During a Global Peace Prayer on 22 March, Christians across the world drew together to pray for peace in a broken world, and to listen to voices from people suffering in Ukraine and other conflict-ridden areas.
In a letter to H.H. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia on 19 April, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca urged Patriarch Kirill to “intervene and ask publicly for a ceasefire for at least few hours during the Resurrection service.”
The world’s Orthodox Christians drew together in prayer, in small groups, in cathedrals and churches, or at home with loved ones, ringing a traditional Orthodox Easter greeting in an especially challenging year: “Christ is risen! Indeed, Christ is risen!”
Established more than 600 years ago, the Sretensky monastery in the centre of Moscow was a place of imprisonment and execution of those persecuted for their political or religious beliefs during repressive Soviet times.
The visit of the pope to the World Council of Churches (WCC) has special significance, given the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa, where Christians are suffering persecution, says a member of WCC’s senior governing body.
Two officials of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been visiting the WCC Central Committee during its June 2016 meeting in Trondheim, Norway, reporting on the day-to-day challenges of spiritual life amid social tensions and national strife.
