15 August, 5:00 PMSaint Sophia Cathedral
Art Project “Ukraine Stands! Ukraine Fights! Ukraine Prays!”
The art project is a stage performance created around musical compositions by the Telniuk Sisters and texts from the daily addresses of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, to people of goodwill around the world. These addresses were delivered during the first year of the full-scale war and later published in the book “Ukraine Stands! Ukraine Fights! Ukraine Prays!”
“...An act. Perhaps I would even dare to call it a feat: not only the fulfillment of the pastoral duty of the Father and Head of the Church to ‘keep watch’ with his flock during the trial of war, but something greater, something important for all of us on a universal human level: a persistent and unwavering struggle, carried out day after day like a prayer at the same hour in an empty church under shelling — the struggle of a Christian thinker against Evil and against that truly diabolical chaos which Russia’s war brings into the world.”— Oksana Zabuzhko, from the foreword to the book
The renowned American historian and writer Timothy Snyder writes in the afterword:“...this book is evidence of the desire to act and to raise profound theological questions amid the complexity of human suffering... We understand that war is not merely a chronology; it must be interpreted anew each time, and that we must also reflect upon ourselves — at every moment... We know that war raises ‘deep moral and spiritual questions,’ among which one of the deepest is most likely the creative nature of resistance... It is difficult to imagine more serious wartime sermons...”
The cycle of songs based on poetry filled with a Christian spirit was created by the Telniuk Sisters from the beginning of Russian aggression in 2014 to the present day. The poetry of Taras Shevchenko, Karol Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II), Vasyl Stus, Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, and other poets holds the heavens above us in times of hardship, wars, and destruction. Performed by the voices of the Telniuk Sisters, it becomes a powerful artistic component of the project.
ParticipantsHalia and Lesia Telniuk, vocal duoYevhen Nyshchuk, actorString Quartet:Yaroslava Kopnina, violinOlena Honcharova, violinOlesia Serzhenko, violaMaria Yakovenko-Lytvak, cello
The number of places is limited. Advance registration is required:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsVZn3ZqZ-bYBMO6F71PkyQddjztdEvu32uBzNfNnC1i8LTg/viewform?usp=publish-editor
FREE ADMISSIONAdmission is free with a valid entrance ticket to the Saint Sophia of Kyiv National Reserve (UAH 500 standard / UAH 250 concession).Combat veterans are admitted free of charge and do not need to purchase an entrance ticket.