Members of Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great living and ministering in Jenkintown were featured in a story by the National Catholic Reporter for their efforts in supporting Ukrainian soldiers, especially those who have been severely wounded.

The sisters in the “Ukrainian American enclave” have been visiting soldiers residing in greater Glenside, distributing food to recent Ukrainian arrivals, and sending needed humanitarian supplies to the war front.

“We can’t disregard it,” Sister Joann Sosler, the provincial superior in Jenkintown, said about the war. “It’s part of our lives. It’s united us as an order and as a concerned community — with concern for the people of Ukraine and of our sisters in ministry at unsafe locations [in Ukraine].”

From the article:

On Friday afternoons on the motherhouse grounds, sisters and a group of volunteers greet new Ukrainian arrivals and others needing help with boxes of donated food. 

Srs. Teodora Kopyn and Monica Lesnick, present to help distribute the food boxes to about 190 people and helped by other sisters and a core group of volunteers, marvel at what they say is the generosity of donors.

As part of a St. Basil support ministry headed by Kopyn, the sisters and volunteers recently collected more than 50 boxes of medicine, toiletries, candy, socks and hand warmers. With the cooperation of the Ukrainian American Relief Committee, they shipped the boxes to some 600 soldiers at the Ukrainian-Russian front.

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GSR photo/Chris Herlinger