Ukraine Funeral In Audlem

An Unexpected Funeral at the Baptist Church and a Heart-breaking Story

There was a funeral at the Baptist Church last Monday (April 11th) at 10am for a man named Viktor Pyishnyi. Viktor and his wife Zinaida are from a small town called Balakleya, a few miles from the city of Kharkiv in north eastern Ukraine. Their daughter, Svitlana, is married to Andy Binns and they live on the south side of Crewe. Bill Cowen, from the Baptist Church, has known Andy for several years because Andy mows Bill's lawn.

As the fighting in Ukraine came closer to Kharkiv, Viktor and Zinaida became convinced that they should flee their country and come to the UK so that they could live with their daughter. On the 16th March they began a difficult and chaotic journey by train and coach and by the 18th they reached Poland. Once in Poland, Svitlana flew out from the UK so that she could help her parents with the process of applying for a visa to enter the UK. It took a number of days to complete the paperwork but by the 2nd of April they were all set to start on the next stage of the journey.

However at that point -- and completely unexpectedly -- Viktor collapsed, and died. He was 63. Now Svitlana and her mother had to arrange for a cremation and wait a little longer so that they could collect Viktor's ashes and re-arrange a flight to the UK. Thus it was that they finally flew out of Poland on the 6th of April and arrived together in the UK.

At this time there had been no funeral service for Viktor. There is a strong cultural custom in Ukraine that a funeral service should be held within nine days of a person's death. Since Viktor had died on the second of April it was important that a funeral should happen by Monday April 11th, if that was at all possible. The family had no idea how to go about such a task so on Thursday morning Andy visited Bill Cowen to ask what they should do. As a start Bill offered the use of the Baptist Church as a venue, but it was far from obvious whether it would be possible to make all the other necessary arrangements in time for a service on Monday.

After numerous telephone calls it was arranged that the Reverend Andrew Taylor would take the service. He could meet the family at the weekend, discuss with them the content of the service and be available for the morning of the eleventh. Andrew was in recent years the minister of the large Baptist Church in Union Street, Crewe, and the ecumenical officer for Cheshire.

And so it was that more than twenty members of Viktor's extended family gathered on Monday morning for his funeral. They were so grateful for everything that the Audlem community had done to meet all their needs. They were very surprised to see so many Ukrainian flags on display as they drove into Audlem and then down Stafford Street. Viktor loved his country and was a real patriot and for the family to know that Audlem was a small place which stood with them in their personal and national hour of need was a huge consolation.

After the service in Audlem there was a small ceremony at Crewe Crematorium because Viktor's ashes will be stored there until such time as the family can return to Ukraine and give Viktor a burial in his homeland.

If you believe in prayer, please pray for Svitlana and Zinaida in their grief this Easter weekend. Zinaida has another married son with a family. They are still in Ukraine because young men are not allowed to leave. Pray for their safety and indeed for all Ukrainians at this time.

Alan Paterson

On behalf of Audlem Baptist Church