Ukrainian Friends at Gandhi statue in Kyiv. Photo: Courtesy of Yuri Sheliazhenko.
It was agreed: Meeting of Friends of Ukraine
‘We love the Peace Testimony and are ready to uphold it.’
‘On the International Day of Nonviolence, 2 October 2024, we are gathered in the Oasis of Peace in the Kyiv University Botanical Garden for worship with silent prayer for peace in Ukraine.
We embrace the sufferings of Ukrainian people from Russian aggression, and the Mahatma Gandhi [statue] here reminds us that we can achieve justice and peace without violence, and overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). We are inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, Evangelical commandments of Christ on perfect universal love to everyone, on refusing to kill or even to be angry (Matthew 5: 21-26, 43-48).
We love the Peace Testimony and are ready to uphold it as valiantly as it was upheld before by twelve Quakers in 1660, by George Fox in 1651, by early Christian martyr Maximilian of Tebessa, and many other good people.
We care about all life and live our lives as a holy experiment without any dogmas but seeking and working for truth and perfect love, worshipping in peace and walking cheerfully in the light. We believe in the inner light of truth, love, dignity and conscience in every person, regardless of the spiritual or humanistic tradition in which a person grew up; everyone [can] tell the truth and everyone should be heard.
It was agreed[…] that we establish the religious organisation “Religious community of Quakers: Meeting of Friends of Ukraine”, [with the short form] “Meeting of Friends of Ukraine”, also using the motto “Quakers: Friends of Ukraine”, to manifest our religion legitimately and legally in community, without status of legal [entity], on the basis of Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine […] and Article 1130 of the Civil Code of Ukraine.
‘We care about all life.’
It was agreed that [the] faith and practice of the Meeting of Friends of Ukraine is formed in the search for truth and peace on the basis of the historical faith and practice of the Quakers, including Evangelical roots (blessed are the peacemakers, Matthew 5:9), and the current faith and practice of the Central European, British and other Meetings of the Friends World Committee for Consultation, including the World Plenary; it allows also to combine participation in the Meeting of Friends of Ukraine with
participation in other religious or non-religious organisations.
It was agreed to entrust to a clerk the service of caring for affairs of our religious community as discerned and agreed by the meeting for worship [for] business.
It was commonly agreed, and it is expected to remain commonly agreed in future, [that] we expect to preserve our hope that the prophecy will come true that “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3)’.
