SEARCH Journal

THE RUSSIAN invasion of Ukraine has returned war to the European continent. More than four million Ukrainians became refugees in the first five weeks of the conflict, with millions more internally displaced. Thousands of civilians have been killed thus far, accompanied by the indiscriminate targeting of residential and non-military infrastructure such as a children’s hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol. The discovery of murdered civilians in the town of Bucha, roughly 25 kilometres from the capital city of Kyiv, illustrated the degree of atrocity strewn across the Ukrainian state. With conflicts of this nature, the Christian Churches have a role to play. While this role may not be immediately clear in the context of military aggression, the Churches hold considerable public and private influence in guiding political leadership and the laity. Traditional means of diplomatic participation remain possible for certain Church leaders, such as those of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, while social media plays an important role in building unity, disseminating information, and achieving witness to atrocity. We have seen each of these in the course of the Russia-Ukraine war. In a post-conflict society, the potential for church action will probably be even greater. What follows seeks to explore and contextualise this phenomenon in the face of ongoing war in Ukraine.