On July 4, 2026, at the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Birobidzhan, Jewish Autonomous Region, Bishop Luke of Birobidzhan and Kuldura performed the sacrament of Baptism for fourteen children whose military fathers died or went missing during their military service.
The initiative to be baptized came from the children themselves, participants in the "Summer with Friends" project. This is an 18-day spiritual and psychological rehabilitation program for bereaved children. The project is organized by the regional Committee of Families of Soldiers of the Fatherland (KSVO) with the support of a grant from the Governor of the EAO Maria Kostyuk and is being implemented under the guidance of an expert of the KSVO, head of the Center for Crisis Psychology Mikhail Khasminsky. While talking with the children, it turned out that some of them were not baptized. The children themselves wanted to be baptized, and this initiative found full support. Vladyka Luke gave his blessing, and Governor Maria Kostyuk expressed her willingness to become a godmother.
Maria Kostyuk became the godmother of the grandson of Viktor Domanov, the head of the KSVO EAO. Irina Pinchuk, Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Jewish Autonomous Region, Vasily Mikhailenko, head of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the EAO, Sergey Seregin, Chairman of the Public Chamber of the EAO, and others also became godparents. The regional government and the Ministry of Internal Affairs helped with transportation.
"Unfortunately, these children do not have their fathers — they died or went missing defending their country. But we have done everything to give them spiritual fathers. So that they can find support and support in God with the help of their godparents and continue to walk through life with their heads held high. There have been mass baptisms, of course. But for children whose fathers gave their lives for their homeland to be baptized at the same time, and for the first persons of the region to become godparents — this has never happened in Russia. The whole region has united for this event," said Mikhail Khasminsky, head of the Center for Crisis Psychology.:
The Governor of the EAO, Maria Kostyuk, noted that she personally knows all the godparents and considers them the best people in the region. "As Vladyka said, today is your most wonderful birthday, a real one. You have new spiritual parents," the governor added. 
Bishop Luke noted in his sermon that children who lost their fathers found their Heavenly Father and godparents through baptism: "This human compassion for young children shows the caring nature of people who are able to perceive someone else's tragedy as their own misfortune and lend a strong spiritual shoulder to those in need."
The baptism, which took place on the eve of the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, became one of the most important events of the Far Eastern District Forum of the Far Eastern Military District. The Forum brought together representatives of the regions of the Far East in the EAO to discuss support for SVO fighters and their families — issues of helping veterans, perpetuating the memory of defenders, implementing socially significant projects and operating mobile reception centers in the regions.