WCC Assembly Reflection: the Ukraine War and Ecumenism
The theme for the World Council of Church’s 11th Assembly, ‘Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity’ became a pertinent challenge in today’s world. Unforeseen when the theme was set was Covid and its impact, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The invasion weighed heavily on the Assembly, as indeed it has rippled through international ecumenical, political and economic networks. The war impacts the host region Europe, the host country Germany and member churches. Some delegates challenged the Assembly’s focus on a European war amidst the many other places of war or geopolitical tensions threatening war. But to be fair, the Busan 10th Assembly also clearly engaged the realities of the divided Korean Peninsula, with peace and reconciliation for the whole of Korea remaining a key emphasis of WCC.
There have been calls for the Russian Orthodox to be expelled from WCC membership because of the church leaders clearly supporting Putin’s war. Nevertheless, WCC affirmed that dialogue cannot happen when people are excluded from the room. Further, a special delegation from Ukrainian churches was brought to the Assembly to ensure dialogue and that their voices were heard.
The Ukraine war was clearly on the surface of many personal encounters between attendees at the Assembly. During the Assembly my own diverse moments included sitting in conversation with Russian Orthodox members, Ukrainians whose home towns had been overrun by the Russians and subsequently liberated, Germans who were hosting Ukrainian refugees in their homes, and people concerned about the war’s effect on the cost of energy and heating in their coming winter.
But the concern for the war at the Assembly goes beyond its impact on the host country and region. I believe the key aspect for WCC is that this war is between two Orthodox Christian countries; and this reaches back into the foundations of WCC.
WCC’s first Assembly in 1948 was in war-torn Europe, hosted in Amsterdam. The theme of that formational Assembly reflected that war and divisions signify human disorder and are not of God's design. Most of the European countries involved in the two World Wars were Christian countries; some had invoked extreme nationalism and even fascism, including with the explicit support of some churches.
How much does the division of the church feed into the division of nations? Where the healing of division between churches represents something of God’s vision of peace, how might our pilgrimage for justice and peace in the world necessitate our own soul-searching? Much of the foundational ethos of WCC’s work is therefore to overcome divisions between churches.
Over history our frequent flaw to God’s Kingdom is to generate discord, division, injustice and violence against fellow humans – even against fellow Christians whom we perceive as different from ourselves and judge to be ‘outside the norms’.
To this end, WCC has a longstanding engagement to promote a theology of Just Peace, and to counter any expression of a Just War. WCC critiques of the Russian Orthodox leadership include challenging its nationalistic ideology and ‘just war’ theology. From the opening speech of the Assembly, given by the German Federal President, through to the Assembly’s official statement on the war, the Russian delegation were under no illusion as to the message they were asked to take back to their church leadership.
Nationalism is a growing concern in many parts of the world, and as Christians we cannot speak into that sphere without addressing our own Christian nationalistic theologies and expressions. Indeed, most of the German keynote speakers directly referenced their own church history and its complicity with religious nationalism aligned to Nazism.
The gift of God to the church and to the world is a love through which we might overcome our false boundaries and violent exclusions - to inspire, move and create all that is possible for people’s lives to flourish; to be a sign of God’s love for the diversity of the world and all of creation. For the church this is grounded in a love that invokes a renewal which counters retrenchment and division, and moves towards unity across the rich beauty of our Christian diversity.
The Statement by the Assembly on the war in Ukraine can be accessed online: