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Woo hoo! The day is almost here and we are SO looking forward to the premiere of Back to Bucha: Finding the Spirit in Ukraine at the place where it all began, Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Boston tomorrow, Sunday the 30th. The screening will take place at 12:30 PM Boston time (19:30 Bucha time), and several of the film’s “stars” in Ukraine will participate in the Q&A afterwards via Zoom. The entire event will be live streamed on Facebook Live at facebook.com/TheoEcoOrg so that all can join us worldwide live from Boston and Ukraine.  Two of the film’s “stars” who will be joining us include Father Roman Nebozhuk (UCC) and his daughter Andriana in Kyiv. Fr. Roman is Archpriest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Patriarchal Cathedral in Kyiv and at the center of the ecumenical community in Kyiv working with Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic faith leaders there. Andriana is an attorney in Kyiv who also works at the Nursery school so prominent in the new film where she acts as both guide and impassioned interviewee. I am also hopeful that several others will be joining as well including the ladies at Jul’s Coffee and Peace coffee shop in Bucha. This is going to be a celebration! I am also very excited that Valeriia Vovk will be performing The War We Didn’t Ask For and several other selections before the screening. Valeriia donated the use of this song which is featured poignantly throughout the film – and it really sets the tone. Originally from Odesa she has Boston ties as a graduate of Berklee College of Music and as a member of Bear Witness where I was introduced to her by its president Alex Gamota. Both Valeriia and Alex will be joining the Q&A panel in Boston. For more see Back to Bucha – Valeriia Vovk to Perform at Boston Premiere (theoeco.org)
Seats are still available and registering for the event is encouraged to assure you have a seat. To register click here. There is no charge to attend though donations are encouraged. 50% of net proceeds will go to Ukraine Forward and Bear Witness. To donate click here. I hope to see you there or on TheoEco’s facebook page!
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I am excited to announce that Valeriia Vovk (ValeriiaVovk.com), composer of The War We Didn’t Ask For, will be performing at the Boston premiere of Back to Bucha on April 30th. Valeriia donated the use of her song which is featured in the film and the film’s trailer. Originally from Odessa, Ukraine she uses her music as a foundation for her activism for Ukraine. She has Boston ties as a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music and as a member of Bear Witness where I was introduced to her by Alex Gamota. Bear Witness is an Executive Producer of Back to Bucha. As she describes it: “The War We Didn’t Ask For is an aggressive song about the beginning of war. It translates the anger, fear, sadness, and readiness to fight”. When I first heard it I was blown away even though I didn’t understand the words as she sings them in Ukrainian. When I watched the video with English captions I noted the softer elements of the song with phrases like: “You could hear how everyone in the country had a prayer on their lips”; “We’ve been told that we’re the flowers of Ukraine”; and perhaps most of all: “Because freedom is everything to us”. I also love: “That the children of Kozaks fight” and “Ukraine you are alive!”.
Непрошена Війна (The War We Didn't Ask For) | Valeriia Vovk - YouTube Valeriia’s performance and Back to Bucha’s premiere screening will take place at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain at 12:30 PM Boston time (18:30 Bucha time). We are also hopeful that a star or two in Ukraine will be able to participate in the Q&A afterwards. The entire event will be live streamed on Facebook Live. To reserve a seat at the premiere click here. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 247 Years Ago Today the British Left Boston Like the Russians Left Bucha.3/17/2023  This
The “invincible” (sound familiar) British army was sent running, never to return. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated BIG in Boston and throughout New England. Parades last for hours with unimaginable numbers of bag pipers and Irish dancers – and politicians! Not to mention the limitless flows of green beer and Irish whiskey being imbibed. One can only imagine if people realized the importance of the date in Boston history how much more raucous the whole event might be. I’ll certainly have a shot and a toast to George Washington and Boston’s patriots on their victory today. At this point in 1776 Thomas Paine’s Common Sense had just been published and these immortal words with such applicability to Ukraine today, had yet to be penned:
We like Ukrainians because they fight so hard with so little – and win! We love them because they are so much like us with their love of country, their families, and their liberty.
