“We are all Ukrainians now.”
Those words were spoken Sunday afternoon by Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley during a solemn multi-faith community event at a local Anglican church in support of the war-torn country. Rev. Paul Woolley invited Bradley to speak at the service at All Saints Anglican Church, the latest in a series of local events aimed at helping Ukrainians through prayer and with monetary donations.
As the mayor stood at the front of the Vidal Street North church, he thought back to what it must have been like inside Sarnia churches in 1939 as local congregations felt the uneasy tension ahead of what would become the Second World War. Bradley also reflected on his father as a young man in Belfast, Ireland, where young children were forced to hide in countryside ditches while German bombs rained down.
“I still feel that today when I think about what’s happening in Ukraine,” he said.
Woolley led the rest of the service, which featured hymns and prayers.
“To pray for something with which we have very serious concern as we sit and watch our televisions and read the news and know what’s going on to our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine and also to those poor Russian soldiers,” the reverend said. “It’s just a terrible thing.”
But he added there’s also a great need for humanitarian aid.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’re not just praying today, but we’re doing something practical,” he said.
The church collected donations for the Canadian Red Cross Society, with donations of $20-plus garnering a tax receipt.
Vigils were held on Sundays earlier this month at St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Sarnia – the church is planning an April 2 fundraiser for humanitarian aid called Pysanky and Perogy – and at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 216 in Petrolia.