united against Putin.

“It’s just random destruction of people like you saw the other day (on the news),” he said.

“Hospitals are being bombed," he continued. "Maternity wards are being bombed. Orphanages are being bombed.

“What is this all trying to do? It’s trying to dishearten the people and put them on their knees and beg for mercy.”

Chornodolsky said Putin is hoping Ukraine will surrender and finish what Russia was trying to accomplish over 350 years ago.

Back then, he said, Ukrainian language, printing, publishing, and higher education was banned.

But, he said, that will not happen. Chornodolsky praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a great leader.

He compared Zelensky to President George Washington.

“It’s the same thing that we are feeling about President Zelensky,” he said.

He asked the public to go to Ukraine and see that the country is deeply rooted, noting that the beautiful churches there were built 1,000 years ago, not yesterday.

A long history

In 1939, there was an agreement between Stalin and Hitler to divide Poland and take over western Ukraine. That was the first time my parents saw what a Russian onslaught into Ukraine was about.

“Where are we today?” Chornodolsky asked.

His answer: If Ukraine surrenders, Putin will march into Berlin.

“It’s time to stop Putin,” he said.

A note from Ukraine is read

The audience cheered and then went silent as Vera. M. Andryczyk of Phoenixville took center stage.

Andryczyk read a note she recently received from a prize-winning writer, a woman living in the capital of Ukraine.

“Time has been compressed beyond capacity. It is difficult to believe that a little more than a week ago, a short time ago, we were living a normal life,” the note said.

As the note was being read, a dog was barking near the front of the stage, and many people were crying.

The note said:

“Effort is needed to find out what kind of life it was (before the war.) We cannot permit ourselves to forget.

“The bodies of my people are being torn apart by shards of metal, glass and concrete.

Foreigners are going into the schools, children’s playgrounds and the hospitals, and only 10 days ago we were safe and secure and lived our normal lives.”

“God is with us,” the note ended.