It is sobering to note that while we celebrate the defeat of the British in Boston we have to note that the war was just getting started. It would be another five years of hard fought battles in the colonies until Yorktown and another two years before the war was finally over. American Revolutionary War - Wikipedia The biggest source of angst in Ukraine is not whether Ukraine will win. Rather it is the question of when. How much longer will it last? We hear it repeated over and over in our new film Back to Bucha. If America’s Revolution is any indication, it could be a while.  Thomas Paine was a founding father whose contributions were philosophical, literary, revolutionary. What might he say about the Ukrainian fight for liberty? O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Ever since the Russian invasion, I am constantly struck by the apparent shared sentiments of Ukrainians today with Americans’ fight for liberty in 1775. Thomas Paine was a founding father who never held office, didn’t sign founding documents, nor has his image on any currency. His contributions were philosophical, literary, revolutionary. What might he say about the Ukrainian fight for liberty? Unsurprisingly the Enlightenment principles that imbued our founding fathers shout loudly from Common Sense, perhaps the biggest seller proportionally of all American publications, first pressed in Philadelphia in February 1776. Common Sense was read by, or read to, just about every citizen in the colonies at exactly the time they were deciding whether to declare independence from England. The Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, persuaded the British Army it was better to stay in Boston proper rather than attempt military incursions doomed to fail. Sound familiar? Massachusetts was at war and times were tough. George Washington was waiting for artillery on a slow march from Fort Ticonderoga through Massachusetts to be delivered by Benedict Arnold to Dorchester Heights. When installed the cannons represented “checkmate” and the British withdrew on March 17, 1776 (Boston Battle Facts and Summary | American Battlefield Trust (battlefields.org). Common Sense was written at this time and Paine talks about the misery Bostonians endured when America found itself in a situation not unlike Ukraine today; in the early days of a war for their liberty from a seemingly overwhelming foe that is intent upon denying that freedom. Common roots give the bully justification – superior size and arms make it doable. Or so they thought. And like America, Ukraine will prevail. It doesn’t take much to bring Paine’s words to life and see their applicability. Just insert Russia for England, Ukraine for America, Putin/autocrat for the king, autocracy for monarchy, and so on. The fact is that his words apply to any country today that is fighting against wanna-be tyrants. Take a look. "The cause of Ukraine is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. That Putin is not to be trusted without being looked after, or in other words, that a thirst for absolute power is the natural disease of autocracy. There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of an autocrat; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of an autocrat shuts him from the world, yet the business of an autocrat requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless. Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions. The nearer any government approaches to a republic the less business there is for an autocrat. Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived. But Russia is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by Putin and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not Russia, is the parent country of Ukraine. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant. But Russia is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by Putin and his parasites, with a low papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, and not Russia, is the parent country of Ukraine. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.  It's a fight that continues on through the Ukrainian people who share the DNA of Europe and the Enlightenment principals we all share. Russia and Putin play the role of the tyrant autocrat some 250 years since America had to beat their English tyrant to form the so-called American Experiment. Similarly, Ukraine has to defeat Russia now to form its Ukrainian Experiment some 31+ years in the making.
As we continue to edit Trek to Bucha in anticipation of its September 11th premiere at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain, we are very pleased to announce that we will be allocating half the proceeds from our Boston premiere to Ukraine Forward — an initiative of Ukraine American Education Center of Boston, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that raises money to ship medical and other supplies to Ukraine. 50% of all proceeds from the premiere screening on September 11th will be shared with Ukraine Forward.
As the war continues, needs in Ukraine continue unabated. Ukraine Forward is in direct contact with doctors and volunteers in Ukraine and receives letters of request from:
Their challenges and needs include:
Ukraine Forward has received lots of press coverage from WBUR, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and others.
For more about the organization and its efforts check out their deck by clicking here. You can also check out their website at UkraineForward.org.
Ukraine Forward as seen in Trek to Bucha.
Before we became aware of Ukraine Forward we were showcasing them in the film via Father Yaroslav and his church. At the very beginning of the film’s trailer, we see him taking us into the parish house and the volunteers in action. https://vimeo.com/709512914.
Later on, we see where the supplies go – to the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv where we interview and see students distributing supplies from all over the world. Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv (theoeco.org
In the end, Trek to Bucha’s hoped-for impact is an ongoing awareness of the Ukrainian people’s plight for as long as Putin’s terroristic war continues – and beyond through the rebuilding period. In addition to awareness, we hope the film will help bring much-needed resources to the people and front lines. This is a long-term effort and our support for organizations like Ukraine Forward is just getting started. Therefore, we are sharing 50% of all Trek to Bucha proceeds with Ukrainian causes and organizations; a commitment we are making with our online fundraising tools which allow us to track - and report - every dollar.
