The efforts of the World Council of Churches to bring together representatives from Russia and Ukraine at a congress in Karlsruhe were initially unsuccessful. “We have no contact with them,” says Archbishop Yevstraty (Zorya) of Chernihiv and Nizhyn of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. There are also no signs that the Russian side wants a dialogue.
His delegation is ready for talks as long as they don’t just hear Kremlin propaganda. The World Council of Churches (WCC) – a fellowship of around 350 Christian churches representing more than 580 million people worldwide – meets until Thursday. At the start on Wednesday, WCC general secretary Ioan Sauca said it wanted to be a platform for delegates from Russia and Ukraine to meet and talk.