Fiona Givens and Ian Crookston

FRI FEB 3, 2023   |  7:30-9:00 pm MST

Hear the first-hand front-line accounts of Fiona and fellow ForPEACE team member, Ian while learning some of Ukraine’s history, current heroism, and hopes.

IN-PERSON GATHERING:

THE CONVERSATION:

Fiona and Ian will share their experiences traveling to the frontline in Ukraine for their work with the forPEACE Ukraine Relief Project. Along the way, listeners will learn about democratic Ukraine’s rich and often tragic history, how everyday Ukrainians are banding together to save their communities, and how forPEACE is working with Ukrainians surgeons to bring state-of-the-art trauma care to men, women, and children caught up in the violence of war.

ABOUT FIONA:

Fiona Givens was born in Nairobi, Kenya, educated in British convent schools, and converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She graduated from the University of Richmond with undergraduate degrees in French and German and a graduate degree in European History while co-raising her six children. Besides working in education, she has worked in translation services, as a lobbyist, and as communications director for a non-profit for fifteen years. She has published in Exponent II, LDS Living, Journal of Mormon History, Dialogue, Kofford Books and Routledge. Fiona is also a frequent speaker on podcasts and at conferences. A longtime collaborator in the books of her husband, Terryl Givens, Fiona is the co-author of The God Who Weeps, Crucible of Doubt and The Christ who Heals published by Deseret Book. Fiona and Terryl’s latest book, All Things New, is published by Faith Matters. She serves as a key team member for ForPEACE.

ABOUT IAN:

Ian Crookston is an expert on the history of international humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Russia after WWI. He has spent several years in the region. He has also worked as an outdoor and backcountry guide in the western US national parks. He received his MA from Harvard and left his PhD program at Stanford in 2022, joining the forPEACE team after Russia’s February invasion.

EXPLORE BEFORE WE MEET:

From Ian Crookston and Fiona:

• Foreign Affairs Podcast Interview with Tim Snyder, How Putin’s Lies Are Driving the War in Ukraine, provides framing for the conflict historically, ideologically, and geopolitically.
• This video by Radio Free Europe demonstrates what things look like on the ground doing humanitarian work. I don’t think there are English subtitles, but it demonstrates the look and sounds of war. The woman introduced at 3:35 is one of our volunteers/partners in Bakhmut and greater Donetsk region.
• Text and pictures from a donor newsletter about our Clean Water Project, which is a good example of how our aid is so effective at getting to frontline communities in need. clean water project thanks – generic – Google Docs
• Our old Information and Impact Brochure from Oct 2022. It has some good general information about our frontline (divided into medical, frontline defensive aid, and general humanitarian aid) information-impact-brochure (2)
• ForPEACE Website for information about the organization and how to support. Check out the social media links at the bottom. For even more understanding, check out Ian Crookston’s twitter and instagram, and forPEACE’s instagram, as well as Britta’s twitter.
• For historical context Serhii Plokkhy, The Gates of Europe, and Tim Snyder’s Bloodlands are good books on Ukrainian history and its importance to Europe and the world.
• Also “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine” by Anne Applebaum–I have it on Kindle. It’s long but provides an excellent background to the current Russia/Ukraine “relationship.” (Fiona)

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE RECORDED ZOOM CONVERSATION

SHOW NOTES:

A special thanks to Andi Pitcher Davis for her thoughtful and beautiful music/art/thought contribution. You can find a quality recording of that piece here. She explained her choice of this hymn to me this way: “The hymn, How Long Oh Lord Most Holy and True is a uniquely Mormon one, meaning both the text and the melody stem from our own faith tradition, and is not borrowed or carried over from any other religion or immigrant regionalism. The text is by John A. Widtsoe, the scientist and engineer, and the music penned by B. Cecil Gates, grandson of Brigham Young. I do not know if the hymn was directly inspired by the tireless work of Talmage to implore both the leaders of the church as well as the general population of saints to finally support the efforts of those fighting for peace over the course years, but it is clear that the general theme of release from oppression was pervasive throughout our early 20th-century culture. You can find the music and words of the hymn here. And the essay by James E. Talmage of the same name here.

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