13 January 2027, 15:00 (CET)
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This webinar will focus on how churches can practice companionship without reproducing patterns of domination, paternalism, or dependency.

Companionship is not neutral. When churches and communities walk together, they bring different histories, wounds, capacities, and vulnerabilities. Some have greater access to visibility, funding, mobility, or decision-making power. Others carry memories of colonization, exclusion, displacement, or silencing. A theology of companionship must therefore take seriously the asymmetries that shape ecumenical relationships.

The session, led by Rev. Prof. Dr. Hyuk Cho, from the Vancouver School of Theology, Canada, will explore how companionship can become an ethical discipline of listening, restraint, truth-telling, and mutual accountability. It will ask what it means to accompany communities without speaking for them, using their stories, or turning their suffering into symbolic material for others.

Participants will be invited to reflect on how churches can design encounters and partnerships in ways that are more just, transparent, and accountable. The session will help deepen the connection between companionship, do-no-harm principles, and the wider calling of the Pilgrimage for Justice, Reconciliation and Unity.

The five-part series aims to show how the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity appears —through a lens of companionship— as a theological orientation and an ecclesial practice.

Participants will be invited to explore companionship as a deep yet understandable journey from theological foundations to practical implementation. The series will move through five themes: foundations, method, ethics, context, and implementation.

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WCC launches webinar series on Theology of Companionship (WCC news release, 13 August 2026)

Next sessions of the series:

3 March 2027, 15:00 (CET): Context
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12 May 2027, 15:00 (CET): Implementation
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