Dialogue or Confession?: Ecumenical Responsibility and the War in Ukraine

While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been overwhelmingly condemned by the churches of the world, the support of the Russian Orthodox Church for the war poses difficult questions to the ecumenical community: in particular, whether that church’s support for the war and the extreme nationalist pol...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Clements, Keith 1943- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2023
In: Journal of Anglican studies
Year: 2023, Volume: 21, Issue: 2, Pages: 246-259
IxTheo Classification:CG Christianity and Politics
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBK Europe (East)
KDF Orthodox Church
KDJ Ecumenism
Further subjects:B Russian Orthodox
B Dialogue
B Confessing Church
B WCC
B Ecumenism
B Bonhoeffer
B Ukraine
B War
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Summary:While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been overwhelmingly condemned by the churches of the world, the support of the Russian Orthodox Church for the war poses difficult questions to the ecumenical community: in particular, whether that church’s support for the war and the extreme nationalist policies of President Putin constitute grounds for suspending it from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and other ecumenical bodies. The current ecumenical emphasis upon ‘dialogue’ acts as a deterrent to such action, but the WCC describes itself as a fellowship of churches that confess Christ as God and Saviour and therefore supreme over all other authorities. There are parallels with previous challenges in ecumenical history, most particularly 1930s Germany and the stand of the Confessing Church. While dialogue has its own importance the prime ecumenical commitment in conflict situations is to confess Christ, whatever the risks of division that this incurs.
ISSN:1745-5278
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Anglican studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S1740355323000451