Translate your church service into Ukrainian

From welcome to belonging

When the Homes for Ukraine scheme began, churches were among the first to offer rooms, lifts to appointments and coats for the winter. Many Ukrainian guests started coming along on Sunday with their hosts. Some found a Ukrainian Greek Catholic or Orthodox parish nearby; many others stayed in the church where they had first been welcomed.

Hospitality gets people through the door, but understanding keeps them there. A guest who has sat through months of sermons in a language she is still learning remains a guest. A live sermon translation into Ukrainian gives her the readings, the prayers and the notices as they happen, in the language in which she thinks and prays. That matters for grandparents who never learned English, and for teenagers who use English at school but want to talk about faith in their own words.

How Ukrainian guests use it

1. 01
   Scan the QR code

   Show it on the screen, print it in the notice sheet or put a card on the welcome table. Hosts can also send the link in a family chat before Sunday.

2. 02
   Choose Українська

   The page opens in the browser, with no account or install. Those who prefer an app can use the iOS ChurchTranslate app.

3. 03
   Listen and read

   With an earbud in, they hear the Ukrainian translation a few seconds after the preacher, and Ukrainian captions run on screen. Anyone who prefers can turn the audio off and just read.

What about Russian?

Many Ukrainians speak Russian as well, and some speak it at home. ChurchTranslate translates into 11 languages, and Russian is not one of them. For a church welcoming Ukrainian refugees, Ukrainian is usually the right choice anyway: it is the language of school, government and, for many, of their faith since the war began. Be honest with guests about this rather than surprising them on the day.

What the church needs

No interpreting kit, no receivers. Your technician broadcasts from a laptop or phone, preferably with audio from the mixing desk. In the church settings you set English as the speaker's language and switch on Ukrainian, plus any other languages your guests need. The guide on refugees and newcomers covers the wider welcome.

How good is the Ukrainian translation?

The translation follows the line of a sermon well, along with prayers and notices. Bible names, quotations and church vocabulary are the hardest part, and the system keeps a terminology list to correct known terms. It is not a trained interpreter: for a funeral, a baptism interview or a pastoral conversation, a human who speaks Ukrainian may still be better. See interpreter or AI translation.

Cost

A 90-minute service into Ukrainian uses 90 credits, whatever the number of listeners. The Lite plan (€65 per month, 480 credits) covers four two-hour services into one language. See the pricing.