Chaplain Volodymyr Ovsiienko: "Most often fighters ask us to pray for their families. Well, and to return home"
Skilful Ukrainian chaplain in this war is a man of many functions. In addition to the tasks assigned to him by God, the chaplain works for the military unit where he serves.
If he is on the move, a chaplain is a supplier; if he communicates with soldiers and their commanders, he is a psychologist. And if the holder of the chaplaincy title fulfills his duties with dignity, the army has a truly valuable person in his person. Even if this person does not take up arms.
We talked to Volodymyr Ovsiienko, chaplain of the 152nd Brigade, about how multifaceted the chaplain's ministry in the war of liberation can be.
- Your brigade is currently fighting in the Pokrovsk direction. When it comes to military operations of such intensity, what is the most important thing for a chaplain?
- The most important thing is to be there. But a chaplain cannot be where they are, i.e. at zero line. Because a chaplain is not a combatant, he is a person without weapons.
- Then tell us how you keep in touch. They are out of combat, they go to the rear a little bit - and there you work with them, right?
- Yes. In January, back in Avdiivka, we visited company strongholds, where guys from the positions come and rest. We came there and talked, drank tea with the commanders, with the guys themselves, and prayed. Sometimes we would arrive and see that all of them look surprised. Why? Because the shelling is so hard that the walls in the bunkers and basements are shaking.
How was our presence felt? Sometimes we didn't even come to talk, but just to sit. You just come and people take something from you... I had this experience in Sievierodonetsk once. My brother in Christ, who is also a chaplain, and I have been going there since the beginning of the full-scale war. We went there to bring the guys something to eat, and we took people out of there whenever possible.
One day we came there without really knowing what we were going to do, because we had only seen on TV that people were sitting in basements. And a man came up to me and said, "It's so nice to be with you. I stopped: why is it good with us? We're not doing anything at all - we're just sitting next to each other, talking, drinking tea, eating some goodies together. And he said: "No, no, when you come, looking at you, calm, peace comes to us..."
I once read about a great preacher. Once he was asked: "How do you sermonize, what do you tell people, how long have you been doing it?" And he was silent, silent, and then he said: "Sometimes you have to say something."
- Let's imagine a situation where you arrive at a point close to zero line and people are brought there. You don't have much time to communicate with the soldiers, so what do you spend it on?
- When such circumstances occur, and people come to you, or rather, they are brought to you, it is good, because it means that the commanders trust you at least a little. They realize that it is important. How does this happen? It usually happens at night. They call me and say: chaplain, we will be there at such and such an hour. You have three minutes.
I arrived at the appointed time and am waiting. One car stopped nearby, another, a third. Several cars stopped. And in them there were, let's say, 10, 15, 30 people. And the commander says to me: chaplain, come in, you have 3 minutes, 4 minutes at most. What can you talk about in 4 minutes?
- Perhaps just to pray together.
- You have to say something important, right? Because who knows how it will turn out. Where these guys will be taken and what will happen to them.
- What do you say?
- I am saying that there is someone who died on the cross for you and me, paying for our sins and transgressions. On the cross, He bore all our weaknesses and diseases. He wants to give us eternal life. And you can turn away from this gift, or you can accept it. This, I say, is very important. I realize that we don't have time to talk long here. I do not know where you are from. I don't know where you were raised or how you were prepared. I don't have time to address you with these questions. I just want us to pray together. To do this, close your eyes and repeat after me...
And so they repeat the prayer of repentance. After they pray, I bless them and anoint them with holy anointing oil. If there is time, I say: guys, pray, pray, call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, call on his holy blood, so that the destroying angel, if he passes by you, will pass by, just as he once passed by the Israelite people when they were in Egyptian slavery.
That's all I managed to do in 3 minutes, 4 at the most. And one more thing: while you're telling all this, you hand out prayer books. That's it. There is no more time. The guys got into their cars and left.
- Father, are you a Protestant yourself?
- Yes, I am.
- You can perform the sacrament of anointing. What else?
- Confession, baptism. We can marry people. We can do everything.
- How often do you have to deal with wounded people? And what do they usually ask for?
- I have often been with the wounded at the emergency department where first aid is provided. And many times I had to hear unkind words: no one needs us, everyone has forgotten about us, we are meat, we have documents, but they do not pay money for injuries...
And I asked myself many times: what would you do if you were wounded? If something happened to you if they didn't pay you, if no one called you? And the Lord gave me the opportunity to experience all this in my life. I was wounded, I was hit hard. And what I want to tell you is that it is very bad when you find out the hard way - when you withdraw out of the establishment; when you are patched up in the same hospital and then they say: you need to be transferred to outpatient treatment, so that you do not take up space, because there are many other guys being taken, and you are taking up space So, we quickly send you to the MMC and you go on furlough!
And your wounds are so bad that you can't go anywhere because you need to go for a bandage every day! And then that month of furlough passed...
- Under what circumstances were you injured? Did it happen on your chaplaincy post?
