Christina Laschenko: Anglican Resilience and Wartime Worship at Christ Church Kyiv

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/12/02

Christina Laschenko is churchwarden of Christ Church Kyiv, the Anglican chaplaincy of the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe, which worships at St Catherine’s German Lutheran Church on Luteranska Street. A Kyiv native and professional interpreter, she has helped steward a dispersed congregation through Russia’s full-scale war, coordinating prayer and pastoral care online and in person. Laschenko has authored reflections and prayers for the diocese, chronicling resilience amid air raids and displacement, as Christ Church faithfully continues English-language services. 

In this conversation, Scott Douglas Jacobsen speaks with Laschenko to discuss resilience in faith, the challenges of operating without a resident chaplain, and the vital support from the Diocese and Rev. Kasta Dip. Laschenko reflects on physical, mental, and spiritual vulnerability—and how collective prayer and steadfast fellowship sustain the Anglican community in wartime Ukraine.

Interview conducted November 12, 2025.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: One of my first field visits to Ukraine was an UNESCO heritage site, the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa (Ukrainian: Спасо-Преображенський собор), in 2023 with Romanian humanist, former Romanian MP, former President of their Green Party, and current freelance war correspondent for Newsweek Romania, Remus Cernea. The Russian Federation under the Kremlin and President Putin have been bombing religious holy sites, even UNESCO Heritage holy sites. This complicates the sense of vulnerability for religious leaders, institutions, and communities. What has sustaining worship and pastoral care looked like for Christ Church Kyiv since February 2022, even 2014?

Christina Laschenko: In terms of physical vulnerability, we all are in the same position as the rest of Kyiv’s and Ukraine’s residents. Drones and missiles, both cruise and ballistic, hit all the regions of Ukraine. And we all realize that a ballistic missile can come any moment and hit you wherever you are: in church, at school, in a theatre, in a department store, at your workplace, at home. It takes only 2 minutes between the air raid siren and the arrival of a ballistic missile which is targeting your neighborhood. The only escape could be underground train service (the city metro) or proper deep bunker if you happen to be there in the moment of the attack. 

Purposeful 4-year attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had resulted in another type of physical vulnerability: scarce heating in cold season and regular or emergency electricity outages. We always keep a stock of candles in a vestry cupboard and make sure our smartphones and powerbanks are charged to make readings possible during the service.

Living for almost 4 years in physical vulnerability results in a consequential ‘mental vulnerability’. Regular night air raids make you fear sleeping at night.  Insomnia has become a totally spread problem for Ukrainians of all agea and in all regions. In Kyiv many people go to sleep on the platforms in metro stations. But not everybody can sleep on the floor among a hundred people and spend 6-7 hours without a toilet. This can be a solution for 3-4 nights but not for 3-4 years.

But miraculously those circumstances do not result in spiritual vulnerability. On the contrary, the more people suffer from war the more resistant they are towards the enemy’s pressure. Of course, we are all exhausted. But coming together to a church after sleepless nights, singing together, praying together and meditating on the God’s Word as well as having traditional tea afterwards – all that revives our body, mind and spirit in the most unexpected and powerful way.

Then there is such thing as operational vulnerability. We have been worshiping without a permanent chaplain since 2008. That coincided with no-NATO decision for Ukraine and pushing it out to the buffer zone of Russia’s influence. Many expat missions, businesses and organizations quit Ukraine by 2014, and our chaplaincy membership had declined considerably. Since 2008 and till 2022 we enjoyed regular visits of locums during Advent-Christmastide and Lent-Eastertide seasons. We are hugely thankful to all those chaplains who served faithfully and supported us spiritually during all those years. Here I would like to mention names and spouses of those who came twice and more times: Fr.Stuart and Jenny Robertson, Fr.John and Wendy Hall, Fr.Dennis and Maria Moss, Fr. Alan and Vicky Cole, Fr.David and Susan McKeeman, Rev.Dr.Rosie Dymond, Fr.Chris and Susie Martin.

After beginning of the full-scale invasion, it became clear that chaplains could not come and stay for 4-6 weeks as it was before as they could not get insurance for an extended stay in the war zone. Under those circumstances Archdeacon Leslie Nathanial has come up with an unprecedented solution: a visiting chaplain once a month for the service with the Holy Communion. Between August 2024 and October 2025 Rev. Kasta Dip, a chaplain from Warsaw, has made 12 trips to Kyiv. Each trip takes 18 hours by bus or by train, 3-4 hour stay in Kyiv for the Sunday Eucharist Service, and then16-18-hour trip back to Warsaw. We are very grateful to Fr. Kasta for the long-term and routine sacrifice of his time and comfort.

In addition to the Eucharist services, we have been meeting for the Service of the Word, thus having biweekly services on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month. As of now we have between 12 and 18 regular Sunday visitors with huge spikes of attendance (up to 50 people) on special occasions on Remembrance Sunday, Carol Service, Easter Day etc. Expat membership of our congregation is subject to rapid turnover because of the short-term contracts in the war zone. This summer we have seen the third massive ‘exodus’ of expats and now we are in the intermediary period of gaining new members. Ukrainian part of the congregation has been restoring gradually since a shock of February 2022.

