Congregation commissions icon to support Ukrainian hospital

Congregation commissions icon to support Ukrainian hospital

The Rev. Dr. Stephen L. White, Grace in the Southern Berkshires, Great Barrington

An icon of Our Lady with the Child was recently hung on the wall of Grace Church’s chapel in Great Barrington. The icon was written in Kyiv by Ukrainian artists Sofia Atlantova and Oleksandr Klymenko, who write traditional Orthodox Christian icons on the covers of actual ammunition boxes from the Ukrainian front lines, symbolically portraying life overcoming death.

The icon came to Great Barrington through the “Buy an Icon – Save a Life” project of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital (PFVMH), a volunteer organization of civilian medics that provides medical aid to both soldiers and civilians in Eastern Ukraine. As of January, the PFVMH had cared for over 30,000 patients in the bloody Ukrainian war.

The Rev. Tina Rathbone, Grace’s rector, proposed purchasing the icon in support of PFVMH to the congregation in March 2023. She asked for donations of no more than $100, and within days, the $2,700 cost of the icon was raised and on its way to Ukraine. Grace Church has also committed to donate its Easter offering to PFVMH.

The icon is written on the lid of an ammunition box from the city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region (which was taken by the Russians on February 17) with tempera and gold leaf, using centuries-old techniques, styles, and symbols. The slatted wooden lid used in Grace Church’s icon was collected by PFVMH volunteers on one of their ambulance runs to the front, and brought to the artists in Kyiv. The finished icon gains some of its power through its transformation from an article of war and death into sacred art filled with beauty, peace, and hope.

Grace Church encourages other congregations to consider supporting the excellent work of PFVMH by purchasing an icon of their own. For information, visit www.medbat.org.ua/en/buy-icon-save-a-life/, or reach out directly to Grace Church. ♦