A CHURCH will be marking Ash Wednesday with a vigil calling for peace as the conflict in Ukraine continues.
St Nicholas Church in Church Street in Brighton will be offering prayers for peace today, with bell ringers ringing a quarter peal for peace at 7pm this evening.
Father Dominic Keech said the news of the war in Ukraine had saddened everyone, with the bombardment of cities “particularly distressing to watch”.
Pope Francis last week issued a call to observe Ash Wednesday as a day of prayer and fasting for peace, an appeal echoed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and by the Bishop of Chichester.
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Father Keech said: “Churches are traditionally places of sanctuary, where people come together in goodwill and pray for peace.
“At St Nicholas, we felt it was important to respond to this call, and make time and space to pray for peace, and recall our common humanity with everyone caught up in this conflict.
“Ash Wednesday is a day when we recall our mortality and capacity for sin, and ask God for forgiveness and healing.
“To those prayers we add our longing for peace in our world, and commend the people of Ukraine, and the whole of Europe, to the protection of God.”
Last Sunday (February 27), Pope Francis denounced the “diabolical and perverse logic” of launching a war in Ukraine.
He also called for humanitarian corridors to welcome Ukrainian refugees fleeing the “tragic” invasion of their homeland.
He said that “those who make war forget humanity”, adding that warfare “relies on the diabolical and perverse logic of weapons, which is the farthest thing from God’s will.”
However, the pope refrained from calling out Russia by name and omitted any reference to Moscow in his remarks as he seeks to mend ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the bombing of a public square in Ukraine’s second largest town, Kharkiv, describing it as “absolutely sickening” and comparing the situation to some of the attacks on Sarajevo in the Bosnian war.
He said: “It has that feel to me of an atrocity committed deliberately against a civilian centre.”
However, Mr Johnson insisted no NATO allies are planning on heeding Ukrainian calls to enforce a no-fly zone over the country to prevent bombings, warning it would trigger a wider war with Russia.
"I think for any NATO member to get involved actively in conflict in Russia is a huge step which is not being contemplated by any member," he said.
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