The Monks

I visited Orthodox Ukrainian monks in a remote village in the countryside of central Ukraine. My chief desire was to see if dedicated Christians could forgive and forget what has happened to them - death and destruction wrought by pure un-Christian evil on their village, their monastery and their country. The answers about forgiveness provided by these thoughtful men are surprising.
This is my favorite piece so far, but perhaps each most recent effort makes me love these stoic people more and more.
I want to thank my incredible team for helping me find this story and make it possible including Alexx Babenko for setting it all up, Ras Iton for his excellent questions and translation, Sharon Vasquez Ray for her inspiration, to Paula Bronstein and Carol Guzy for helping me find soldier funerals and depict them as sensitively and unobtrusively as possible, and to @keera_kushnirova for her utterly astonishing a cappella musical score. I could not do anything without all of you.
Please take a moment of your day and be inspired. And feel free to share this story of men whose contributions might otherwise go unnoticed.
#ukraine #monks #war #aftermath #bomb #disaster #orthodox #christian #christianity #forgiveness #warzone #ukrainian #trap #funeral #church #monastery #grave #burial #priest #death #loss

[@FogIsFluid]

Moving beyond words.

[@annarounseville1392]

So respectfully filmed, & translated. Thank you for this glimpse into their days there.

[@rawtraveltv]

Where Russians go, so go the crows... that's pretty telling.