Open Letter to Patriarch Kirill from Orthodox Clergy and Faithful in U.S. Regarding Conflict Between Russia and Ukraine

2 March 2014, Forgiveness Sunday

To His Holiness Kirill                                                                                       Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

Your Holiness, On the Sunday of Forgiveness, we, the clergy and faithful representing different Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States, are asking you to influence the normalization of the situation in Crimea and the restoration of peace between Russia and Ukraine. The intervention of the Russian Army on the territory of Ukraine is an act of military aggression, which increases ethnic tensions between Russians and Ukrainians. We beseech you, while there is still time, to demand from the President Vladimir Putin to withdraw the Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula, in order to prevent bloodshed. Let the peoples of Ukraine and Russia hear the Russian Orthodox Church’s prophetic call to peace, love and mutual forgiveness.

Asking for your Archpastoral blessings,

1. Rev. Dn. Dr. Paul Gavrilyuk, Orthodox Church in America, Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy, University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota.

2. Rev. Dn. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko, Orthodox Church in America, Assistant Professor of Theological Studies, Director of Huffington Institute, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California.

3. Rev. Dr. Michael Plekon, Orthodox Church in America, Professor of Sociology, Baruch College of the City University of New York, New York.

4. Rev. Dr. John Breck, Orthodox Church in America, Emeritus Professor and Former Dean of St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute, Paris, France.

5. Rev. Dr. Harry Pappas, Pastor, Archangels Greek Orthodox Church in Stamford, CT, and Sessional Professor of Pastoral Theology, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, New York.

6. Dr. Peter Bouteneff, Orthodox Church in America, Professor of Systematic Theology, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Crestwood, New York.

7. Rev. Dr. Oliver Herbel, Pastor, Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, Fargo, North Dakota.