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Former Archbishop of Canterbury Blasts Russian Orthodox Church over Ukraine Invasion
Letter in The Times by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury
'Sir, Last weekend Orthodox Christians in many countries celebrated 'Forgiveness Sunday', the day before Great Lent begins. Many will have hoped to hear from the Orthodox Church in Russia some acknowledgement of the shocking - not to say blasphemous - absurdity of Orthodox Christians engaging, at this season of all seasons, in indiscriminate killing of the innocent, insanely reckless attacks on nuclear facilities (endangering their own homeland as well as the wider environment), the unashamed breach of ceasefire agreements, and an attack on one of the most significant Holocaust memorials in Europe.
It is not too late for the leadership of the Church in Russia to call for (at the very least) a credible ceasefire as Lent begins. Those of us who owe a lasting debt to the thought and witness of Christian Russia through the centuries find it hard to believe that all the moral norms of warfare painstakingly explored by Christians in both East and West from the earliest ages onward have been forgotten.
The Rt Reverend Lord Williams of Oystermouth, Archbishop of Canterbury 2002-2012'
