Conference of European Churches does what WCC wouldn’t — calls Russia’s “holy war” heresy

About 90 church leaders from across Europe have declared Russia's "Russian World" ideology heretical in a landmark statement issued following a conference in Helsinki from 1-3 December 2025, marking the first time an international church gathering has formally condemned the doctrine driving Moscow's war against Ukraine.

The statement was formally issued by conference participants rather than adopted as an official resolution—a procedural buffer. But as theologian Cyril Hovorun noted, the Conference of European Churches effectively authorized the declaration by organizing the event.

CEC represents 114 Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican churches, and the statement breaks with the equivocating language that has characterized other ecumenical bodies' responses to Russia's religious justification for invasion.

"Let us be clear: The claim that a soldier's death in the line of duty automatically cleanses sins, framing it as a sacrificial act, is heretical, just as describing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a 'holy war' and portraying Russia as a 'katechon state' — a force restraining global evil — are heretical," the statement declares.

Why this declaration breaks new ground

Since Russia's 2022 invasion, the global ecumenical response has been marked by what critics call diplomatic hedging. The World Council of Churches, of which the Russian Orthodox Church remains a member, has said it "cannot reconcile" Moscow's holy war rhetoric but stopped short of theological condemnation.

The 2022 Volos Declaration, signed by over 1,600 Orthodox theologians including Cyril Hovorun, did call Russian World a heresy — but as individual scholars, not as churches.

The CEC statement changes that. By declaring specific doctrinal claims heretical at the institutional level, European churches have done what the WCC would not.

Hovorun, a professor at Sankt Ignatios College and one of the Helsinki panelists, has long criticized the ecumenical world's timidity. As he noted on Facebook after the conference, the CEC statement "aligns with the Gospel's command to speak 'yes-yes or no-no'" — a reference to Matthew 5:37, contrasting it with what he called the "lukewarm" declarations from bodies like the WCC.

What the statement condemns

The CEC document takes direct aim at how the Russian Orthodox Church has weaponized theology for war:

The "Russian World" ideology denies Ukrainian national identity and the right to self-determination. It portrays the West as evil to be resisted in a "metaphysical battle." And it promises Russian soldiers that dying in Ukraine washes away their sins — a doctrine Patriarch Kirill has preached since September 2022.

The statement also accuses Moscow of using "ecumenical relations to promote 'traditional values,' to misrepresent Russia's war of invasion as an act of self-defence, and to oppose the international condemnation of Russia's aggressive actions."

This directly addresses a documented pattern: in May 2023, Patriarch Kirill told WCC's general secretary that his "holy war" references were "metaphysical," not about actual combat. Ten months later, his church's decree explicitly called the invasion a holy war.

Concrete commitments, not just prayers

Unlike declarations that call for dialogue and prayer without specifics, the CEC statement commits member churches to concrete actions:

• strengthening Ukrainian resistance to the ideology,
• challenging the "misuse of faith" when churches declare holy war,
• encouraging collection of survivor testimonies, and interceding for Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia.

The mention of deported children is pointed. The WCC has been criticized for expressing concern about Ukraine's law restricting Russian-affiliated religious organizations while saying little about Moscow's systematic abduction of Ukrainian minors.

What comes next

The conference, organized by CEC with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Orthodox Church of Finland, also featured discussions on authoritarianism and democracy's future — with Hovorun speaking on a panel titled "Democracy in Distress?"

Deputy Ionut Vulpescu, president of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, announced that the next IAO General Assembly will convene in Helsinki in June 2026 — a gesture of solidarity with Finland, which joined NATO in 2023 partly in response to Russian aggression.

For Ukrainian churches that have spent nearly four years urging their global counterparts to speak plainly about Moscow's religious nationalism, the Helsinki statement offers something rare: European institutions saying what individual theologians said in 2022, but with the weight of a major European church body behind it.

Correction: An earlier version overstated the number of churches involved. The statement was signed by ~90 conference participants, not officially adopted by CEC's 114 member churches—though CEC organized the event and, as theologian Cyril Hovorun noted, effectively authorized the declaration.