The Russian Orthodox Church has dismissed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's sharp criticism of its course as "unfounded allegations".

At the start of the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, the German head of state accused the Moscow Patriarchate of having led their church down a "religious and blasphemous aberration" and of representing a "totalitarian ideology disguised as theology".

Reinhard Bingener

Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.

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The head of the Russian-Orthodox delegation, head of the foreign office, Metropolitan Antonij, described Steinmeier's statements on Wednesday evening as an example of "blatant pressure" from the state.

Steinmeier's speech was an "interference in the internal affairs" of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which has a "peacekeeping and politically neutral character".

Mixed reactions in the EKD

In a written statement, the head of the Russian delegation also accused the Federal President of ignoring “all humanitarian efforts of the Moscow Patriarchate in connection with the confrontation in Ukraine”.

Within the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the Federal President's speech met with mixed reactions.

Before the General Assembly, the EKD leadership had campaigned for Steinmeier to come and had already described the behavior of the Moscow Patriarch Cyril as blasphemy.

However, some see it critically that Steinmeier, as a political official, also theologically evaluated the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in his Karlsruhe speech.

An EKD delegate spoke up on Friday afternoon and said in the plenum of the general assembly, alluding to Steinmeier, that political leaders had assigned blame and thus made reconciliation more difficult.

One must remain open "to the truth of others," said the German delegate from the Baden regional church.

On Friday, representatives of the orthodox churches in Ukraine will explain their perspectives in Karlsruhe.

A date for a meeting between Ukrainian church representatives and the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate at the General Assembly has not yet been set.