While the world watches what's happening in Ukraine and wonders how and when it all will end, a small Barrie church full of concerned Ukrainian parishioners will join together Sunday to pray for peace and resolution.
Holy Cross Ukrainian Catholic Church, located on Parkside Drive near Queen's Park in downtown Barrie, is headed by Father Andrija Petresin.
“It's very hard. I myself am still in disbelief about what is happening,” Petresin said on Friday. “I, like everyone, am watching to see what happens from all this.”
Petresin said his church did not have a service last week and this Sunday will be the first since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“It will certainly be a service of prayer, as always, but very much sending prayers to those back in Ukraine and around there,” he said.
Petresin said he was from the former Yugoslavia, but explained his Ukrainian background.
“I was born in the former Yugoslavia, but I am Ukrainian,” Petresin said. “There is a small Ukrainian population in Bosnia and when we had the war, most of them emigrated to Canada, Australia or the United States.”
Petresin came to Canada in 1998 because of what he said were “these very same reasons” — war and violence. He was assigned to his current parish in 2015. He also oversees a church in Tiny Township.
There are approximately 30 families at the Barrie church and Petresin says the community is growing as people leave the Greater Toronto Area to find more affordable homes in and around Barrie.
Petresin says he keeps in touch with his friends in Ukraine and many of his parishioners are checking in with family still there due to the heightened level of concern. He says many want to do whatever they can to help.
“They are very concerned about their loved ones and are hoping for the best outcome, but no matter the outcome, their spirit will not be broken,” Petresin said. “I have spoken to some parishioners who said they would go back and fight, so the spirit is there and we’ll see how the political side resolves.”
While many Canadians may not understand why the invasion is happening, Petresin explained the situation from his point of view.
“Russia wants to keep Ukraine as one of their own and under their umbrella whereas, I think like many, that Ukraine should choose their own destiny,” Petresin said. “Every nation has the right to be independent and decide their own future and whether they want to be with the European Union or not. I think that's the problem.”
Petresin said it all falls on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The problem is also with the president of Russia who thinks Ukraine is part of Russia, which it is not. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent country, with its own history and its own traditions,” Petresin said. “It is just all so very hard.”
