The primary group of army chaplains to fall underneath this new system started coaching Feb. 20. Of their new assignments, they gained’t use weapons however are anticipated to know basic army ideas and tactical medication, Ukrainian authorities stated.
“We had intense psychological coaching, army coaching,” Gennadiy Rohmanenko, who was among the many graduates who obtained the rank of junior lieutenant, stated. “It signifies that we will put collectively church responsibility and army responsibility. The motto of chaplains is ‘Being there,’ God’s presence within the military. That is the mission of the chaplain.”
Creating the Ukrainian Chaplaincy Service got here in response to laws handed on the finish of 2021. With Ukraine coming into its second yr of warfare in opposition to Russia’s invasion, the necessity for chaplains to help its troopers is bigger than ever.
The 30 chaplains who went by the primary coaching got here from 5 spiritual organizations: the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Evangelical Church, the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptist Church buildings and the interdenominational Council of Christian Church buildings and Non secular Organizations.
Rohmanenko has labored as a military chaplain since 2014, initially as a volunteer after which as an embedded civilian, so he is aware of what the mission requires.
The job entails “guardianship and religious shepherding or religious consoling,” Rohmanenko stated, noting the significance of displaying a service member route.
“Within the rear of the battle, army operations, an individual generally loses his bearings,” he stated. “Subsequently, essentially the most troublesome factor for a soldier in battle is to stay human. So chaplains have to do every thing to avoid wasting a soldier’s soul after their fight duties.”
One other freshly minted junior lieutenant, Yevren Flysta of the a hundred and fifth Brigade of the Territorial Protection Forces, stated troopers are, firstly, “a religious individual, and he will need to have energy, he will need to have help.”
Harmful forces, Flysta stated, “have an effect on (a soldier’s) inner shallowness, self-perception. Subsequently, our process is to protect an individual as an individual, an individual of religious energy.”
Comply with AP’s protection of the warfare in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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