How do you explain to children, as the wailing of sirens tell them to rush into the metro stations night after terrifying night, filled with anxiety and fear, why the Russian president is escalating his attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine?
Or why the American president this week ordered a halt to the transfer of critical air defense missiles and other weapons to Ukraine?
Cause and effect are clear as daylight for the children. This week has seen some of the heaviest attacks so far in the 1226 day-long of war. Russia has recently been unleashing nearly 500 drones each night, both decoys and explosive-laden.
“We live each day as if it could be our last,” wrote one of our YWAM leaders in Kyiv this week. “And all that remains is to pray, to believe, to hold on…and to hope for God’s miracle, His protection, and mercy, which He alone can give — even in the midst of darkness.”
Dutch and German intelligence sources also reported this week that Russia is escalating the use of banned chemical weapons as psychological warfare, forcing Ukrainian soldiers from dugouts and trenches with gas grenades dropped by drones.
Yet strong words coupled with weak actions earn the contempt of the Kremlin towards the Oval Office. Political ambiguity and neutrality in the face of war crimes and mass atrocities create a moral vacuum. Painfully obvious to Ukrainian children this week, silence and inaction embolden the oppressor, encourage impunity and deepen the wounds of the oppressed.
Sadly, western politicians feel hampered in speaking freely their inner thoughts out of fear of offending a White House obsessed with power, profit and propaganda rather than justice, mercy and truth.
Yet neutrality enables aggression. Neutrality abandons the victim. Neutrality undermines the rule of law. Neutrality fuels cynicism and injustice elsewhere. Neutrality fails the test of history which judges those who stood by in silence.
So who will speak out and stir a global moral conscience?
Realising that faith must speak where politics falters and that silence is complicity, the Ukrainian faith communities, organised under the umbrella of the All Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations (AUCCRO) called last week for faith communities worldwide to pray, advocate and act in solidarity with Ukraine and all who suffer from violence and injustice.
They asked ‘not for weapons but for solidarity; not for sympathy, but for a response; not for a kind word, but for moral and spiritual leadership’.
As reported last week, plans are under way for a global, interfaith online zoom meeting with up to 1000 observers, and others following live-streaming on YouTube, with the goal of stirring moral conscience.
This zoom event, in English and Ukrainian, will take place on July 17, at 16.00 in Kyiv, 15.00 in Amsterdam, 09.00 in Washington on a link to be announced this coming week by the AUCCRO (and in next week’s Weekly Word).
July 17 is International Criminal Justice Day and commemorates the establishment of ths International Criminal Court and promotes awareness of it work and significance. A spokesperson for the ICC will be invited to participate and explain the importance of upholding international law and prosecuting war crimes.
Leaders of each member organisation of the AUCCRO will participate in the online gathering, including the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine, the Pentecostal Churches of Ukraine, the Jewish communities and Muslims of Ukraine.
‘Tormented Ukraine’
The Vatican will also be represented in the online meeting, following on from last weekend’s address by Pope Leo XIV to 4000 pilgrims of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church visiting Rome (photo above). He told them:
The faith of your people is now being sorely tested. Many of you, since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine began, have surely asked: Lord, why all this? Where are you? What must we do to save our families, our homes and our homeland? To believe does not mean to have all the answers, but to trust that God is with us and gives us His grace, that He will have the last word, and life will conquer death.
I would like to express my closeness to tormented Ukraine, to the children, the young people, the elderly and, in a special way, to the families who mourn their loved ones. I share your sorrow for the prisoners and victims of this senseless war. I encourage you to walk together, pastors and faithful, keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, our salvation.
We are all invited to encourage our faith networks, prayer networks, those engaged in bringing humanitarian aid to Ukraine, to join in solidarity with our suffering Ukrainian brothers and sisters on July 17.
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil – Dietrich Boenhoffer
Till next week,
