Initiator: o. Nikolai Gorgula, priest of the OCU, participant of the School of Dialogue
Where: m. Kramatorsk, m. Sloviansk
Result: chaplains stay in touch with each other, support each other prayerfully, have self-healing skills, and also have new skills for psychological support of servicemen
Details of cooperation: Together with the project “Overcoming Fissures in Communities” from “Caritas Kramatorsk” we gathered an interfaith group of Christian priests (Orthodox, Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics and Protestants) who served in various units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry internal affairs, the National Guard, the State Border Service, etc. During the year, we organized several meetings where we held dialogues on topics most relevant to military chaplains:
Responding to requests from participants, we started with trauma and its consequences, as this topic is close to anyone who has been in a combat zone. To work with the injury, we used including physical and breathing exercises. These are effective and simple techniques that can be applied independently and transmitted to the fighters at the front. We also conducted a scenario analysis of the future, considered the possibilities of combining approaches of classical construction of the world and theological foundations, helped chaplains to build open interaction, to see intersection points.
In this story we were impressed the willingness of the clergy to go beyond traditional sermons, to develop, to seek an approach to everyone who needs support in the war. This work was a special testimony oneness andOpportunities for interfaith cooperation.
