The
Orthodox Catholic Church seems to be pretty influential in Ukraine on the
social and political front. So, it is all the more impressive that an Orthodox
Bishop was present for the first part of our concert at the Philharmonic on
Friday. I’m speculating a bit, but I would guess that the weight of the US
Embassy letterhead provided encouragement. We’ve encountered many ways this
week in which the US Embassy is using its influence for good when it comes to
LGBTQ issues in Ukraine.
Case
in point - on the Saturday of our tour, we were invited to a BBQ on the campus
of the Catholic University outside of Lviv in honor of Memorial Day. By inviting
a gay chorus to an event with US, Ukrainian and Catholic leadership present, the
Embassy isn’t afraid to push a few unconventional conversations forward. While
governments can be risk averse when it comes to foreign policy, we have
experienced an Embassy in Ukraine that is nimble and unafraid to dream.
Our
original invitation to the BBQ was to sing a few songs including the US
National Anthem. We later learned there was misunderstanding by the church surrounding
our identity as a gay group. We saw the frustrated Embassy staff scramble to
honor the relationship they have with the church as well as with GMCW – an
impossible situation because Orthodox Catholic doctrine is in direct opposition to GMCW’s mission. The church, un-shockingly, didn’t want to
acknowledge our gay identity.
You
might think there was an impulse to grab our bags and leave, angered and hurt. Most
people at the BBQ already knew our story, so accepting the altered invitation
would just allow the church continue its head in the sand tradition. This
begged a natural question: were we more likely to reverse centuries of dogma
that day, or chip away at the armor…maybe influence one person? It was a split
second decision we made collectively, and I couldn’t be more proud of Potomac
Fever for realizing that we can’t change hearts if we’re not in the room. Even
if our hosts didn’t have the capacity to move as much as we wanted, the needle
always moves through person-to-person interaction.
Our partnership with the US Embassy has already caused a stir. Like
many parts of this tour, we won’t know the aftereffect of this particular experience with the Catholic University for some time. But we do know that a gay chorus (known, if not acknowledged)
performed twice for Orthodox Church leadership in as many days. In Ukraine that
is a leap forward. I won’t ever defend or make
excuses for an institution whose doctrine and actions are discriminatory.
Instead, I lift up a group of singers whose true colors of compassion, cultural
understanding, and dignity were ablaze.
Thank You ! I am a supporter and volunteer usher for GMCW. I applaud and appreciate the dignity with
ReplyDeletewhich you handled this matter. I know I was a Peace Corps volunteer at the Ukrainian Catholic University for two years. The students were wonderful but the exposure to cultural and societal change was not available to them. I was viewed with suspicion by the UCU hierarchy. Nevertheless Lviv was a beautiful place to live a much was accomplished but obviously the time warp has not opened much since my stint there in 2005-07.
Edwin Sebastian Patout