The Center for Reconciliation will host regular meetings to foster understanding of topics related to conflict transformation, just peace, and reconciliation. CFR believes the way we engage conflict has the potential to support personal, community, and institutional transformation.  Join us for an in-person conversation on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the 0013 Westbrook classroom.

Our presenter is Dr. Wojciech Szczerba, the Rector/President of Evangelical School of Theology in Wroclaw, Poland. He also serves as a Senior Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute at St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge. Wojciech is the author of two books on universal salvation (apocatastasis) in Greek philosophy and early Christian thought, as well as numerous articles on anthropology, soteriology, Protestant traditions, and ancient philosophy and theology. He is involved in various ecumenical initiatives and inter-religious dialogue.

The Eleventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Indifferent - Polish Christian Responses to the War in Ukraine

Poland borders Ukraine in the East and the history between the two nations has not been easy over the centuries. Yet, when the Russian army invaded Crimea in 2014, Poland was one of the first countries to stand up for Ukraine in Europe. In February 2022, after the full-scale Russian invasion on Ukraine, millions of Ukrainian refugees turned to Poland for support. Despite the overwhelming numbers, there are no refugee camps in Poland. Instead, Poles have invited Ukrainian people into their homes. Ukrainians freely operate in Polish society, including work, health system, and schools. Although the situation is not ideal, there is an understanding of the tragedy of Ukraine from the Polish side and a willingness to help. 

What does the Polish-Ukrainian relationship look like more than a year after the beginning of the war? What do Polish people think of their eastern neighbors now? What does the Polish government do to ease the situation of the refugees? How about the church? This presentation refers to these and similar questions in the immediate context of the war in Ukraine, the broader geopolitical scale, and the existential questions of humanity of the 21^st century.

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:
God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer