Rebirth and Renewal

For Christians, Easter symbolizes rebirth, a new start. This is a universal theme, and something we all aspire, appreciate and yearn for at one time or another.
For Ukrainians, the inspiration of a new start is especially profound given the ravaging of their country for the past 3 years due to the criminal invasion by Russia.
One of the hallmarks of the Easter celebrations in Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches is “sviachenia”, or the blessing of the baskets. Faithful bring baskets to church, filled with bread, eggs, meats and other foodstuffs and a candle. Slowly, one by one, candles are lit and the entire church is filled with a warm glow.
I’ve been photographing this ritual (for my ongoing personal project “Faith and Ritual”) since 2018 and each time I find it visually striking and personally inspiring. This year was no different.

Father Ihor Shved sprinkles holy water and blessings upon baskets of the faithful, in a thin shaft of sunlight at the St. Volodymyr and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral.

A procession makes its way along Stella Avenue in the city’s North End, with the Cathedral as a backdrop, early Sunday morning during Easter.

Father Ihor Shved (left) helps lead parishioners as Bishop Andriy blesses the entrance to the Ukrainian Metropolitan Cathedral of Volodomyr and Olga, on Easter Sunday morning.

A touch of faith

A parishioner has a pensive moment during the ceremony, Saturday afternoon.

Parishioners queue up to pray before the shrine at the altar during Saturday’s blessing of the baskets ceremony.

Acts of prayer, contrition and meditation at the shrine and altar of the cathedral.

One by one, a flame gets passed from one end of the cathedral to the other, during the blessing of the baskets ceremony - a highlight of the Easter season in Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Free Ukraine

As the world knows by now, months and years of rumbling has broken into full-out war in the Ukraine. Every day, the infrastructure of instant communications has brought a tsunami of powerful stories and images direct from the front lines, which like most wars now seem to be everywhere.
Canada has the highest amount of Ukrainian people living anywhere outside that country or Russia, and that community’s history runs very deep in Winnipeg, home of the fabled North End and adopted home to generations of Ukrainians. It is perhaps because of this that a rally held yesterday to offer support drew so many people and evoked such emotion.
I knew I had to bring a camera to this event, and with the privilege of not having a deadline (or, more to the point, an outlet) for my images I decided to use a few film cameras, in the hopes of bringing a different mindset to bear and overriding my ingrained newspaper-photography pattern.

A reminder to anyone wanting to help the civilians in this unfolding catastrophe, donations to the Red Cross will be matched by the Canadian government — a great way to make your money go farther!

Susan Boulter tears up while listening to the Ukrainian anthem, during a rally in Winnipeg, Canada Saturday February 26, 2022. Boulter has family in western Ukraine struggling to escape the country during a Russian invasion.

Blessings in the time of Covid

Several years ago, I started a personal project on rituals — acts of faith unique to a religion or faith community that have a tradition going back centuries or more. It was a rewarding idea and the more I worked on it, the more I was convinced it was a solid pursuit. And beyond that, it was something I got a lot of personal fulfillment out of - I was fortunate to witness moments I couldn’t have predicted or imagined and met a lot of new people.

And then Covid-19 happened.

Almost overnight, most faith centres closed in order to limit the spread of an airborne contagion (something a few people seem to have difficulty understanding) and my idea that slowly but surely began to gain momentum ended abruptly.

But as people begin to find their way through this uncertain time, some organizations figure out how to exercise their faith in ways to keep everyone as safe as possible. One example of this was the annual ritual in the Ukrainian Orthodox faith of the blessing of the Easter baskets, and how the faithful in the Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral of Sts. Vladimir and Olga made it happen in 2021.

Taking advantage of a beautiful spring day, they held the service outdoors, kept everyone well distanced and had people cycle through quickly so as not to linger. It was a heartfelt display of faith, and a quietly dignified rebuke to those who’ve used religion as a ruse to ignore the reality of public health measures.

On a personal note, it felt good after over a year to be making photographs for this project again. It very likely will be a long time before this project can be picked up again in any substantive, consistent way. But for one beautiful spring day, new images were being made and the idea lived on.

Father Ihor Shved sprinkles holy water upon the Easter baskets brought by sisters Ruslana and Svetlana Kashyna, during a special Covid-compliant service of the ‘Blessing of the Baskets’, a highly of the Orthodox calendar.

Volunteers helped create a makeshift altar and worship area outside the North End cathedral, including the iconic Easter eggs so closely associated with Ukrainian culture.

Father Ihor Shved tests a webcam set up to bring the service to faithful in their homes. The web savvy is one adaptation many churches are making to the health measures needed to keep their communities healthy.

After the basket ceremony outside, attendees could make a brief visit to the altar to round out their Easter observances.