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“#Kirill has presented the conflict not as an invasion of #Ukraine but as a global, historic battle over values, with #Russia the last bastion against an immoral west that gives licence, for example, to ‘gay parades‘. He said ‘God’s truth‘ was on Russia’s side.“ pic.twitter.com/F7XehYkXjs

— Peter ?️‍??️‍⚧️???? #СлаваУкраїні (@PeterNHerold) April 18, 2022

COGwriter

Orthodox Easter is this Sunday. Here is something that the United Nations wants a cease-fire in Ukraine:

April 20, 2022

As Russia ramped up its war on Ukraine with a focus on capturing the Donbas region, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called for a four-day “humanitarian pause” later this week, leading up to when Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter.

“Today I am calling for a four-day Holy Week humanitarian pause beginning on Holy Thursday and running through Easter Sunday, April 24th, to allow for the opening of a series of humanitarian corridors,” Guterres said in front of Non-Violence, the knotted gun statue outside U.N. headquarters in New York City. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/calls-grow-orthodox-easter-ceasefire-ukraine-refugees-surpass-5-million

Ecumenical News reported the following:

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is believed to be one man that President Vladimir Putin might listen to if a peace plea is made to him to call a halt to the war, if only temporary …

Whether warning about the “external enemies” attempting to divide the “united people” of Russia and Ukraine, or publicly blessing the generals leading soldiers in the field, Patriarch Kirill has become one of the war’s most prominent backers, said the Post.

“His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that President Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.”

World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Ioan Sauca wrote to Kirill on Aprill 19 urging him to “intervene and ask publicly for a ceasefire for at least few hours during the Resurrection service.”

“I am aware that it is not in your power and authority to stop the war or to influence those who have such powers of decisions. But the faithful are waiting for a comforting word from Your Holiness,” said Sauca, a Romanian Orthodox church member.

“They think that if you come out with a public statement and request, as the spiritual father of so many millions of Orthodox in both Russia and Ukraine, that might have an impact.” …

The Russian Orthodox is the biggest Orthodox church in the WCC, which has more than half a billion Christians from Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox traditions worldwide as its members. 04/19/22 https://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/moscow-patriarch-who-backs-putin-gets-another-plea-from-world-council-of-churches-to-intervene-for-a-ceasefire-in-ukraine/60999.htm

The WCC used to be an ally of Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Russian Church blamed the Patriarch of Constantinople for causing a schism between the Eastern and Russian Orthodox churches in October 2018 (see Schism: Russian Orthodox meet with Vatican regarding Constantinople). That still has ramifications today.

The Vatican had been an ally of Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church, Pope Francis has been an ally of Vladimir Putin (see Russia’s Putin and Pope Francis both kiss Marian icon). Pope Francis wants ecumenical unity with the Russian Orthodox, so this military conflict was one of the reasons that Pope Francis decided to “consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” last month (see also Gendron on Ukrainian and Papal Marianism).

Notice the following Microsoft put up from the Washington Post regarding Patriarch Kirill:

In October 2015, Russia’s newly launched military intervention in defense of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received a clerical blessing. Patriarch Kirill, the powerful leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, declared the operation “a responsible decision to use military forces to protect the Syrian people from the woes brought on by the tyranny of terrorists.”

Seven years later, Kirill and his loyal clergy now deliver sermons about their country’s role in another righteous, holy battle. It doesn’t matter that many Ukrainians weathering the brunt of the Russian war machine are Kirill’s co-congregants — there are some 12,000 parishes in Ukraine subject to the church in Moscow. …

“We have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance,” the patriarch said in a sermon on March 6.

Kirill went on, claiming God was on Russia’s side and expanding his critique of Western liberalism: “Today there is a test for the loyalty to this new world order, a kind of pass to that ‘happy’ world, the world of excess consumption, the world of false ‘freedom,’ ” he said. “Do you know what this test is? The test is very simple and at the same time terrible — it is the gay pride parade.”

You may be wondering what LGBT rights have to do with the bloody war in Ukraine. But Kirill has long framed Russian geopolitical challenges in these terms, as the conflict between a conservative, culturally virtuous Russia and a debauched, immoral West. His messaging has undergirded the more secular positions of the Kremlin, helped shape Putin’s own post-Soviet nationalist project and now adds a gloss of legitimacy to a stumbling Russian war effort.

“Any war has to have guns and ideas,” Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm, told my colleagues. “In this war, the Kremlin has provided the guns, and I believe the church is providing the ideas.”

As my colleague Jeanne Whalen outlined, Kirill is in particular credited with propagating the doctrine known as “Russkiy mir,” or “Russian world.” It invokes a vision of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as one nation united by a shared founding history of settlement by Volga Vikings and the 10th century conversion to Orthodox Christianity. Much of that hallowed history, it so happens, took place in locations that are in Ukraine.

“To some ears, this dogma might sound peaceful and inclusive, but critics say Russia is using it to reassert dominance over territory it controlled during the Russian Empire and Soviet Union,” Whalen explained. …

Kirill has explicitly urged Russians to back their government. As Putin’s rule entered an all-the-more repressive phase in recent weeks, the patriarch called for public support for the Kremlin so it can “repel its enemies, both external and internal.” …

So-called “anti-imperialist” leftists in the West often value Putin’s Russia as a counterweight to Washington’s designs as a global hegemon. But the illiberal religiosity underlying the autocrat’s strongman rule has also made Putin a somewhat popular figure among American evangelicals and the religious right. 04/18/22? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-christian-nationalism-behind-putin-s-war/ar-AAWlQGp accessed 04/20/22

As far as the Putin Administration goes, it has been consistently supporting the idea of biblical marriage as well as not pushing the LGBTQ agenda. Vladimir Putin has been the most powerful political leader in the world to take a stand against several parts of the LGBTQ+ agenda, vulgarity (see Russia’s Vladimir Putin takes a stand against vulgar language), and some other sins that plague Western society. Patriarch Kirill is aware of this.

Vladimir Putin believes that he is standing for traditional Russian Orthodox values.

That being said, politics plays a massive role in what is happening between Russia and Ukraine.

But religion is also involved. And historically, political leaders have long invoked religion when it comes to military conflict.

Both military conflict (see Military Service and the Churches of God: Do Real Christians Participate in Carnal Warfare or Encourage Violence?) and the LGBTQ agenda (see The Bible Condemns Homosexuality) are opposed to true Christianity.

Pray to the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) for God’s Kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10).

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Religious News.

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