So please, donate what you can. We promise every dollar will be put to good use. And please plan to join us on September 11th either in person or virtually. For more information click here. Thank you. Слава Україні! Glory to Ukraine!  I am happy to announce that we will be premiering Trek to Bucha in Boston at the place where it all began, Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain on September 11th, at 12:30 PM. The film is currently in post-production.   Our film began at Christ the King back in March when I went to the church at the suggestion of the salesclerk at REI in Boston where I was getting outfitted with a new backpack and other gear for my forthcoming trip to Ukraine. When I told the clerk where I was headed, he told me about the church at the center of raising supplies for Ukraine in Boston (See Mass. Ukrainians send money, tactical medicine to battlefield back home | WBUR News). Being unfamiliar with the Ukrainian Catholic Church I just had to go to Jamaica Plain and find out more. It was there that I met Father Yaroslav and told him about my upcoming trek, which at the time was going to be confined to the western part of the country. He spent time with me and told me about his time as a soviet army doctor while attending seminary underground, a path that could have meant his death if discovered by the Red Army command as the UCC was outlawed under the soviet regime. (See Announcing TheoEco's Ukraine Trek). After reassuring Fr. Yaroslav that I was committed to going - and of right mind - he encouraged me to go to the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. I wound up spending several days there as the Russians retreated from Kyiv thereby opening up the possibility for me to go to Kyiv and eventually Bucha. I was able to interview students and faculty alike there, as well as learn about air raid sirens in the school’s basement/bunker. (See Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv (theoeco.org). He also called down a guardian angel and gave me his blessing to help me through the journey. He apparently has a lot of pull with The Spirit as I made it through without a scratch. I went to see Fr. Yaroslav a couple weeks ago while in Boston and told him of my idea to hold the premiere screening at the church. He couldn’t have been more receptive to the idea as he expressed in his follow up email to me last week, which I just have to share: Слава Ісусу Христу! Glory to Jesus Christ! "We will be honored to have the premiere of your documentary film about Ukraine in our parish in September. "Thank you again for your brave effort and personal commitment to produce the documentary film about the war in Ukraine. Your documentary film will be part of the recorded history about the sacrifice and heroism of the Ukrainian people in defending their freedom, dignity, and sovereignty. Fr. Yaroslav and Parishioners of Christ the King UCC So, stay tuned as we put our premiere event together to support Ukraine in as many ways as possible. I am very excited and honored to have this show of support for our film and efforts to bring awareness to what is happening there.
It is an epic struggle that is being fought for freedom loving people everywhere. And what better place to premiere the film than a church in Boston where America’s war for Independence took root almost 250 years ago. Thanks, Steve Richards By Steve Richards   Memorial Day is about commemorating our fallen American fighters. In this it seems an occasion to consider the Ukrainian soldiers that have died and are dying each day. American soldiers are fighting alongside them. In many ways, this is America’s war as well. So, it seems fitting to reach back to the days when the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord fought for the exact same reasons Ukrainians are fighting today. Liberty. Freedom. Sounds sort of corny because we take it for granted here. We are taught in grade school about the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, etc. But for most of us that’s as far as it goes. History books and movies. Ukraine is a real-life reminder of what our forefathers died for on Lexington Green in 1775. Love of freedom is a universal human sentiment that Phillis Wheatly spoke of when she wrote in 1774:
Of course, Phillis was a slave, a Boston slave, so she spoke from a point of view far different than those first Americans that died for their country on the Green. But the sentiment is the same. It’s in our DNA apparently. And it certainly is present in all that I met on my trek to Bucha and comes through in every interview.
The people dying and fighting and surviving in Ukraine are just like us in their love of freedom and their willingness to die for it. It’s not complicated. Turns out phrases like ‘Live Free or Die’, ‘Freedoms not Free’, and ‘Russian warship, go fuck yourself!’ are all born of the same zeal for freedom and the willingness to die for it. When I get involved in a project like Trek to Bucha, I have a mind to do something that is too big for me to have much of an impact. The War in Ukraine is just this kind of quixotic endeavor. What can one guy do? Not much. But one guy with a camera and the ability to produce an engaging documentary? Well, that’s a force multiplier. Because the uniquely powerful footage I shot has the potential to move millions given the worldwide interest in the war and awareness of what happened in Bucha. We have the potential to improve the situation in Ukraine, and ourselves. Because what is happening in Ukraine directly affects us throughout the world. I came away from my month in Ukraine with a deep appreciation that its citizens will need more than just guns and ammunition. They will need loans to rebuild their homes and help rebuilding their economy. The people of Ukraine are not just fighting for their freedom. Through hard work, love of family and home, the rule of law, and liberty, they are fighting for the fruits of democracy and laissez-faire capitalism. Our film and other TheoEco efforts will hopefully influence policy that will further these goals. Lastly, all of those I interviewed echoed the sentiment of thanks for our support of Ukraine and for bringing awareness of what’s happening there. Perhaps in the end, this is the greatest impact this film can have, to pass their message along. But I hope the film will help Ukraine strengthen and in so doing push back against Putin’s threat to so much of what we hold dear. Hopefully, this film can engage the sentiments of viewers to continue supporting Ukraine in its struggles against Putin’s Russia. Think of Ukraine’s soldiers and citizens this Memorial Day. Think of them and their cause and what our forefathers had to suffer through beginning in our struggle against a seemingly overwhelming armed force in 1775 when paying a bit more at the pump. And as we commemorate centuries of heroes in America, God bless our Ukrainian brothers in arms dying for our freedoms as well. In every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance. —Phillis Wheatley, 1774
