05/05/2026
Yesterday at Exeter College Chapel, we had the honour of hosting Rev Dr Taras Khomych, a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University. Fr Taras offered a moment of prayer and spiritual reflection on compassion, hope, and inner strength.
During his presentation, “Faith at the Crossroads: Ukrainian Churches in Wartime,” he outlined the complexities of the current socio-political and religious situation in Ukraine, tracing its development from the period of the Revolution of Dignity in 2013. Fr Taras spoke of the unity among the major Christian denominations in Ukraine, as well as the strengthening of interreligious relations between Christian Churches and Jewish, Muslim, and other religious communities. These developments began as a response to the anti-democratic actions of Yanukovych’s government against peaceful protesters and grew even stronger as russian aggression unfolded from 2014.
He also elaborated on how these events contributed to the migration of a significant number of parishes and believers from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and, after 2018, to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The event concluded with a lively and thoughtful discussion on the history and future of these religious dynamics, their impact on Ukrainian society broadly both within the country and abroad, as well as possible ways forward.
We are very grateful to Fr Taras Khomych for this opportunity to reflect on these important aspects of Ukrainian life and society. We are also deeply grateful to Exeter College, and especially to Revd Andrew Allen, Chaplain of the College, for generously hosting the event in the Chapel. Finally, we would like to thank Roman Lorello for his kind assistance in organising the event.
