Slovak church highlights Ukraine response at EU 

“We could not remain indifferent” 

Mihoč recalled the situation in February and March when the congregations were meeting thousands of frightened, traumatized, and suffering people. “As a church, as a country, and as a society we were not prepared for this situation. At the same time, we could not remain indifferent,” he says. “The first weeks of the war uncovered not only the terrible fruit of the war atrocities but have also shown the immense power of goodness, of the capacity to oppose evil with an active form of help.” 

Bishop Mihoč detailed how, together with non-government partners, his church provided humanitarian help, meeting people directly at the border crossings, organizing food and accommodation, not only in the church but also in private homes. The church organized transportation, offered material and financial support and helped the Ukrainian refugees with the many administrative tasks: finding a home and work, school for the children, and events to help them integrate into local communities. “We have been trying to offer all of this already for several months,” Mihoč said. 

Challenge to maintain long-term help 

For many, what they hoped would be short-term support has become semi-permanent. “At this moment we have in our church several thousand refugees staying for the long term. It is a big challenge to maintain the spiritual and material help for them.” Bishop Mihoč explained in Brussels.

In addition to providing free accommodation and food, social and health care to refugees in the Slovak Republik, the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia is sending medical supplies, food and other much-needed relief items to Ukraine. Much of this work is done in cooperation with the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine, an LWF member church, other churches in the region, and international partners such as the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).  

“Openness and closeness, empathy and practical help, in the last months have revealed themselves as precious values in Slovakia, regardless of religious affiliation or social class of those we serve,” the bishop added. 

I want to assure you that we the churches want to be here for others in these difficult days.

– Bishop MIHOC, Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia

Be church for others 

“We don’t know how long this situation will last. Thus, we realize that at present the most important value is perseverance,” Bishop Mihoč said. “I think that our task today is to name the problem of war not from the perspective of geopolitics but from the perspective of humaneness. It is truly admirable and precious how Europe has been able to unite in naming and condemning evil,” Mihoč said.  

In a pastoral encyclical, the bishops of the Lutheran church in Slovakia condemned the invasion of Ukraine and appealed to the Slovak people not to foster hatred towards the Russian nation as a whole, but to pray for forgiveness, reconciliation, and the end of this war. 

Mihoč concluded his remarks citing the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer:” The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.” The bishop promised that “the churches, today, want to be here for others, in these days especially for the people from Ukraine.” 

By LWF/ C. Kästner. Contribution by Naveen Quayyum/ Conference of European Churches