WCC retirees joyfully gather to celebrate 76th anniversary of the global fellowship

Pillay recognized and thanked the retirees for their many years of service to the WCC, and expressed appreciation that they follow the news and happenings at the WCC very closely. 

He spoke about recent WCC peace-building work in Nigeria, Sudan, Colombia, Palestine and Israel, the Korean Peninsula, Ukraine, and other places where the WCC and the ecumenical movement are seeking to promote justice, reconciliation, and unity.

“It is obviously of course because of the situation in which we find ourselves,” he said, referring to the many challenges the world faces today. “We need to be challenging structure and authority and power, and we have been doing that because we want a world that is better for all people and the planet.”

The retirees also received an overview of the move into a new Ecumenical Centre—which brings what Pillay described as “synergy, energy, and joy”—as well as an overview of activities in 2025, which will be an “Ecumenical Year on the Pilgrimage of Justice, Reconciliation, and Unity.” 

Those gathered read a special Prayer for Peace, prepared by WCC moderator Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, that shared a message of hope and trust in laying the future of the world in God’s hands. 

Baldwin Sjollema, who worked with the WCC Programme to Combat Racism, sent a written message to his fellow retirees. 

“To my great regret I can not be with you this year, as I had wanted,” wrote Sjollema. “We can never achieve justice and peace ourselves. We can only receive them from God as a gift. But at the same time God's gift is humanity's task.”

Following the gathering, the retirees enjoyed an aperitif in the garden of the Chateau to celebrate the founding of the WCC on 23 August 1948 in Amsterdam.

Prayer for Peace on the WCC 76th anniversary, 23 August 2024