In 1934, Karl Barth and other German theologians released the Barmen Declaration to condemn the capitulation of the German Church to Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church adopted the declaration as part of their statement of faith. Those courageous Christians understood clearly what it meant for the church to align itself with Hitler.

A similar situation occurs today. The Russian Orthodox Church, under the leadership of Patriarch Kirill, a close ally of Putin, shamelessly supports the invasion of Ukraine and promotes the lies of Putin’s propaganda. The blood of Orthodox Ukraine is on the Russian Orthodox Church. The Archbishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church correctly called it fratricide.

A declaration was issued on March 13 to do, in 2022, what Karl Barth and Bonhoeffer did in 1934. It has been signed by hundreds of Orthodox clergy and lay persons.

The declaration debunks the false teaching known as “Russkii Mir” or “Russian World,” which provides Putin with a religious “blank cheque” that blesses all his actions in Ukraine and anywhere else he chooses to invade. The Russian Orthodox Church has capitulated to a tyrant, just as the German Church did to Hitler. The declaration calls upon the Russian Church to renounce their partnership with Putin and their heretical doctrine of “Russian World.”

The Russian Orthodox Church has alienated itself from most Orthodox churches in the world and has defiled Lent this year with its enthusiastic support of the ruthless invasion and devastation of Ukraine.

Rev. Constantine Sarantidis
Portland

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