In the current situation, it is important to clarify the theological understanding of such a phenomenon as war.
Acting General Secretary of the World Council of Churches Archpriest Ioan Sauca emphasized this during a meeting with Moscow Patriarch Kirill in Moscow.
Ioan Sauca suggested that it would be beneficial for inter-church relations today if Patriarch Kirill offered his understanding of the topic, including what can be considered a holy war from the theological point of view, what can be the grounds for participating in hostilities, and what is the meaning of self-sacrifice of soldiers on a battlefield, Orthodoxia News Agency reports.
Archpriest Ioan Sauca also touched on the topic of calls made by a number of members of the World Council of Churches to exclude the Russian Orthodox Church from the organization.
“When this proposal was put to the vote, all members of the Central Committee unanimously voted to keep the Russian Orthodox Church in the family of the World Council of Churches, but also to continue the dialogue, in particular, on the theological arguments and support for the war, which, according to some, were declared in some of your sermons and speeches,” said Sauca.
The interlocutors emphasized that “some people, without fully quoting the speeches of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill, take individual phrases from them, using them to construct accusations against the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.”
In turn, Patriarch Kirill highly praised the work of the XI General Assembly of the World Council of Churches. “It was not simple, there were critical issues, and one of them was related to the Russian Orthodox Church: there were demands that the Russian Church be excluded from the World Council of Churches,” Patriarch Kirill recalled. “However, nothing like that happened.”
