CEC Programme Officer for Theology and Studies, Ms Katerina Pekridou highlighted European churches’ struggles for peace and reconciliation in Ukraine at a dialogue event in Paris. She presented the statement on Ukraine made by the CEC General Assembly last year, and the recent CEC leadership solidarity visit to Ukraine, aimed at strengthening relations and peacebuilding.
She also introduced to the participants CEC initiative Pathways to Peace, which serves as a coordinated response of the European churches to the war in Ukraine.
The event held on 4 June was organised by the Politics and Religions research department of the Collège des Bernardins, in collaboration with Pax Christi, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the Greek Catholic Church in Benelux and the Christian Institute d'Orient.
The meeting invoked discussion on churches’ contribution to truth, justice and peace in Ukraine, and how to end the crisis based on religious and ecumenical dialogue.
Among other speakers were Jérôme Dartiguenave of the Christian Institute of the Orient and the Œuvre d’Orient; Oleg Davydov, theologian, Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate; Father Sergui Dmytriev, military chaplain, of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; Father Michel Dymyd, professor at the Catholic University of Ukraine in Lviv; and Ségolène Mykolenko of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Eparchy in France.