Résultats de la recherche

By Maurice Malanes (*)

World Council of Churches (WCC) representatives will participate at the 16-18 July international interfaith conference convened in Madrid by the Muslim World League following an initiative by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

"Our world may soon have a billion people living with constant hunger but we produce enough food to feed double the current global population if everyone shared equally," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu as G8 leaders prepare to meet in Japan. "World leaders must seek justice in solutions to the food crisis that now faces us."

With an estimated 850 million people suffering from hunger worldwide, nine out of ten of which live in developing countries, "the scandal of hunger demands the immediate attention of the churches", affirmed today in a statement the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia.

A wide array of justice movements around the world are challenging churches to create new kinds of spirituality that will sustain them as they struggle against empire.

"Islam cannot be studied like grammar," Patriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) of the Greek Orthodox Church in Syria, told a delegation led by Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), who had come to Syria wishing to learn from the country's long experience of Christians and Muslims living peacefully together. "We have to see the real people and share with them. Muslims are sharing with you by living in your countries. Why do you ignore them?" the patriarch asked particularly the delegation members from Europe and the United States at the outset of their 19 to 22 April visit.

Appreciation for the good work done by churches in the Gulf region was expressed by the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia at the end of a 17 to 19 April visit to the United Arab Emirates.

Krister Stendahl, eminent ecumenist, New Testament scholar, former bishop of Stockholm and dean of the Harvard Divinity School, died Tuesday in Boston at 86 years of age.

Several member churches of the Danish National Council of Churches (DNCC) recently sent a response to a 13 Oct. 2007 open letter from 138 prominent Muslim scholars and leaders to church leaders around the world. The Danish church response was published 10 Apr. in the Danish newspaper, the Christian Daily. The 16 member churches who were signatories to the response said the Muslim letter "represents an important step in the essential dialogue between adherents of the world's two largest religions."

The movie Fitna, recently released online by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders was criticized as "a clear case of Islamophobia" by Rev. Dr Shanta Premawardhana, director of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Programme on Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation.

Love for one's neighbour is "an essential and integral part of faith in God and love of God" for both Islam and Christianity. How Christians and Muslims can engage in reflections of this love together is the central theme of a commentary issued by the World Council of Churches (WCC) on Thursday, 20 March. Compiled by Christian experts in Christian-Muslim relations, it addresses the churches and offers suggestions on responding to the widely noticed letter "A Common Word" by 138 Muslim leaders in October 2007.

Concern about undue pressure exerted by the European Union on African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) by the end of the year has been expressed by World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia in a 6 December letter to EU commissioner for external trade Peter Mandelson. The interim agreements open up local markets to competition with European companies without adequate legal frameworks and infrastructure in place, and they address issues which are still contentious within a deadline that prevents parliamentary discussion. Therefore these agreements represent an imminent danger of revenue loss for those countries, hindering their poverty eradication efforts, the letter affirms.

A severe reminder "of the wealth that was built and sustained on the continued extraction and plunder of Africa's resources as well as on the exploitation of Africa's people" was addressed to Christians in the global North by the participants in the African ecumenical consultation "Linking poverty, wealth and ecology" last week.

When does the pursuit of economical wellbeing turn into greed? This is one of the questions to be discussed at a 5-9 November ecumenical consultation in Dar es Salaam. Joint church strategies and actions for addressing the interlinked problems of poverty, excessive wealth, and ecological degradation in Africa are intended results.

"This letter is most welcome," said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, especially at a time when "all of humanity is looking to religious leaders for guidance as to how to respond to the situation of violence in the world". Kobia was commenting on the letter "A Common Word between Us and You," saying that it "gives a lot of hope".

Calling for alternatives to enforced free trade, churches and church-related organizations world-wide, along with other religious groups and community partners, are gearing up for the Trade Week of Action, 14-21 October.

La chapelle de l'Institut oecuménique de Bossey, près de Genève, où de jeunes adultes venus de cinq continents se sont rassemblés pour une méditation matinale, est un lieu de culte hors du commun. La lumière qui traverse les vitraux conçus par la communauté de Taizé, en France, éclaire une série de symboles religieux des plus disparates: icônes orthodoxes, croix luthérienne et tambour d'une communauté chrétienne africaine.