In the following we document an excerpt from the speech given by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday, August 31, at the opening of the 11th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe:
For the first time in more than 50 years, the World Council of Churches is back in session in Europe. The Ecumenical Council is meeting in Germany for the first time ever. It is impressive: Participants have come from more than 120 countries; they represent 352 churches, from all parts of the world, “from every people under heaven,” as it says at Pentecost in Acts.
Presbyterians from the Hudson River in New York and Presbyterians from the Amazon in Brazil, Anglican Maori from the “land of the great white cloud” and Anglican High Churchers from the green hills of England, Orthodox from the Ethiopian highlands and Zwinglians from the foothills of the Swiss mountains, Reformed, Lutheran and Anglicans from one and the same Johannesburg, Protestant Christians without denominational specification from the small congregations in China, Lutherans from the Usambara Mountains and Reformed from the Bergisches Land, Methodists, Quakers and Mennonites from all quarters, men and women from throughout Orthodoxy.
So it’s almost like that time in Jerusalem, where people from all parts of the known world heard the Christian message and were seized by the Spirit.
This colorful diversity has been one of the essential characteristics of Christianity from the very beginning. It wasn’t uniform from the start; Regional, yes, even national peculiarities appear again and again, in addition to denominational differences. And so Christians also go different ways, which are endured again and again in theological reflection, but also in practical brotherhood.
We all have our own way to go as individuals, but also our communities, our churches are always on the move. We are never finished, never finally arrived. Through the ages, our churches have taken very different paths. In the process, some have occasionally gone astray. Often on bad and dangerous false paths.
I remind you of the murderous hatred of Jews instigated among and by Christians over the centuries, in Germany, but not only here. Fighting back anti-Semitism is one of the great current tasks of the Christian churches all over the world. We need to be aware that anti-Semitism can take many forms. But it always remains a hate ideology with a history of extermination.
The leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church are currently leading their believers and their entire church down a terrible, downright anti-religious and blasphemous aberration. They justify a war of aggression against Ukraine – against their own, against our own brothers and sisters in the faith. This propaganda against the free rights of the citizens of another country, this nationalism, which arbitrarily claims God’s will for the imperial dreams of a dictatorship, must find our opposition, also here in this room, in this assembly.
How many women and men and also children in Ukraine have fallen victim to this agitation, this hatred and this criminal violence!
Carpet bombing and targeted attacks on civilian buildings, apartments, hospitals, shopping malls, train stations and public squares, war crimes that are open to the eyes of the world: there can be no silence here and now either.
We have to say it out loud, we have to accuse it, not least as a Christian community we have to commit ourselves to the dignity, freedom and security of the Ukrainians. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the delegations of the churches from Ukraine once again in a very special and warm way – and I hope that they can take strength and support from this meeting to their long-suffering churches and communities at home.
There are also representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church here today. The fact that they are here is not a matter of course in these times. I expect from this assembly that they will not be spared the truth about this brutal war and criticism of the role of their church leadership. Yes, among Christians it is always about building bridges. This is and remains one of the most important tasks. But building bridges requires willingness on both sides of the river bank; no bridge can be built if one side tears down the buttresses.
But at least there must be dialogue, it was said in the run-up to the General Assembly. Yes, but dialogue is not an end in itself. Dialogue must bring to light what is. Dialogue must address injustice, must name victims as well as perpetrators – and their vicarious agents. On the other hand, a dialogue that is limited to pious wishes and remains vague becomes, at worst, a stage for justification and propaganda.
What dialogue is this about? That is the choice before this assembly, and our German position – I speak here also on behalf of the Federal Government – is clear.
I also want to remind you today that hundreds of Russian Orthodox priests publicly resisted and opposed the war despite threats from Putin’s regime. Today I would also like to address these courageous people, whose example reminds us of the responsibility of religions for peace: Even if you cannot attend and speak to this assembly today – we hear you! May your voice also find an echo in this gathering!
The Russian Orthodox Church leadership has shared in the crimes of the war against Ukraine. This totalitarian ideology disguised as theology has led to the fact that so many religious sites have been completely or partially destroyed in Ukraine up to now: churches, mosques, synagogues, educational and administrative buildings of religious communities. No Christian who still has his faith, his reason and his senses together will be able to recognize God’s will in it.
