Rebuilding Ukraine

An Interview with Paul Gavrilyuk and Seraphim Danckaert

AMELIA ANTZOULATOS

Since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February of this year, the UN Human Rights Office has reported over 8000 civilian casualties and over 13 million Ukrainians forced to flee their homes-- and the scale of destruction, human atrocity, and war crimes likely far exceeds what official reports can account for at this point in time. Widespread media coverage has dealt an immediate and ongoing shock to observers around the world, as well, including Orthodox Christians in the United States, who, through cultural, faith, or direct familial ties, have an added connection to either Ukraine or Russia. As ordinary Ukrainians resist the invasion and fight to survive, these allies, also often ordinary people, have amplified Ukrainian voices and traditions and have organized rallies, prayer services, and donations. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary responses to the war has been the work of Paul Gavrilyuk, Seraphim Danckaert, and their allies in the new organization Rebuild Ukraine. 

Gavrilyuk is an internationally renowned Orthodox theologian who teaches at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Danckaert is the headmaster of St. Peter's Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas, with extensive experience in the nonprofit world. They launched Rebuild Ukraine within days of the invasion, with the mission of supplying Ukrainians with medical supplies, protective gear, and food. They managed to deliver $250,000 worth of supplies within the first 50 days. They spoke with us about the motivation behind their efforts, how they built up their operations so quickly, and what Christians in the United States can do to support Ukrainians moving forward.

You’re both very well-known and respected within the Orthodox world: Paul, as a renowned scholar and founder of the International Orthodox Theological Association, and Seraphim, as the former Executive Director and CEO of Focus North America. How did your paths cross? And how did you come to work on this mission together?

Paul Gavrilyuk: We met at conferences, and what I think brought us together was a realization that perhaps we, too, could contribute in some way to the alleviation of suffering of people in Ukraine. I come from Ukraine, and everything that's happening there is deeply personal to me. My elderly parents have had to flee Ukraine to safety in Lithuania. And both Seraphim and I sensed that we had a unique opportunity where we could apply our efforts properly to do something about the tragedy that's presently playing itself out there.

Seraphim Danckaert: I think we first met at Princeton, actually, but we've never worked together so closely. But we both happen to have significant scholarly interest in Father George Florovsky and 20th century Russian theology more broadly.

PG: Yes, and I think our common respect for Russian Orthodox thought of the past century perhaps bound us together, but also makes us puzzled about the contemporary events – rather, worried, seriously worried, about contemporary events and the role of the church in the conflict, in the war. 

How is Rebuild Ukraine contributing to what has become a major, and global, humanitarian undertaking?

SD: In one of our early board meetings, we had our Deputy Head of Operations in Ukraine speak, and it was a sobering mission moment, because he said, "When it comes to strategic planning, our plan is, can we survive tomorrow? That's what we in Ukraine are dealing with." And so priority number one is tourniquets. It sounds very simple, and this is why we've pivoted and focused on it. Thousands of people are bleeding out and dying, and we can prevent that if we focus. 

PG: We have a group in Lithuania that's procuring crucial things like tourniquets, prescription drugs, and protective gear for the civilian defense volunteers. And we have two key distribution centers: one is in western Ukraine, and the other one is in Kyiv. We're using them to send life saving medical devices, food, and protective gear to close to 60 locations, many of them very close to the front line. We don't quite yet have the capacity to send things to Mariupol, but with the exception of just that one hotspot, we really have the capacity to cover a very significant area of a very large country. We're getting what people need, and we get the end user verification through images and social media analysis. 

We also have a network of more than 20 staffers within Ukraine and a growing network of volunteers that is more than 100. Many of them run small businesses, and many of them are also dedicated Christians. Some are IT engineers. We certainly have doctors and medics as a part of this because we're supplying hospitals. We also, for example, have a program for processing dried meat. If you're in the woods, and it's fairly cold, and you haven't eaten for a few days, something like a jerky would be really great. And the person who is doing it is a small business owner in the Carpathian Mountains who is also housing more than 20 displaced people. So what's happening here is the production of meat and also the hosting of refugees. Meanwhile, her 25 year old husband is presently at war and fighting. So what are we also doing, then, for the husband and people like her husband? We are providing them with protective gear.

How did you mobilize so quickly?

SD: One of the distinctive advantages of the organization is drawing on the pre-existing friendships that Paul had in Ukraine and in the Baltics. We’re starting with the recipient in mind. We’re getting requests directly from hospitals, or from mobile medical units, and, even then, we put them through a process of vetting and discernment. And we don't buy the supplies here in America and ship them over. We buy them in the EU nearby, and can make the deliveries, oftentimes, in less than a week, sometimes even in three days. So that's very unusual and a highly efficient model for operating in a humanitarian disaster. It kind of works the whole system: the money is American, the business partnerships are in the Baltics, and the due diligence and delivery happen in Ukraine itself. 

Do you have any insights into when you think this war will end? What are the long-term goals of the organization?

