CALHAN • A bond of suspension-cable strength bridges the people of Ukraine with parishioners of St. Mary’s Holy Dormition Orthodox Church in the small rural town of Calhan.

“The biggest uniting factor is we’re all part of one church,” Father Stephen Osburn, rector, said Sunday, after officiating two services heralding the beginning of the Eastern Orthodox observance of Lent. The holy time focuses on penitence, forgiveness and charitable works, and culminates with the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter.

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Orthodoxy, one of the three branches of Christianity, is the predominant religion throughout Ukraine. And as the Russian military invasion rages on, an intense kinship of the religion’s faithful has developed worldwide, spiritual leaders say.

“The general feeling from the priests is leave the churches alone, and for the most part, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, who is Orthodox, is leaving the churches alone,” Osburn said.

On Sunday — day 11 of the war — Osburn interspersed prayers for peace throughout the service.

Like other Orthodox parishes, many of St. Mary’s 120 parishioners contributed to a special collection to benefit an estimated 1.3 million refugees who have fled Ukraine to neighboring lands.

Tatiana Boyd’s daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren left Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, for Romania, as they feared for their lives.

Boyd speaks with her daughter’s family daily on Facetime.

“It’s horrible,” Boyd said. “They’re crying, the military is destroying everything, and they’re killing women and children.”

Other relatives, including a sister living in Ukraine, all tell the same story, she said.

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While the Biden administration announced last week that Ukrainians already in the United States can receive temporary protected status against deportation, many, including the Boyds, want refugees to be allowed to seek safety in America.

“You shouldn’t have just Poland and neighboring countries take in the refugees,” said Tatiana’s husband, Rob Boyd. “We’re not asking for taxpayers to get them here, but for people to get their families out of harm’s way.”

Most Americans have never traveled to eastern Europe, Rob Boyd said. But his wife’s daughter and sister have visited Colorado’s southeastern plains and its Eastern Orthodox church, the family’s spiritual home for 15 years.

“Everybody knows they’re just like what we are — they just speak in a different language,” he said. “That’s the only thing that separates us.”

Orthodox churches in Ukraine look like the Calhan church, said 79-year-old Georgianna Glover, whose father helped build St. Mary’s Holy Dormition, which opened in 1905.

She remembers arriving for services in a horse and buggy.

“They built this church like those in the old country, that now might be destroyed,” Glover said. “For what reason, I wonder.”

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Her grandparents emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Calhan in the early 1900s, and her father fought in World War II.

“You pray that they stop bombing and there will be no more war,” she said.

John “Butch” Sakala’s grandparents on both sides left their Slovakian homeland in 1896 to homestead in Calhan, where a concentration of Czechs settled.

Five generations later, the church and its community remain special, he said.

“All the Orthodox all over the world pray together for peace, for the war to end,” Sakala said. “The crisis over there is terrible, but the church is keeping us strong.”

Ukrainians throughout southern Colorado are sending prayers heavenward, including Colorado Springs resident Svetlana Nudelman, who considers herself spiritual but not religious and is “a big supporter of the power of prayer.”

She, her husband and their two sons left Kyiv in 1991 for America. Nudelman also has daily contact via the internet with cousins and friends who live in Ukraine.

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“It’s unimaginable,” she said. “My devastation comes from knowing as they fight this bloody, unjustified war that more than half still believes Ukraine doesn’t have the right to exist as a country. But not every Russian supports Putin.”

A state-run public opinion poll reported in Russian news last week claimed the level of trust among Russians in Putin increased his approval rating from 60% to 71% in the week after the attack started.

That ordinary Ukrainian citizens are taking up weapons and trying to defend their country is not surprising, Nudelman said.

“My grandpa fought in World War II, where we saw the notion of everybody working together,” she said. “I know people can come together and fight for freedom.”