May 11-15, the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Military Chaplaincy Service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces – led by Colonel Oleksandr Vovkotecha – hosted a five-day retreat for active-duty military chaplains of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The retreat brought together chaplains from various Christian traditions at the Ukrainian Village ethnographic complex.
Military chaplains are service members who stand alongside Ukraine’s defenders every day, maintain connections with their families, and continuously care for the spiritual well-being of military units. For them, dialogue skills are not an abstract concept – they are a necessity.
Over the course of three days, Dialogue in Action facilitators Tetiana Kalenychenko and Dmytro Fedorchak led sessions focused on communication in practice: how to listen in order to truly hear, how to speak in order to be heard, and how to create space for open and honest conversations – even in the most difficult circumstances.
We extend our gratitude to Denys Horenkov for the invitation, to the Military Chaplaincy Service for their trust, and to the chaplains for their willingness to practice the art of truly hearing one another.
