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View from Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra across the Dnipro river on the residential suburbs in Kyiv, Ukraine. Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery and cave complex is one of the largest such historical and cultural preserves in Eastern Europe.

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In the article, Prove highlights discussions at the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe last year, which denounced Russias war against Ukraine as illegal, unjustifiable, and incompatible with Gods very nature and will for humanity and against our fundamental Christian and ecumenical principles,” and rejected the misuse of religious language and authority to justify armed aggression and hatred.”

At the same time, the assembly observed that WCC has a critical role to play in accompanying its member churches in the region and as a platform and safe space for encounter and dialogue in order to address the many pressing issues for the world and for the ecumenical movement arising from this conflict.”

Based on the developments last year, the article observes that there is a chance that ecumenical peacebuilding could in 2023 build upon the kind of humanitarian dialogue that produced the Black Sea Grain Initiative—focusing on the humanitarian consequences of conflict—and add a further dimension focusing on some fundamental conflict drivers.

Given the fundamental issues of moral reference and identity that are in conflict and the salience of religion in this context, the WCCs role may have a particular significance in the search for a peace that is more than the mere absence of conflict,” writes Prove. Moreover, the ‘stress test’ of the WCCs recent assembly gives a sufficient minimum basis on which to proceed.”

The Geneva Policy Outlook is a partnership between the Swiss Confederation, the Republic and State of Geneva, the City of Geneva, the Fondation pour Genève, and Geneva Graduate Institute which seeks to provide strategic analysis, to promote cooperation and problem solving on critical global governance issues, and to nurture nuanced practical and forward-looking perspectives to help to address global challenges.

Geneva Policy Outlook 2023 has brought together a community of senior strategic thinkers and practitioners, including global networks of the Geneva Graduate Institute and a variety of actors based in Geneva working on global challenges. Its new digital publication explores Genevas global policy space with a focus on how our current knowledge about the future should shape our behaviour and decisions today.

Read the full article Ecumenical peacebuilding: Collision or convergence in Ukraine?”