Tarptautinė konferencija „Krikščioniškas nacionalizmas, karas ir svetingumas“ (anglų k.)
Registration
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM, WAR AND HOSPITALITY
in Times of Global Tension
Friday, 18 September 2026
Opening evening • Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science, Pilies St. 8
Saturday, 19 September 2026
Second day • Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science, Pilies St. 8
Speakers
Short biographies compiled from institutional and scholarly profiles
Rev. Prof. Dr Cyril Hovorun
Ukrainian Orthodox theologian and scholar of ecclesiology, ecumenism and public theology. He is Professor of Ecclesiology, International Relations and Ecumenism at Sankt Ignatios College and Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute at Loyola Marymount University. He completed doctoral studies at Durham University and has written extensively on church structures, political religion and the public role of Christianity.
Dr Friederike Krippner
Literary scholar and Director of the Evangelische Akademie zu Berlin since 2020. Her work brings together literature and culture, church and politics, and the practice of constructive public debate. She studied German literature, Protestant theology and history in Münster and Lund, earned her doctorate at Humboldt University, and serves in the synods of the EKBO and the Evangelical Church in Germany.
Maria Biedrawa
Maria Biedrawa is Vice-chair of Church and Peace, the European ecumenical network for peace and nonviolence. An Austrian living in France, she is a special educator and logotherapist, working in the tradition of Viktor Frankl’s meaning-centred therapy. She is trained in and practises civilian peace intervention, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. She is also a member of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Assoc. Prof. Tornike Metreveli
Associate Senior Lecturer in European Studies and Associate Professor (Docent) in Sociology of Religions at Lund University. He earned his doctorate in sociology at the University of Bern and was a Research Fellow in Ukrainian Studies at Harvard University. His research examines the intersection of nationalism and Christianity in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, including Orthodox churches in Ukraine, Georgia and Serbia.
Dr Rosita Garškaitė-Antonowicz
Political scientist working in comparative politics and political sociology, with research interests in religion and politics, Euroscepticism, the radical right and interpretive methods. She defended her award-winning doctoral dissertation on the role of Catholicism in everyday thinking about the European Union in Lithuania. She is also a researcher in the RELIDEM project on religious responses to geopolitical crises and democratic resilience.
Dr Serhii Shumylo
Ukrainian historian of religion whose research focuses on the Orthodox Church in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and on the Slavic spiritual and cultural heritage of Mount Athos. He is affiliated with Vilnius University, serves as Director of the International Institute of the Athonite Legacy, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. He has published widely on Athonite and church history.
