Kobia lays brick for multi-purpose shelter

Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, WCC general secretary, being received by villagers and Metropolitan Dr Joseph Mar Irenaeus, CASA chairman, for a brick-laying ceremony of a multi-purpose disaster shelter. The shelter is the last of 85 houses built as part of CASA tsunami rehabilitation programme in Edavanakad, a coastal village about 25km from Kochi, Kerala, South India.

WCC deputy honoured by HAH Bartholomew

The honorific title of "archon" has been bestowed on World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Mr Georges Lemopoulos by the ecumenical patriarch, HAH Bartholomew, in a 4 February ceremony at the Orthodox Church in Chambésy, Geneva.

New WCC focus on mental health

Raising awareness about mental health among faith communities, sharing information on what they are doing in this area (best practice), and providing an ecumenical and inter-religious platform for learning on mental health in different regions will be the focus of WCC work on "mental health and faith communities" over the next few years.

Robert S. Bilheimer

"Robert Bilheimer is well remembered within the WCC as one of the imaginative individuals whose faithful and creative spirit shaped the movement and actions of the Council in its early stage of development," wrote WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia to Mrs Dorothy Bilheimer on 18 January 2007.

Ecumenical patriarchate in Turkey offers hospitality to WCC officers

Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), on 15 December called the Church of Constantinople a "truly ecumenical church" whose ecumenism has been "tangibly manifested in her many historical initiatives".

German water rights campaign hands steering wheel over to WCC

The German Protestant aid agency Brot für die Welt has handed a steering wheel, symbol of its water campaign, over to the World Council of Churches (WCC), thus symbolically handing responsibility for this concern over to the WCC and a newly formed Ecumenical Water Network (EWN).

Brazilian churches end year-long Latin American focus on violence with exhibition on domestic violence

In a symbolic act of closure of the year that began with the first WCC assembly in Latin America, World Council of Churches central committee moderator Rev. Dr Walter Altmann visited an interactive exhibition on domestic violence in downtown Porto Alegre/Brazil.

Fiji: "No justification for military coups anywhere" says WCC head

Reacting to news of a military coup in Fiji, World Council of Churches (WCC) head Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has addressed WCC member churches there, saying that the coup is "in total disregard of democratic norms," violates the country's constitution and is "tantamount to suversion of the rule of law".

Writing to the Fiji Council of Churches and the Assembly of the Christian Churches in Fiji on 6 December, Kobia stresses that "In the 21st...

Wolfram Kistner 1923-2006

Writing to his widow on 5 December, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia characterized South African pastor Dr Wolfram Kistner as "a tireless champion for justice, equality and human dignity for all," and "one of the clearest voices, articulating biblically and theologically why we as Christians had to support the struggle against apartheid".

WCC mourns sudden death of Inger Aasa-Marklund

WCC leaders have expressed their profound grief on learning of the car accident that killed WCC executive committee member Inger Aasa-Marklund and her young daughter, Sara, on 24 November.