History of ESW

The concept of the Ecumenical Social Week is not new. Social Weeks have been taking place in France since 1904. In addition, they are held in Italy, Belgium and Poland. There exists a European network of Social Weeks, led by Michel Camdessus, Honorary Head of the Social Weeks of France and formerly General Secretary of the International Monetary Fund. In Europe, the Social Weeks are an initiative of lay people who belong to various churches and are willing together to spread the social teachings of Christianity in their societies by concrete means. Though their roots are in the church, the Social Weeks have also attracted non-religious people who strive to build a better world in a spirit of harmony and peace.

In Ukraine the Social Weeks were launched in 1939 by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who devoted it to the theme of Christian patriotism, which he saw as opposing the ideologies of Communism and Fascism developing in Europe then. In order to avoid National Socialism, the Metropolitan wished to mobilize all Christians and people of good will to work together toward a patriotic vision of the nation based on love and cooperation regardless of denominational and political divisions. To that end, on February 17th 1939, he and his brother Klymentiy Sheptytsky (beatified by the Catholic Church in June 2001) founded the Metropolitan Yosyf Veniamyn Rutskyi Ukrainian Catholic Institute for the Union of Churches.