PG: What makes this war especially nonsensical is the fact that it is not a winnable war. The destruction of the infrastructure of the Ukrainian economy has now been to the tune of over a half trillion dollars. Russia has absolutely no game plan, or any way of actually providing that kind of rebuilding and that kind of support. One of the reasons why we call this Rebuild Ukraine is because we believe the process of rebuilding will be continuing for decades. And that's why we created a nonprofit rather than simply focusing ourselves on justice, on the war relief effort. 

SD: The long term vision is to realize that rebuilding Ukraine is going to take a very long time, even once the war is over. And the trauma of war is already particularly affecting children. So we're trying to prepare ourselves to be an aid to children of war for decades to come. 

One great pilot project involves one of these young volunteers who make this organization possible. She's an IT professional, and she ended up deciding to become a refugee after a period of time instead of staying in Ukraine, and found herself in Montenegro. She realized that there, in this little town in Montenegro, there are 100 Ukrainian refugee children and 20 Ukrainian teachers who were teaching in actual schools back in Ukraine. So she's gathered them together in the city park and is running a school on the grass. We’re putting together a plan where, for a very modest amount of money, we can rent a real facility for them and give a small stipend to these teachers. So that will be kind of our first foray into education. But we see a lot of need and opportunity for that long term.

PG: We're just so excited about this project. Through just the informality of exchange and play, we can, in fact, save their lives– their psychological lives, spiritual lives. This said, we are also committed to programs in the United States. And I would like, in this regard, to mention a boarding school in Bryan, Texas, called Allen Academy, where Seraphim will be the incoming principal. It is now in the process of committing significant funds to bringing Ukrainian refugee children so as to provide the infrastructure for their studies. We would be focusing on bringing refugee children in difficult circumstances, who are also quite bright and can flourish in STEM fields. 

Your work is already a kind of testament to how Orthodox Christians can respond during a crisis. How can individuals and communities in the United States get involved and help?  

SD: There isn't a huge need for more people on the ground in Lithuania or Ukraine. Where we're actually radically understaffed is here in the United States. We have to organize here with the same level of professionalism, with a focus on getting the word out, growing our organizational capacity, our office functions, our social media and marketing, our fundraising efforts, our event management, all that kind of thing. 

PG: If there are also those who might wish to join us as volunteers working for the organization in the United States, we would certainly welcome that. But we would especially appreciate ambassadorship of our programs so that we can become viral and make an even greater impact.

SD: A very practical way for the readers of this magazine in particular to get involved is to host a virtual fundraiser with Paul as a speaker. We've done that in a number of other churches. Actually, aside from some of our special partnerships with larger donors and corporations, that's the main way we're funding this now. 

PG: Yes, we're following Saint Paul: if you want to support the community of the poor in Jerusalem, you go from church to church in the Roman Empire. And so that's exactly what we're doing. We've done at least seven fundraisers to date in Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Church of Christ, and other churches. So this is both a Pan-Orthodox endeavor, and also, of course, a Pan-Christian endeavor. And indeed, there is a sense in which it's pan-human, because I think a lot of people, a lot of fellow Americans, are responding because they feel that it's absolutely necessary for us today to respond with both prayer and deeds. 

This conflict will also certainly continue to impact the state of global Orthodoxy. Paul, you’ve previously written a lot about this, but at this point in the war, how do you think the Orthodox world moves forward from here?    

PG: What's at stake, really, is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, providing an ideological platform for this war and, to this day, openly justifying aggression and destruction. And I think that is scandalous. What would emerge out of this crisis is a mature theology of war and peace that is seasoned by this experience. We've made some important forays into the subject, but it would be more than theology understood as a purely theoretical discipline; it would also be a theology that is now grounded in life and offers a moral vision for the future. To the extent to which we can participate in that work, we will. It is also simply that Seraphim and I, as much as we love scholarly conferences, believe this needs to be set aside in this moment. We kind of need to get a spade or just get our hands dirty and do the work that needs to be done now.

To donate or learn more about how you can get involved with Rebuild Ukraine, visit rebuild-ua.org.

Paul Gavrilyuk holds the Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy at the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the founder and president of the International Orthodox Theological Association).

Seraphim Danckaert is the former Executive Director and CEO of Focus North America, the largest human services charity affiliated with Orthodox Christian churches of all jurisdictions in the United States. He is the headmaster of St. Peter’s Classical School, a K-12 Orthodox school in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Rev. Dr. Paul Gavrilyuk holds the Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy at the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the founder and president of the International Orthodox Theological Association and a retired deacon in the Orthodox Church of America. His parish, Holy Trinity Orthodox Church (OCA) in St. Paul, was foundational in establishing Rebuild Ukraine as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

Seraphim Danckaert is the former Executive Director of Focus North America, the largest human-services charity affiliated with Orthodox Christian churches in the US. He is the headmaster of St. Peter’s Classical School, a K-12 Orthodox school in Fort Worth, and a parishioner at St. Silouan Orthodox Church in College Station, Texas.