World Council of Churches urges Russian Orthodox Church leader to speak out on Ukraine invasion
The World Council of Churches has urged the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to “raise up your voice” and “mediate” so that President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “can be stopped and the great suffering ended.”
“The whole world is looking with concern and expects to see a sign of hope for a peaceful solution,” the Rev. Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the ecumenical World Council of Churches, wrote in a letter to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the leader of more than 100 million Russian Orthodox Christians.
According to the United Nations, at least 752 civilian casualties had occurred across Ukraine since the invasion began Feb. 24, with 227 killed and 525 injured, including scores of children, as of Sunday.
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The Ukrainian State Emergency Service says over 2,000 civilians have been killed since the invasion began, The Washington Post reported, adding that more than 9,000 Russian soldiers had died in the fighting, as of Friday, according to Ukraine’s military.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, has opened an investigation into alleged war crimes by Russia in Ukraine, a predominantly Orthodox Christian country.
More than 1 million people had fled Ukraine to neighboring countries including Poland, Romania, Moldova and Hungary, according to The Guardian.
“Ukraine, with twice the population of Syria and three times its territory, could generate over 10 million refugees and internally displaced people in the coming months and years,” as per an op-ed in Foreign Policy.
In his letter, Sauca, who is also an Orthodox priest, wrote, “In these times of hopelessness, many look at you as the one who could bring a sign of hope for a peaceful solution. Please, raise up your voice and speak on behalf of the suffering brothers and sisters, most of whom are also faithful members of our Orthodox Church.”
Referring to the Lenten season, Sauca added: “While celebrating these spiritual moments, with filial respect and consideration, I write to Your Holiness to intervene and mediate with the authorities to stop this war, the bloodshed and the suffering, and to make efforts to bring peace through dialogue and negotiations.”
Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the president of Poland’s Catholic bishops’ conference, has also urged Patriarch Kirill, who is believed to be close to Putin, to speak to the Russian president to stop the war in Ukraine.
“I ask you, Brother, to appeal to Vladimir Putin to stop the senseless warfare against the Ukrainian people, in which innocent people are being killed and suffering is affecting not only soldiers but civilians as well — especially women and children,” the archbishop wrote, Catholic News Agency reported.
“One man can stop the suffering of thousands of people with one word — that man is the President of the Russian Federation. I ask you most humbly to call for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the sovereign state that is Ukraine,” Gądecki added.
“No reason, no rationale can ever justify the decision to launch a military invasion of an independent country, bombing residential areas, schools, or kindergartens. War is always a defeat for humanity.”
As tensions were simmering between Russia and Ukraine before the invasion, a Christian radio broadcaster in Ukraine had called on Christians in the two neighboring countries to unite.
In a recent interview with The Christian Post, Daniel Johnson, who runs an Evangelical broadcasting organization providing Christian radio throughout Russia at a time when the government has stifled broadcasts operated by Evangelical Christians, elaborated on the situation on the ground and its implications for people of faith living in Ukraine.
“Christians are … hoping that the Russians don’t come too far because churches will definitely be shut down in the areas that they take over because … that’s their practice and that’s their history,” Johnson, the founder of the New Life Radio satellite network who is based in Odessa, Ukraine, said.
Johnson attributed some of the division in the region to the schism between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
“Tanks are rolling down from Russia, Russian Orthodox priests are blessing the tanks,” he said. “The Ukrainian Orthodox priests are blessing the Ukrainian soldiers to fight against Russia, so it’s a tragic scene where two brother faiths, Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox, have completely sided on the national goals of their one country.”
“They are not acting like they are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, first and foremost, but rather, they represent nationalism. And that’s not who we are as Christians,” he lamented. “Our ultimate loyalty is to Christ and His Kingdom rather than the nationality of the land we happen to find ourselves in. And that’s not something that the Orthodox Church is not able to accommodate. … It’s a tragedy that that does not happen.”
International Christian relief groups Samaritans’ Purse and World Help are among the organizations standing alongside the Ukrainian Church to provide aid to victims.
