A chance meeting becomes a chance calling when O.C. pastor accepts special mission
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Traveling can be challenging enough on any given day, but when one’s carry-on baggage contains sensitive contents that sets off alerts in security, it becomes a whole new experience.
The Rev. Canon Cindy Voorhees of St. James Episcopal Church in Newport Beach, who was transporting the ashes of a deceased Ukrainian woman from the U.S. to Ukraine, was caught up in more than one such a scenario this fall.
After Russia invaded Ukraine and the war began in February 2022, St. James immediately gave its support to Ukrainian refugees. Within a month of the invasion, the church posted a large banner on its campus bearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag and the words “Pray for Ukraine.” Later the same year, Voorhees journeyed to the battle-weary country to lend a hand wherever she could.
The recent adventure of accompanying human remains to Ukraine started when Voorhees was on a trip to a Lakota reservation in South Dakota to scout it out as a potential mission trip for the church’s youth members.
“It was on our way back when my traveling companion, Tamara Copeland, our youth group chaplain, began chatting with her seatmate about Ukraine as the plane was descending in Denver,” Voorhees recalled. “Tamara told the woman that I had been to Ukraine and that I was going back there soon.”
Since they had been sitting across the aisle from Voorhees, the pastor didn’t hear any of the conversation and was unaware the Ukrainian woman was a captain in the U.S. Air Force.
Heading down the ramp into the airport, Voorhees felt a tug on her sweater. When she turned around she saw that it was the passenger who had been seated next to Copeland.
“She asked if she could talk to me, and I said ‘yes’ as I looked at Tamara, who nodded it was OK,” Voorhees said. “She kept saying, ‘I’m not crazy, ”I’m not crazy’ and that she wanted to ask me something.”
The woman, whom Voorhees identifies as “Capt. Julia,” explained that she had moved her mother to the U.S. to take care of her when she became ill and that her mother had died two years ago. “She then asked me right there on the exit ramp if I would take her mother’s ashes with me if I were to go back to Ukraine,” Voorhees said.
Capt. Julia, whose real name is not being used out of concern for her safety, explained to Voorhees that as an American military officer she couldn’t herself travel to Ukraine for security reasons.
“ I told her I would be honored [to help out] and she said she would arrange all the paperwork for the transport of the ashes,” Voorhees said. “Capt. Julia was convinced that God had arranged our chance meeting. It was how to get the ashes to me, that came next.”
A month later, when Voorhees was scheduled to return to Denver for a retreat, she contacted the captain to arrange to meet her there to pick up the ashes rather than asking her to travel to Orange County to deliver them.
“Capt. Julia drove to the Denver airport, where she met me in baggage claim,” said Voorhees. “There she was at the bottom of the escalator as I was coming downstairs and, with Denver being such a huge airport, I couldn’t believe it was that easy.”
Voorhees noticed the captain seemed hesitant to hand over her mother’s ashes and asked if she could walk the reverend to her car. The retreat leader who was picking up Voorhees at the airport had no idea what was going on when she witnessed the exchange of the urn on the sidewalk and saw the two women hugging.
“When I told Lisa Jimenez, the retreat leader, that I had Capt. Julia’s mother’s ashes and was taking them back to Ukraine, both women started crying,” Voorhees said. “It was very emotional.”
Returning home to Orange County following the retreat, with ashes in tow, Voorhees found herself detained in the security line.
““Are these ashes?’ was the response from the TSA agent when they scanned the black velvet bag in the plastic tray,” said Voorhees. ““Sorry, but we must wipe them down. Take them out of the bag,’ they instructed, as they removed the beautiful and very heavy wooden box with the laser cut eagle on the front, and continued to say, ‘sorry for your loss,’”
The September travel to Ukraine, included four more checkpoints, at Los Angeles International, Denver, Frankfort and Warsaw, raising the level of emotional sentiment that accompanied the increased scrutiny from security agents.
“The drive is 12 hours to Kyiv [from Warsaw]; people don’t realize there are no flights [into the city], “ Voorhees said. “Capt. Julia’s best friend, Katya, came that night and picked up the ashes to take them to their final resting place. This was very emotional for Katya, [who] helped her friend close down her mother’s estate because the captain was not allowed to come home during the war.”
Capt. Julia couldn’t believe after two years of holding her mother’s ashes that her mother was finally home.
Copeland, the St. James youth group pastor, was the bridge to the humanitarian mission. She recalled the moment that the captain’s eyes lit up after hearing about the St. James’ connection to Ukraine.
“When I told [Capt. Julia] we are part of the Americans who are here to support Ukrainians, she said, ‘I need to meet her, I’m in the military,”” Copeland said. “It was a beautiful moment, good to be at the right place at the right time and do the right thing.”