A Message From TheoEco's Managing Director Steve Richards
Well, it looks like I’m going to Ukraine. I’ve bought my ticket on American Airlines from Boston to Warsaw via JFK and London Heathrow. Leaving Monday, March 28th. My daughter Bobbie seems okay with it. Not thrilled exactly, but getting used to the idea. She’s also instrumental in making it work by holding down the TheoEco fort in Boston. She’ll be editing and posting the regular daily (?) updates on my trek from Western Ukraine and linking them up with short videos being uploaded to video editor Amit Nepali in Kathmandu. Bobbie will also be my primary point person as I venture through Western Ukraine over the month of April, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day on average. She’ll be updating the map, social media, and communicating with interested/concerned folks in general as I traverse the 600+ kilometers from Lviv to Rivne to Khmelnytskyi, and then back to Lviv. Why We’re Going Why Western Ukraine? We are going to shoot a documentary about the area focused on the economic and ecological entanglements the area is engaged in as Putin conducts his war in the midst of active nuclear power plants, two of which are located in Rivne and Khmelnytskyi. The notorious Chernobyl plant is no longer active and is under Russian control, as is Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, which attracted worldwide attention recently as it was being shelled by Russian troops. This is what spurred me to want to head to Ukraine and document the situation at these plants, at least the ones I could get close to relatively safely. Those in the west are not currently in battle zones though things can change quickly so we’ll be closely monitoring the situation. 
TheoEco’s focus as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is on the potential environmental catastrophe that local human economic activities—like the need for electricity and control thereof in wartime—might inflict on its ecology. Additionally, the theological underpinnings of the conflict are always in the background, and I will be digging into these as well. And to that end, I will be looking to network with the Christian community as I go. My first contact with a member of a Ukrainian denomination was last week with the Very Rev. Archpriest Yaroslav Nalysnyk, MD, DMin., at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Boston. I’m expecting a deep and fascinating dive into the Ukrainian Christian world on my travels and hope to juxtapose that tradition with that of Russia’s, which appears to be at the heart of Putin’s—and much of Russia’s—belief system as it relates to the war.
TheoEco has a very specific point of view on all this, however, which is why it is producing this documentary. TheoEco was set up in 2015 in the immediate aftermath of the Nepal earthquakes of that year. An outcome of my three years at the Yale Divinity School, it is principally concerned with the intersection of economics with our ecology. When I saw the nuclear plant on fire I knew the catastrophic potential was big. And it seemed like a worthwhile and doable project if I just got on a plane, took a train to Lviv, and started walking. I want to see firsthand and hopefully interview authorities that can reassure the world of the steps being taken to safeguard and defend these facilities.
The Plan
After flying into Warsaw from Boston and then taking the train to Lviv, I will aim to hike 600+ kilometers—or about 360 miles—over the month of April, more or less. That’s about a week and a half from Lviv to Rivne, another week or so to Khmelnystki, and then another week or two back to Lviv, then another train back to Poland. This route and timeframes will be subject to change depending upon various conditions, including the weather, my legs (I'll be carrying my life on my back), the war, interview opportunities, etc. I may also need to hitch a ride rather than hike at various points along the way depending on the aforementioned conditions. If you would like to encourage my aching feet along, please consider a pledge of a dime per kilometer (or more) for each kilometer I finish on foot as proven by my Apple Watch logs updated daily. Along the way I am planning to document and tell some great stories about the people I meet. Ukraine’s struggle and fight for liberty is something people everywhere can understand. Certainly those of us in the United States where the Alamo, Minutemen and the Declaration of Independence are at our core “get” these folks, as do free people throughout the world, and those struggling to be. So off I go, and I hope you will consider going with me! To stay in the loop there are several options. You can sign up for our newsletter/blog, follow the Facebook page, or follow my new Instagram account. I also hope you’ll consider helping us defray the costs of the trip and production and supporting the folks in Ukraine. Most of all, please send a thought and a prayer my way as you do for Ukraine. I’ll be needing all I can get. Thank you! |
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TheoEco Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions to TheoEco in the United States are tax exempt to the extent provided by law.