The World Council of Churches (WCC) has joined in the call to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, asking him to take a stand against the war in Ukraine.

In a letter to Patriarch Kirill, the secretary-general of the WCC, Rev. Ian Sauca, said that “many look to you as the one who could bring a sign of hope for a peaceful solution.” He urged the Russian prelate to raise his voice against the bloodshed.

Rev. Sauca, a priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church, reminded Patriarch Kirill that most of the suffering people of Ukraine are also “faithful members of our Orthodox Church”—a reminder that the war is exacerbating divisions among the world’s Orthodox communities.