Two-week training courses for military chaplains from Ukraine have completed in Great Britain. Among the first 10 priests selected for training was Archpriest Hennadiy Rokhmaniiko, a military chaplain with the Military Medical Clinical Center of the Northern Region and an employee of the John the Theologian Church in Kharkiv.
The chaplains were trained with the Land Forces of the Royal Armed Forces and deepened their knowledge of providing pastoral care, spiritual support and moral guidance during combat operations, as well as during the post-war recovery period.
During training, the chaplains visited Ukrainian servicemen who are training in England ahead of the highly-anticipated counteroffensive against the Russian aggressor.
“The course, developed by British military chaplains and supported by the Armed Forces of Great Britain as part of Operation Orbital, came as a response to a request from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Its purpose is to provide participants with the spiritual and practical resources necessary to support personnel in the most difficult aspects of operations – from heavy losses to problems with mental health,” the official statement of the General Staff of the Armed Forces emphasizes.
About 160 military chaplains currently serve in Ukraine, but there are plans to increase their number to 738. According to military commanders, such a number of clergy of various denominations is needed to provide spiritual and pastoral support to officers and personnel in units, hospitals, and training centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, National Guard, and State Border Guard Service.
Chaplain Robin Richardson of the Royal Army Chaplaincy Department, who was responsible for the development and implementation of the program, was satisfied with the work done. He expressed hope for continued cooperation with the Ukrainian military clergy in the near future.
The training of military chaplains from Ukraine became one of the topics in the British media space. The training was covered by such authoritative publications as the BBC, The Times, The Telegraph, Evening Standard, the inews online publication, as well as the information website of the UK government, the UK Defense Academy, etc.
