"A Good Deed Is Truly Good Only When It Is Selfless": A Priest from Sarny on the Church's Mission — and Why Real Change Begins with the Person

Father Volodymyr, rector of the Holy Protection Parish in Sarny, Rivne region, and a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, attended the training "Assessing Community Needs: Socio-Psychological Support and Community Development" with genuine curiosity and a firm belief that learning should never stop.

For him, ministry is inseparable from personal growth.

"Jesus Christ did not come to earth as an emperor, a high priest, or a man of political power. He came as an ordinary person. He did not abolish slavery or reshape political systems. Why? Because God came not to change the system, but to transform the human. Until a person changes from within, all hopes for external change are in vain. Put an honest person anywhere, and they will make things better. Put a dishonest person in charge, and they will destroy everything," says Father Volodymyr.

According to him, this is precisely why the Church's mission is to transform people from within — and why clergy must continue learning from different perspectives in order to serve others more effectively.

When Is a Good Deed Truly Good?

Father Volodymyr believes that even actions that appear charitable can have very different meanings depending on the motivation behind them.

"Before elections, for example, candidates donate computers or mobile phones to schools. But what is their motivation? To get elected. A good deed is truly good only when it is sacrificial and selfless — done for the sake of God and one's neighbor. Only then does it bear lasting fruit."

A Dream to Care for Lonely Older People

Father Volodymyr joined the training with a specific goal in mind: to move closer to fulfilling a long-held dream of creating a place of care for older people who have been left alone after their children were forced to leave Ukraine because of the war.

"We have many people like this. They have no one to care for them. And I want to do something about it."

He says the training provided exactly what he had been looking for.

"What I gained was the practical mechanism — how to organize and carry out good works. That was something completely new and very valuable for me."

Ministry Beyond the Church Walls

One idea from the training particularly resonated with Father Volodymyr: that serving God is not confined to the walls of a church building.

"The trainer said something very important: the Church is not a geographical place. God is present everywhere. And where is He present most of all? Probably among those who are most vulnerable. History does not judge nations by how much territory they conquered or how much wealth they accumulated. It judges them by how they treated those in need — the vulnerable, widows, orphans, and people living with disabilities. That is what endures, and those are the people we should dedicate ourselves to serving."

The project "Clergy and Communities in Support of Mental Health: Innovative Support Practices During the War in Ukraine" is implemented by Eleos-Ukraine in partnership with DanChurchAid and Norwegian Church Aid in Ukraine, with financial support from the Government of Norway (NORAD), in cooperation with the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy and the Lviv Orthodox Theological Academy.