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My first contact with Dr. Vinie Burrows happened in 1983 while I worked as a volunteer pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in “Hell’s Kitchen” in New York City. At that time she, as a feminist, Human Rights and peace activist, hosted a radio program, More Than Half the World, on Pacifica station WBAI in New York.

Sometime between 486 and 465 BCE, the Bible tells us, a disagreement arose between a husband and wife on the way the wife should be presented at a banquet. The disagreement resulted in the wife losing her title of queen. The wife’s name was Queen Vashti, and her husband was King Ahasuerus of Persia. King Ahasuerus decided to find another wife. Esther, a disguised Israelite teenager, was chosen as the new queen.

Why should people of faith get engaged in AIDS2016? - The first time I took part in the International AIDS Conference was in Mexico in 2008. I was overwhelmed and fascinated. I was impressed by the large number of people HIV could mobilize, and yet I knew many people around the world had no idea of the difference between HIV and AIDS, and even worse, many did not want to know about it.

I am Marjorie Lewis, immediate past President and the first woman to be appointed to the Presidency of the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI) in Jamaica. I am currently on Sabbatical, based at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax Canada. Here I am conducting research on approaches to Ministerial Formation and Theological Education, with special focus on spiritual care within multi-faith and LGBTIQ communities.

Women are at the heart of agriculture, yet too often their core function is neither recognised nor supported. That message stood out to me in the annual meeting of the Food for Life strategy group that I attended last November. The issues that affect women came up in all discussions, whichever goal of the Food for Life campaign, run by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (WCC-EAA), was on the agenda.

A little girl, barely four years old, crawls underneath a barbed-wire fence at the Serbian-Hungarian border. Her face is straight as she glances ahead, irradiated by sunbeams; her fingers are cramped into the muddy soil. Hundreds of thousands refugees are on the move as I write these lines. A reality, which for so many in Europe these past years had remained remote, suddenly becomes close and subject of fierce controversies.

The Bible is a constant source of encouragement, especially for the women in our West African churches. It helps us keeping the faith and continuing to work for justice in gender relationships. Listening to the word of God rhythms our daily life, it is like a silent song recurrently sung inside, no matter what hardships we undergo.

Recently I returned to my alma mater, Yale University Divinity School (YDS). In the taxi from the train station to the school, the driver expressed his interest in my ministry. He wanted to know if I was Presbyterian or not. When I told him I was Baptist and that I felt called to work with all Christians, he expressed his interest in giving me a gift. I was curious. I then realized that he wanted to give me some Biblical wisdom and encouragement. The gift was the following and how apropos given the new work of PAWEEN at this time!

Thirteen youth and two adults traveled across Canada this summer to learn about the social justice, ecumenical, and environmental work of the United Church of Canada. Travelling by planes, trains and automobiles for six weeks, fifteen strangers turned into a family.

The aim of the WCC is to encourage spaces for encounter between the churches in order to give the witness of service to the world in unity with the Spirit of God. During this pilgrimage it has been stimulating to learn of the recognition accorded in Argentina and Chile to the churches and to the organizations that defend human rights.

This summer has undoubtedly been one of the most inspiring and eye-opening experiences of my entire life. On the 4th of July, 2015, a small group of youth from across the United Church of Canada gathered in Vancouver, on the Pacific coast of our nation. Along with our two adult coordinators, we would embark on a pilgrimage across Canada to reach Corner Brook, Newfoundland, on the Atlantic Coast, where we were to participate in the triennial general meeting of commissioners and delegates from across our Church: General Council.

The word pilgrimage is a linguistic double-edged sword. On the one hand, it connotes a kind of movement towards a higher, even spiritual or religious, end that one has in mind. When thought of in this positive sense, I think of the pilgrimages of the desert fathers who migrated into the sun and sand longing to be alone with God and who were eager to shed off the weight of this world so that they could experience His world more intimately. However, in our post-colonial context, the word pilgrimage equally stirs up mixed emotions, most of which might be negative, particularly amongst Indigenous peoples across the globe.

The summer in Korea is a lush and attractive season for vacationers. Yet it is far more than that. It is a period haunted by heavy historical memories. June 25 marks the day of the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950; July 27, the day of the conclusion of armistice in 1953; and August 15, the day of liberation from Japanese occupation in 1945, which immediately led to the division between North and South by the Soviet Union and the United States.

When first introduced to Thursdays in Black, it seemed like an “easy” thing to do. What could be simpler – wear black clothes on Thursdays and wear my pin to show that I dream of a world without rape and violence. Every ‘good’ Christian could support this and I casually suggested to my colleagues that this was something CABSA could support.
But what does a seemingly simple campaign to create awareness about sexual and gender-based violence have to do with the “Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace”?

Christians in Argentina, Brazil, Australia and many other places in the southern hemisphere have been engaged in responding to the joint call by the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church to pray for Christian unity this week.
Lately I have been witnessing, mainly through social media, how groups from this part of the world are gathering to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (WPCU). But I also see how production and use of these liturgical resources and prayers bring to light the importance of these most basic elements in our common search for Christian unity.

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance in the context of one's own learning, beliefs, or faith. It can be a physical journey to a particular place, or a metaphysical journey in search of insight. It can be a revisiting of spiritual roots or a first visit to the faith domain of a friend.