Jacobsen: As churchwarden, which decisions have weighed most on your pastoral leadership of the Christ Church Kyiv community?

Laschenko: Good question, thanks for it. It was resuming of the Christ Church Kyiv regular (biweekly) Sunday services in September 2022 that required a lot of faith in God’s provision, hope for the future and most careful practical planning. We were only 6 church members who remained in Kyiv after full scale invasion in Feb2022. We wanted to come back to our traditional Anglican services in English and with our favorite hymns and prayers. In August 2022 I had a lot of doubts and challenges: Would people attend the services that I would lead? For how long would I sustain leading the regular services? Who could help? How would we cover the church premises rent? Who would help with writing the texts for intersessions and sermons? And you know what happened? It appeared that ‘with Christ all things are possible’, and somehow all those challenges were overcome.

Jacobsen: How do you coordinate with St Catherine’s Lutheran hosts and the Diocese in Europe?

Laschenko: We have very good relations with our Lutheran hosts. We have been using the St. Catherine’s church (which is 160 years old) for 25 years now. During some months between May and September 2022 immediately after deoccupation of Kyiv region, we had been joining the Lutheran Service of the Word on Sundays. And now our regular (and minimal) rent payment contributes to the St. Catherine’s charity for IDPs and orphaned kids.

The Diocese is very supportive and cooperative. The Diocese supplied us with locums and supervising chaplain – Rev. Kasta Dip from Warsaw. Bishop Robert visited Kyiv in Dec-2023. Archdeacon Leslie Nathanial visited Kyiv in April 2023. We continuously feel solidarity, support and encouragement. We gladly participate in the Diocesan events: online prayers on special occasions lead by Bishop Robert; Growing in Faith and Celebrating Nicaea courses; online safeguarding courses. The Diocese communications team remains in touch and requests for information with regularity.

Jacobsen: How have the spiritual and practical needs of Anglicans changed since 2022?

Laschenko: I can speak for the Anglicans of our chaplaincy and not for all the Anglicans, of course. The war has redefined the meaning of the Christ’s sacrifice for Christians. When your life is considerably devaluated and you understand that your chances to survive in a long-run are 50% or less and still you decide to stay where you are and continue with what you believe you should do: then you come closer to understanding of the Christ’s choice to serve up to the ultimate sacrifice. You gain new understanding of the Agony in the Garden. That is quite an eye-opening spiritual experience.

As for practicalities, we also have made some findings. One is that during the most intensive night shellings the CofE Prayers at Sea can provide much comfort and strength and calm down the fear and panic. The second is that the clergy needs to share the life of the chaplaincy. Having a visiting chaplain from a peaceful country is much better than non-having a chaplain at all. But having a chaplain who lives in the same situation and understands the spiritual needs of people around him/her is a further step on the Way of Christian adventure.

Jacobsen: When has the chaplaincy’s small size proved an advantage?

Laschenko: Small chaplaincy is a considerable advantage in terms of safeguarding. You know everybody except for immediate newcomers. And even newcomers, when they become regular attendees, become much deeper known after several teatime fellowships and Bible study meetings. Sunday refreshments with home-made treats are the best way to maintain healthy atmosphere and friendly communication inside the chaplaincy. It seems that this family-like atmosphere and warm home-like hospitality is a common feature in many small chaplaincies is Europe: it was like that in St. Gallen (Switzerland) and in Krakow (Poland). 

Jacobsen: How do you balance visibility for ministry with operational security?

Laschenko: Unfortunately, we are not sufficiently visible partially due to our limited resources. The ways of visibility are mainly our regular Fb publications and the “Church Near You” guide. We do not see a huge influx of new people and remain a small chaplaincy. 

Jacobsen: Which ecumenical or civic partnerships have mattered most, and why

Laschenko: From my previous answers it had become obvious that we have very close ecumenical partnership with the St. Catherine’s – German Lutherans. We share the premises and contribute to the maintenance of the equipment; we attend the most important services of each other during Advent, Christmas, Lent and Eastertide; we contribute to their charity when we cannot afford to launch our independent charity project.

We also have indirect ecumenical relations with Roman Catholics and Ukrainian Orthodox as they know and then attend our worships willing to pray and sing with us on special occasions.

Jacobsen: Looking ahead, what would genuine, useful support for your community entail?

Laschenko: In my opinion the biggest threat to our resilience and spiritual strength is to find ourselves in isolation amid the war for attrition. That is, a sense of connectedness, a sense of support from broader Anglican community, a sense of inclusion into all-Anglican processes is fundamental. The forms of belonging and inclusion might be different. Online meetings, training and joint worships are good idea, and they work well but not always and not for everybody. Physical presence and ability to share the worship together becomes increasingly important with each month of the lasting war. I have no ready solutions for how that could be done; at a first glance it looks impossible. But here again we come back to St. Paul: ‘with God all things are possible’. This brings us back to prayer: please pray for Anglican, and broader, for Christian community in Ukraine. 

Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Christina.

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