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Patriarch Kirill of Mos­cow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has responded to a plea from Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary for the World Council of Churches, that he use his influence to stop the war in Ukraine.

In a letter dated March 10, Kirill, who is known to have a close relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, praised Sauca for being a “faithful steward of the Church of Christ and tireless worker in the field of education and formation of younger generations.”

For Simone Weil, paying attention means asking, ”What are you going through?”

Following news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been scary in a personal way for Rabbi Menachem Shemtov and his wife, Racheli. Racheli grew up in Kyiv, where her father, Rabbi Jonathan Markovitch, is referred to as chief rabbi. Markovitch and his family had the opportunity to leave recently but chose to stay.

“They felt it was their duty to be there for their community,” said Shemtov, the director of Chabad Georgetown in Washington, DC.

The history of Russian and Ukrainian Orthodoxy suggests the answer is complicated.