Pathways to Just Peace
22 May 2025
What does it mean to speak about just peace in times of a war? A newly released video Pathways to Just Peace offers a compelling array of voices, all of which contribute to the ongoing and complex answer to this often painful question.
An outcome of the European Consultation on Just Peace, organised by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in December 2024 as part of its Pathways to Peace initiative, the video captures key insights, reflections, and testimonies on how churches and ecumenical partners are responding to war and conflict, and working together to promote a vision of just peace grounded in Christian values.
The diversity of voices and images in the video broadens and deepens this vision. As CEC President Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain notes, “we come from different places, different understandings.”
Voices from Ukraine challenge the traditional ecumenical definition of just peace. Rev. Anatolyi Raychynets of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations, and Deputy General Secretary of the Ukrainian Bible Society, reflects in the video on how Ukrainian churches perceive the concept of just peace.
“War is going on. People are dying every day. We see a lot of needs among people - millions of refugees. Just peace for us is when evil is banished and people’s rights are restored, when justice is restored. It is our desire to move from war to just peace,” he says.
With both current and historic footage and images, the video raises poignant questions, sharing perspectives from CEC Member Churches.
Other concepts presented - and called into question - include the right of self defense, the weaponization of religion, and human dignity.
As CEC General Secretary Rev. Frank Dieter Fischbach notes at the video’s conclusion, the answers have yet to be revealed. “We have not finished the debate or the discussions,” he says.
