LWF leaders visit Lutheran congregations in Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine
Millions are praying for you and supporting you in your suffering. Leaders of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) brought this message to the Ukrainian Lutherans in Kyiv and Kharkiv, during a solidarity visit this week.
On 12 May, the LWF delegation joined a Sunday service with about 100 participants in St. Catherine's Lutheran Church in the city center of Kyiv. LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt preached from John 16:5-15, on Christ’s promise to send the Holy Spirit, highlighting the difference between the spirit of Christ and that of a human leader who may be charismatic, yet leads people to embrace dangerous ideologies. “We sense the lack of the presence of the Holy Spirit in communities and institutions where hatred is planted into hearts, where authorities govern through fear, oppression, exclusion and injustice,” she said.
“My heart goes out to you when I think about all the sufferings you have gone through in the past years. So many lives that have been lost, so many plans that have been ruined, so many families whose homes have been destroyed overnight,” she added, assuring the congregation of “the prayers of thousands of your sisters and brothers in the Lutheran communion of churches from around the world who pray daily for the end of the war and for just peace for Ukrainian people.”
