THE National Council of Churches in Denmark (NCCD) has criticised the World Council of Churches (WCC) for its “factually wrong, harsh, and hasty” reaction to a Ukrainian law, adopted in August, which seeks to restrict religious organisations affiliated to, or connected with, Russia.

In August, after Law 8371 was approved by the Ukrainian Parliament, the WCC said in a statement that it was “deeply alarmed by the potential for unjustified collective punishment of an entire religious community and violation of the principles of freedom of religion” in Ukraine, and called on the authorities in Kyiv to “protect the rights of all its citizens”.

Writing in solidarity with the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations (UCCRO), which supported the legislation, the NCCD has complained in a letter that Ukrainian Christians “are not heard” enough within the WCC.

“It is essential that they have a say concerning the future of their own country,” the NCCD letter says. The WCC’s position on the issue, it argues, mirrors that of the Russian Orthodox Church and Robert Amsterdam, the lawyer representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church abroad, “in spreading the narrative of the law as a threat to religious freedom”.

The NCCD draws parallels between the WCC reaction to this, and its reaction to the proclamation of “Holy War” made by Patriarch Kirill in March, which, the NCCD says, the WCC did not immediately condemn. The WCC had, it says, waited several weeks after the comment was made, and first asked the Russian Patriarch to clarify his stance.

The secretary-general of the NCCD, Dr Emil Hilton Saggau, told the Church Times this week that “the WCC [had offered] the Ukrainian government and Churches no such opportunity to clarify and approach the situation with strong words. We are concerned that the WCC does not adequately deal with the war and the Russian aggression.”

The situation sparked a dialogue between the NCCD and the WCC this week.

The WCC general secretary, the Revd Professor Jerry Pillay, told the Church Times that the WCC had “made it very clear that they have condemned the war from the beginning as immoral and illegal”, and said that the WCC had not been sympathetic to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Moderator of the WCC, Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, said that the WCC would “continue to strive for the inclusion of Ukrainian Christians in WCC work pertaining to them”.