The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church faces mounting blowback after expressing support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill, who has also criticized Ukraine and its defenders in the face of aggression, risks losing his place in an international ecumenical council.
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The bishop recently described Ukraine and its defenders as “evil forces” who opposed Ukraine uniting with Russia. “God forbid that the present political situation in fraternal Ukraine so close to us should be aimed at making the evil forces that have always strived against the unity of Rus’ and the Russian Church gain the upper hand,” Kirill said, according to an English translation of his Sunday remarks.
Kirill’s support of Putin has put the Russian Orthodox Church at risk of losing international allies. The World Council of Churches, a fellowship of 352 churches across 120 countries, is under pressure to oust Kirill from its ranks.
While the WCC’s leaders openly criticized Kirill’s decision to support the war in a Monday statement on the council’s website, they appeared unwilling to oust the entire Russian Orthodox Church due to the expulsion being a deviation from the organization’s goals.
“It is easy to exclude, excommunicate, demonize; but we are called as WCC to use a free and safe platform of encounter and dialogue, to meet and listen to one another even if and when we disagree,” said Rev. Ioan Sauca, the acting secretary-general of the WCC.
That doesn’t mean Kirill is in the clear, however. Only the council’s central committee can expel a member denomination, a spokesperson told Religion News Service. The committee is scheduled to meet between June 15 and June 18.
Several religious leaders are already attempting to make the case that expulsion is a good idea. Czech pastor Pavel Cerny, the former chairman of the Council of Churches in the Czech Republic, argued in a March 26 opinion piece that the ROC should not be allowed to be a part of the WCC due to its complicit support of Russia and the history of ROC leaders being connected to the KGB.
Rev. Rob Schenk, the president of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, is also organizing an effort among the WCC’s member denominations to press for a vote to exclude Kirill from leadership. Schenk posted an online petition to promote the ousting of Kirill and the ROC from the WCC.
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Expulsions from the WCC are rare, the council’s spokesperson noted. The WCC’s constitution states that the central committee can expel a denomination for one of three reasons: if the church requests it, if the “basis of” or the “theological criteria” has not been maintained by the church, or if the church has “persistently neglected” its membership responsibilities.
Kirill has regularly expressed approval of Putin over the years, but the patriarch has taken center stage, with the bishop laying down a spiritual justification for the conflict.
Although the bishop has avoided terms such as “war” (which is in line with Putin calling the campaign a “special military operation”), Kirill expressed approval for the invasion and blessed the troops traveling there. He has also spread dubious claims of an eight-year genocide in the Donbas region and that the Ukrainian population wanted to force gay pride events upon Donbas’s residents.
The bishop wrote a March 10 letter to the WCC, claiming the attack on Ukraine was justified due to NATO’s enlargement, the need to protect the Russian language, and the establishment of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate.
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More than 360 Ukrainian clergymen also signed a letter published on Sunday accusing Kirill of “moral crimes” for endorsing the Russian invasion. “Our position is fully consistent with the Gospel and the church tradition,” they said. “Defending the homeland from the enemy is one of the main Christian virtues.”
Other church leaders have expressed interest in reaching out to Kirill. Pope Francis is considering meeting with Kirill in June, according to Reuters.
