Search results

A delegation led by Thorhild Widvey, minister of culture in Norway, along with prominent Norwegian politicians and church leaders was welcomed on 30 September at the WCC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

To respond to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, which has taken more than 3,000 lives, the WCC brought to the table representatives of Christian aid organizations and United Nations agencies to learn from each other and to escalate their efforts.

Prayerful biblical reflections marked the end of the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel in a service on 29 September at the Ecumenical Centre chapel in Geneva, Switzerland.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has welcomed publication of an open letter by a group of 126 Muslim scholars to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (IS) and his followers.

Eight more governments are ratifying the Arms Trade Treaty during this week’s high-level meetings at the United Nations. The latest actions mean that 53 governments, including several lobbied by the member churches of the WCC, have ratified the new treaty. The treaty will now come into effect by the end of 2014.

Indigenous peoples have a role to play in the struggle against climate change, indigenous faith leaders said during a panel at the Interfaith Summit on Climate Change held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.

Scattered throughout the recent history of Indigenous Peoples are national treaties, declarations and laws that languish in obscurity or are brushed aside and ignored.

Although climate change is often thought of as something external to an individual person, it is interwoven with personal spirituality, as well. This was the conclusion of a panel of three faith leaders during a session at the Interfaith Summit on Climate Change held on 22 September.

Two phoenix sculptures hung suspended from the ceiling, their bodies dotted with lights and their tail feathers unfurling above the heads of the faith leaders and adherents who gathered in the Cathedral of St John the Divine for an interfaith service on 21 September in New York.

기후변화에 관한 대응을 촉구하는 대규모 거리행진이 지난 9월 21일 뉴욕에서 열린 가운데 9개 종교를 대표하는 30명의 종교 지도자들이 탄소배출 억제를 위한 구체적인 행동을 촉구하는 선언문에 서명했다.

To commemorate the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel this year, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has encouraged and invited expressions of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners unjustly detained in Israeli jails.

Gathering a diverse representation from migrant communities in Geneva, affirming expressions of solidarity and promoting social justice for “people on the move”, a public event marked Jeûne genevois (Geneva’s traditional Thursday observation of fasting and prayer). The annual civic holiday was celebrated on 11 September at the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, Switzerland.

A set of recommendations advocating the rights of stateless persons was presented by a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation at the First Global Forum on Statelessness organized by the UNHCR and Tilburg University in The Hague, Netherlands.

A former WCC official, Rev. Charles Harper, has been honoured with the Order Comendador de Mayo, a high decoration of the Argentine government for his emblematic legacy of struggles for human rights in the ecumenical movement.

“If we are to respond to the ecological crisis in a responsible and substantial way, we must move beyond mere talk to practical action,” said Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in an official message to the Interfaith Summit on Climate Change to be held this week in New York City.

Dr Tamara Grdzelidze, an Orthodox theologian and former staff member of the WCC, has been received as the nation of Georgia’s new ambassador to the Holy See, presenting her credentials to Pope Francis at the Vatican this September.

Displaced by the armed offensive of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and their brutal purge of Yazidis and Christians, along with Sufi, Shiite and Sunni Muslims, from northern Iraq, members of these communities have begun to speak out about their experiences, their longing for security, and their hopes for the future.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby generously granted an interview on the subject of “the pilgrimage of justice and peace” last week in São Paulo, Brazil. His visit to Brazil was part of a personal journey that has taken Welby to 31 Anglican provinces around the world since his enthronement as archbishop in 2013.

New forms of ecumenical formation, as well as ways of enhancing ecumenical contributions from young people in churches and societies, were discussed by fifteen young theologians in a meeting convened by the WCC.