- When I was wounded, I was performing the duties of a chaplain, but I was in a different position. And we were going to Avdiivka to talk to the guys, to support them somehow, because it was already the end of January this year. And it was very intense in Avdiivka. Very, very, very intense.. We had already entered Avdiivka, and there was mortar fire, and the third mine finally hit us... Thank God it fell 3-4 meters from the car. But the car was all peppered. It did not hit the guys, they were not wounded. Only I was wounded.
- Where did the fragment hit?
- In the arse. But it was taken out from under his knee. And the fragment is like this - about two phalanges on the index finger, like this.
That's why when I talk to a wounded man, I say: I know what it's like when they withdraw you and no one calls you... And today, when I am the brigade's chaplain, I took it upon myself to deal with this topic. And the guys who keep reports on losses, wounded, missing persons, send me data on the wounded. I call them up and communicate with them.
Do wounded soldiers often say, "Mr. Chaplain, why did your God allow me to be wounded? Why are there so many wounded and dead? What is he doing? Do you hear such things?
- Yes, I do.
- And what do you say?
- That God is where He is supposed to be. He has done everything for us. Literally everything. As the saying goes, He even gave up the most precious thing we had so that we could live differently than we do today. He did everything. But we are part of what people need to do. People need to repent, accept Christ, accept this gift of eternal life... Are you a religious person, Mr. Yevhen?
- Let's just say a bad Catholic.
- Remember, there is a story when Nicodemus, a Jewish teacher, came to Jesus Christ and asked: "So, Teacher, I see that you are a man of God, what do I have to do to get eternal life?
We all need to give Christ the opportunity to arise in our hearts, to give him the opportunity to cleanse everything inside us. Then everything will be fine when our hearts are with the Lord, when there is peace. Everything will be different. We want things to be better in this world. And it seems that there are many ways, but there is only one right way. And God himself showed it to us. But we are proud-hearted people, so we want to fix everything ourselves.
- During confessions or just conversations, do the fighters tell you about some of their moments of fear or indecision? And do they ask for help to overcome this fear?
- Everyone says the same thing. There is fear in every person. But there are people, and the majority of them, who are dominated by this fear. And there are those who cannot cope with it.
- Is there a short prayer against fear that we could give here?
- There is a word of God that tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love and chastity. And again, by using every opportunity we have, we give the Lord the opportunity to act. In what way? We pray. Prayer and repentance. And then from that time on, the power of God begins to move in a person. Otherwise, nothing happens.
- During one-on-one spiritual conversations, what do fighters most often ask for?
- "Most often people ask us to pray for their relatives. Well, and to return home. Everyone wants to live, everyone wants to return home, to their families, parents, wives, children. This is the most important thing. We are fighting not because we hate Russians, but because we love our families. Our relatives, elderly parents, wives, children. As it is written, there is no greater love than to sacrifice one's life for one's friends. In the same way, Jesus says that blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God...
Recently there was a chaplain's word, and I spoke about what courage is. The Lord says, "I tell you that you should have peace in me, because the days will come when there will be suffering, but be of good courage. He says that there will be suffering, but it is temporary. We need to show character like he did. He was courageous. It was not very comfortable for him either; it is an understatement to say that he was not very comfortable. He himself, as a human being, his body, his flesh, did not want to suffer at all. But he had a goal: the salvation of all people. Our goal is to defend our loved ones. In other words, our guys are showing manly character, the character of God. We have taken responsibility for our country, and that is why we are fighting. What else can we do?
- And how, in your experience, do commanders on the ground treat chaplains? As an important element of supply (because you carry a lot of things) and morale boosters, or as a burden in terms of security?
- I have not had any frank conversations with commanders about whether we are a burden or not. From my observations, I can say that commanders have different attitudes. But throughout the whole time, one could draw the following conclusion: where the commander allows the chaplain to do his job and at least does not interfere, we have seen repeatedly that people overcome all the circumstances of war in a slightly different way.
- Really?
- Yes. We had such an experience of withdrawal from the encirclement. Different units had different experiences with this. However, the unit we visited most often, visiting the guys every other day, came out with almost no losses. Only two were lost, but they were found in 2 days and somehow managed to get out at night. That is, everyone was found, all alive, without two hundredths and three hundredths. This is a miracle!
- In general, chaplains do not carry weapons. Have there been any exceptions? Did chaplains have to take part in hostilities?
- I know a chaplain who took up arms. As for me, I have never had such a case. Before I became a chaplain and held other positions, I had weapons. But it was not needed.
- This is a complex question. Do your commanders ask you to talk to fighters who refuse to go into battle?
- I won't name any names, but I will tell you an interesting story. There have been cases when we visited guys who refused to go into combat. We all understand; we are all human beings - people are afraid, a lot can happen...
