Rev. Dr. Cyril Hovorun is a Ukrainian Orthodox theologian, public intellectual, and internationally recognized scholar of religion, politics, and ecumenism. He is Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Professor at Sankt Ignatios College in Stockholm, and Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He previously held research fellowships at Yale and Columbia Universities and served as Chair of the Department for External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Alongside his academic work, Fr. Cyril has long been engaged at the intersection of cultural diplomacy, interfaith dialogue, and peacebuilding. He has taught and lectured at more than 50 institutions around the world – from Oxford, Harvard, and Georgetown to universities and theological centers in Myanmar, Kenya, Chile, Samoa, China, and New Zealand. Since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine, a major focus of his work has been the decolonization of Ukraine, the critique of religious ideologies that legitimize war, support for displaced communities, and the search for a just peace and reconciliation.

Christian Unity in a Divided World: The Past and Future of Ecumenism

The quest for Christian unity is as old as Christian disunity, which has challenged Christian communities since Apostolic times. The lecture begins by tracing ecumenism before it was called that, during the first Christian millennium. It then examines its decline during the Middle Ages and the era of confessionalism, followed by its revival in the twentieth century, often regarded as ecumenical par excellence. The lecture explores both the modern ecumenical movement’s remarkable achievements and its challenges, including institutional stagnation, so-called ecumenical fatigue, and anti-ecumenism. It concludes with suggestions for advancing ecumenism in times of war.