This Lenten Wednesday study series will take place on the five Wednesdays of Lent (March 9 through April 6), from 6:00 pm-7:00 pm in the South Room of the Church office building, and on Zoom.
The Church Emergency Created by the Invasion of Ukraine by Russia
Presented by Rev. Stephen V. Sprinkle, Ph.D.
Theologian-in-Residence of the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle and Professor of Practical Theology, Brite Divinity School
There is a grave spiritual malaise underlying the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin. This act of naked aggression is fueled by the Russian fever-dream of empire and neo-colonialism cloaked beneath the sheep’s clothing of religion. What is taking place in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine constitutes a crisis for the whole Body of Christ, since Putin is cynically forging a religiously-fueled crusade for purity that distorts the gospel, pits Christian against Christian and is international in scope. I will lead a multi-week study of what the Russian obsession with Ukraine is about religiously, and why it crosses a line theologically and ecclesially that cannot be ignored, one that demands a response from the Church. Further, I will share why I feel I must speak out of my office as Theologian-in-Residence in an unprecedented way to denounce this distortion of Christian faith as evil, to call upon the aggressors to repent and relent in the name of Jesus the Christ, and to call upon the Church to use every peaceable means at our disposal to stand with the victims of innocent blood. The news media have barely acknowledged the spiritual danger of this invasion. I intend to lay it bare in a series of study sessions for the parish.
