On May 3, 2023, the Villigst Evangelical Academy organized the webinar “Orthodox Churches at War: Hope for Peace?” As speakers were invited Sergii Bortnyk and Regina Elsner.
In his presentation, Sergii Bortnyk analyzed the reaction of churches on the war in Ukraine, gave examples of some models of church-state relations in the history of Orthodoxy, and considered the possibility of civil disobedience from the point of view of church documents.
One of the leading ideas of the presentation was the possible help of the international church institutions (in particular, Vatican and the World Council of Churches) due to the typical for them “over the conflict” model instead of the “symphony” model of the churches, typical for Eastern Europe. The basis of such a concept, which can help make a church contribution to the reconciliation of the parties in the current war, is the perspective of St. Augustine of Hippo, which he described in his large-scale work “De civitate Dei”.
Here you can read the presentation of Sergii Bortnyk in German – https://www.academic-initiative.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/SB_orthodoxe_kirchen_im_krieg
You can view the video version of the presentation on the page of the Villigst Evangelical Academy – https://www.kircheundgesellschaft.de/institut/evangelische-akademie-villigst/