Orthodox Christians are not the Amish. Or Quakers. Or Jehovah’s Witnesses. We have not historically or contemporarily forsworn earthly power. If anything we have rushed to embrace it and been very put off when we lose it. Furthermore, while it might be possible to squint your eyes and find something resembling a pacifist tradition with Orthodoxy, it is a stretch to conclude that it has been a normative (or even noticeable) part of the tradition. Generally pacifism serves the same role among politically progressive Orthodox Christians as family values serve among politically conservative ones: a modern bumper sticker seeking after patristic logic.

On February 24, 2022, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation authorized a “special military operation” in Ukraine for the purposes of demilitarization and “denazification.” In recent weeks, we have witnessed Putin attempt to justify this attack on the pretext of a gross distortion of Ukrainian history and unsubstantiated allegations of genocide in Donbas. As of this writing, Russia has attacked Ukraine in multiple regions spanning the entire country, far outside of Donbas. The Russian attack has resulted in casualties and has terrorized Ukrainian citizens. Putin’s impunity extends beyond Ukraine, as he has threatened anyone who attempts to intervene with military retaliation. Putin accused the Ukrainian government of preparing a crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and yet it is his invasion that has endangered the lives of members of this Church, along with all citizens of Ukraine.

We the undersigned represent clergy, faithful, scholars, students, and fellows of the Orthodox Church in particular and Eastern Christianity in general. We condemn Putin’s malicious attack on Ukraine and call upon world leaders – political and religious – to bring him to justice for his crimes. We express our solidarity with citizens of Ukraine of all ethnic and religious backgrounds and express our sincere sorrow for those who have lost loved ones during the attacks. May their memories be eternal.

For the list of signatories and to add your name please visit this link.

The Russian state again wants to put everything under its control, and officials at different levels are happy to oblige. It's not just about politics or the economy. The state wants the history, and more broadly, the entire intellectual and spiritual life of society to be also under its control. Any serious alternatives are treated as a criminal offence. Living in Russia, having your own opinion and not being afraid to express it once again requires courage. For this, not only political but also civil activists are being imprisoned, and journalists and lawyers get branded with the shameful, in the eyes of the Kremlin, status of "foreign agents". A new round of repressions and public protests has been spiked by the state's attempt to liquidate the oldest human rights organization in contemporary Russia, which operates as two legal entities – International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center.

We are very sorry to share the sad news of the falling asleep of Jim Forest, a member of our Advisory Board. In his quiet, gentle way Jim was a true warrior of Christ, a warrior of peace. The words of Apostle John, “perfect love drives out fear”, could be said about Jim. He was a great and generous friend to "The Wheel", and we are orphaned today together with so many people around the world who have been blessed with his love and wisdom.

On August 3, 2021, Father Leonid Kishkovsky, the longtime Chair of the Department of External Affairs of the Orthodox Church in America, fell asleep in the Lord. We are offering a personal reflection by his lifelong spiritual daughter and friend Matushka Olga Meerson.

At the beginning of 2020 - in the pre-pandemic era! - I wrote a review of 'Just Mercy', a film that had made a strong impression on both Presvytera Deborah and me. The film was a cinematic dramatization of an actual case that occurred in Alabama in 1987. In this case, which took years to bring to a just conclusion ("just mercy"), the Harvard-trained African American lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, was able to help free Walter McMillan, an African American wrongfully convicted of murdering a young white woman. McMillan had spent many years on death row before his exoneration and release in 1993. Here is a link to that review if anyone would be interested in reading it.

there might have been

no Holocaust at all

no Crystal Night

no shattered pawn-shop ball

and Rachel might have had no chestnut curls

and Rivkah might have been a neighbor girl

To Hans and Gretel in their Gartengasse

Otherwise it would be really ghastly

but once upon a time

they all lived well

and played together

just before the hell

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Christians of the long-suffering Belarusian land!

We, the undersigned, clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church and other local Churches, Roman Catholics, as well as Christians of other confessions, living in Russia and other countries, address to you our words of solidarity, support and consolation.

To give a legal assessment of the events taking place in society is the business of lawyers, not of the church community. Nevertheless, according to the Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church, the church community cannot be isolated “from participation in solving socially significant tasks”, and cannot be deprived of “the right to assess the actions of the authorities” (III.3.), primarily of the right to a moral assessment.

On September 11, 2020, Father Peter Scorer, the longtime deacon and disciple of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, fell asleep in the Lord mere weeks after being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. It is our joy at The Wheel to offer testimonies and memories to this kind, gentle, loving man of God, much beloved by all who knew him.

The pandemic now ravaging the Orthodox Church is not only COVID-19 but also fundamentalism. Fundamentalism is a sort of populism for the church. It is based on post-truth and conspiracy theories. Although it pretends to be pietistic, it is quite secular and secularizing. I would apply to fundamentalism the phrase once coined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “cheap grace.” Fundamentalism is a cheap spirituality and a cheap substitute for genuine ecclesial existence.