Sergii Bortnyk spoke at the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches

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From August 31. to September 8., the regular 11th assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) was held in Karlsruhe, Germany. At the invitation of the organizers, Sergii Bortnyk took part in it and spoke at the plenary session.

The World Council of Churches was founded in 1948 and is a fellowship of 352 churches from more than 120 countries, representing over 580 million Christians worldwide. For the first time in the history of WCC, the Assembly was held in Germany, and the address of the President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a significant part of which was devoted to the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war, caused a wide resonance both among the participants of the assembly and among the general public (see the text of his address in English here).

Sergii Bortnyk spoke on September 2. as part of a session devoted to the situation in Europe with a special emphasis on Ukraine (see the text of his speech in English here, it is also posted on the website of the WCC here). In particular, he emphasized: “The idea of imperial greatness and a glorious past caused the death of many thousands of Ukrainians, and the destruction of many cities. Over the past six months, millions of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their country”. He also talked about changes in the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and about the activities of the “Academic Initiative” foundation.

Besides, Sergii Bortnyk gave a number of interviews for the mass media of Germany, France, Switzerland and the USA, he had a number of conversations with the leadership of the World Council of Churches, the Protestant Church of Germany and others. The document “War in Ukraine, peace and justice in the European region” was also adopted within the framework of the work of the WCC Assembly (see its English version here).

31 August 2022, Karlsruhe, Germany: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal President of Germany and Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, visited the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, where they met with Ukrainian delegates and discussed the situation in Ukraine.
31 August 2022, Karlsruhe, Germany: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier meets with a group of Ukrainian church leaders during a visit to the opening day of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, Germany. He was accompanied by Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, Mayor Frank Mentrup of Karlsruhe, the Rev. Dr. Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the WCC, and Dr. Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee.
2 September 2022, Karlsruhe, Germany: Professor Dr Sergii Bortnyk (Ukraine) speaks during a thematic plenary focused on Europe, at the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August to 8 September, under the theme “Christ’s Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity.”
2 September 2022, Karlsruhe, Germany: Archbishop Dr Anders Wejryd (left) of Church of Sweden leads a conversation with H.E. Archbishop Yevstratiy of Chernihiv and Nizhiyn (Ukraine) (right) and Professor Dr Sergii Bortnyk (Ukraine) (center) during a thematic plenary focused on Europe, at the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August to 8 September, under the theme “Christ’s Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity.”