Author ORCID Identifier
Abstract
Following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Romanian Orthodox Church’s public response to Ukrainian displacement combined emergency assistance with forms of solidarity that became increasingly connected to ecclesial life. A purposive corpus of twenty-four English-language items published by the Basilica News Agency, the official news agency of the Romanian Patriarchate, between February 2022 and December 2025 forms the principal source base. These materials record humanitarian and pastoral activity while also showing how the Church publicly interpreted its response. The early response relied heavily on structures already present in dioceses and local communities, which could be redirected quickly toward people arriving at the border. Orthodox public discourse placed their reception within a Christian language of mercy and the recognition of Christ in the suffering neighbor. As displacement continued, the Ukrainian Orthodox Vicariate, the Romanian Patriarchate’s ecclesiastical structure serving Ukrainian Orthodox communities in Romania, became more visible through Ukrainian-language worship and the recurring commemoration of those affected by the war. The term ecclesial solidarity describes the connection between humanitarian reception and the possibility of participation in a religious community able to preserve liturgical continuity and communal memory during prolonged displacement. The institutional character of the sources means that refugees’ own perspectives remain only partially visible.
Recommended Citation
Buchiu, Damian
(2026)
"The Romanian Orthodox Church and Ukrainian Refugees: Humanitarian Response and Ecclesial Solidarity,"
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 46
:
Iss.
9
, Article 9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2906
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol46/iss9/9
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