In such cases, we simply told the guys: we didn't come here to encourage you or to wag a finger at you: tisk, tisk. No, that's not what we're talking about. We have no right to condemn you. And God does not condemn you. He supports any human decision. Well, if you decided to do it, then you decided to do it. What can we do here? As the saying goes, no one is going to stick their fingers in your door. We prayed for the guys, did our part. In my opinion, it's not our job to encourage them.
You know, I have been in this situation many times. And there were reflections. You realize that since these guys refused, it meant that it was difficult for those guys who were supposed to replace them somewhere in their positions. And now there will be no one to replace them, and it will be even harder for them. They will have to stay there for some time. Instead of resting, they will have to stay there until they find someone to replace them.
And you have a different attitude to this. Once we were called to Kyiv to teach, and I was telling something. I met an old man there, an old chaplain. And when the training was almost over, I approached him so that no one would hear anything, took him away, and asked him: what should a chaplain do in such circumstances? When people refused to come out? And he said: "There is nothing for a chaplain to do there." - What do you mean, nothing to do? - Yes. The chaplain has nothing to do. They should all be taken and shot.
- There it is an old man.
- That was an old man, who had already fought in World War II. So we're back to where we started: there are people who take responsibility and people who don't. Nothing has changed since the first man was created. That man, Adam, was running around somewhere. And while he was running around, something happened to his wife...
- By the way, what about situations where something happened at home and the person is at war. Or some disaster in the unit, and the person is one step away from going AWOL. How often do people tell you about this and ask for spiritual help or prayer?
- They ask for prayer here. In general, we start everything we do with prayer. Even if a person sits down with you, spends time with you, drinks coffee, and tells you that this is my situation, that my wife is there, I write to her, and she no longer answers, or treats me in some way, and I am on the verge of collapse... In such cases, of course, we pray, and we need to go to the commander and talk. Because the commander is also a person. If he is a more or less reasonable person, he will help to resolve the issue in some way.
- This is if there is an opportunity. Does it ever happen that there is an opportunity to fulfill certain wishes or delicate assignments in the rear, to communicate with relatives, to help heal some relationships? Or because you are a brigade chaplain, you have to be close to the brigade, and you have no time for that?
- I will answer this way. Do you have any friends in your life?
- Of course.
- But there are not many friends to whom you could tell everything...
- ..very few.
- If you have one, it's good. Otherwise, you don't even have one. And it all accumulates, and a price is paid for it all. What price am I talking about? We communicate with people. If people still see you as a person to whom they can entrust some such things, and if you can admit them to yourself, then this is very, very, very... this is the glory of God, it is the Lord Himself who gives such grace. And long before I started to move in the chaplaincy, I received such a revelation that in no case, in no case, you can refuse if a person ever comes to you and shares with you the innermost things. Don't tell anyone else, because the window will close!
- I was referring to the situation when the fighter himself entrusts you with such assignments and contacts.
- If there is an opportunity, if everything fits together, if all the stars are aligned, then why not?
- Father, you are 57, I heard that you used to be a professional cyclist and road racer. Is it true?
- Yes, I did. My team, with whom I trained, they all became champions of the then USSR, all international masters.
- And how do you feel now - do you still dream about your bike at night? This road, how everything changes under the wheels...
- I think you can see the depths of my life. You know, at the time when my career was coming to an end and I hung up my bicycle, two coaches came to me and started to ask me: Volodia, are you crazy? - No, what? - They opened their notebooks and there were numbers of military units. He says to me: look, two men will go to this military unit to serve in the company, and you and that one over there - to this one. We have just prepared, where are you going? - No, - I said, - Leontich, I don't want to. Is this a team? People who turned their backs on me, who left me in a foreign city without bread, without food - is that a team? I don't want to do anything more with such people.....
I used to be a very proud person. And only later did I realize that I had been deceived by Satan. My coach asked me, just like you just asked me: if I was dreaming about a bicycle. The coach said to me: "Vova, if you quit sports now, you will regret it for the rest of your life, you will dream about it, you will punch the air, listen to me! I was a proud man, and I didn't listen to him. I did it my way. Indeed, I do dream about bicycles, and it happened that I had such an opportunity where we lived before I was wounded. My cycling team, with whom I was training, fitted me with a good Laiba and a trainer. I would wake up in the morning, spin on the trainer for 40 minutes, then pray, have breakfast, and go to work. And in the evening I did the same.
Unfortunately, now I don't have such an opportunity. In my leg, where I was wounded, one nerve does not work at all, I can feel my leg poorly, partially. And partly I don't feel it at all.
- I have one more question in the end. Russians have their own church, their own priests, their own chaplains. If you had to communicate with their chaplains, what would you say to them?
- I would ask, as Christ said: how do you read? That's what we should start from. How is it that we read the same book and these things happen to them? You don't have to tiptoe around issues for a long time. If they live there in all these lies, if Lenin is still lying there, this is idolization! These are terrible things! I thought about it a lot... there was no other answer, as Christ says: they do not know what they are doing.
Yevhen Kuzmenko, Censor.NET
Photo: from the archive of chaplain Volodymyr Ovsiienko
