The World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel may be officially over for the year but for Fuad Giacaman, it continues week after week, one day at a time, every minute at the grassroots—as it has for decades.
As the 2021 World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel approaches, the World Council of Churches invites people and churches all over the world to pray, advocate, and stand in solidarity with people in the Holy Land.
With families in East Jerusalem facing growing threats of forced evictions and displacement, the World Council of Churches (WCC) will convene a webinar on 20 September to shed light on key issues at stake, currently and historically.
As reports of casualties and loss grow in Haiti in the wake of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake on 14 August, a tropical depression was threatening the same area two days later.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) reached out in solidarity and prayer to people and churches in Haiti in the wake of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti, on 14 August.
The Haitian government declared a state of emergency, with 1,300 dead and several thousands injured.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) expressed solidarity with the people and churches of Lebanon on the anniversary of the explosion in Beirut that killed more than 200 people, injured thousands, and has left the whole nation still coping with the trauma and economic fallout.
When Dr Michel Abs, secretary general of the Middle East Council of Churches, speaks about living conditions in Lebanon, his compassion for his people—and his passion for peace—brim over. In a video interview with the World Council of Churches, he honestly shared his deepest concerns about the current socio-economic crisis in his nation, and how churches are helping.
As tension grows in the long-running regional dispute over a giant dam built by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile, one of the Nile River’s main tributaries, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary, Rev. Prof. Dr. Ioan Sauca appealed to all WCC member churches in Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and around the world to pray for a peaceful solution to the problem.
Jack Munayer, coordinator for the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (WCC-EAPPI), recently visited the South Hebron Hills area with diplomatic delegates from eight different countries, as well as Israeli activists. The visit was organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The group visited families and listened to their stories with the goal of discerning the nature of hardship and trauma that the occupation continues to cause.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is beginning an East Jerusalem Initiative, through which the WCC-EAPPI is accompanying—even without a physical presence—families facing eviction and displacement, as well as people facing other violations of their rights. Below, WCC director of the Commission for the Churches on International Affairs Peter Prove explains the goals and history behind the East Jerusalem Initiative.
On Sunday 27 June, WCC central committee member the Very Rev. Fr Hrant Tahanian from the Armenian Apostolic Church (Holy See of Cilicia)attended Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of the Holy See of Cilicia, in Lebanon.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed grave concern over the impending expiry on 10 July of the resolution allowing cross-border humanitarian assistance to North West Syria.
Gathered on 24 June as part of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee meeting, representatives from churches and ecumenical organizations in the Middle East took stock of old and new challenges in the region where Christianity itself originated, reflecting on the contributions Middle Eastern Christians can make at the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee expressed solidarity and accompaniment in prayer to churches and people in the Holy Land, in a statement published 20 May.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee is inviting the ecumenical fellowship and all people of good will to join in a live-streamed prayer for the Holy Land on 20 May at 16:30 CET.
A Christian delegation visited the Sheikh Jarrah community on 14 May, standing in solidarity with 28 families who not only face the threat of eviction but are living their day-to-day lives under worsening oppression.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed mounting concern and profound grief at the rising toll of people killed and injured in the escalating violence in Israel and Palestine.
Patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem shared Easter greetings of hope with Christians around the world. “This past year has been a time of great sorrow for all the world,” the message reads. “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions have suffered serious illness, with many succumbing to death.”
While Christians around the globe prepare to celebrate Easter, military occupation continues to severely impact communities in the same places where Jesus himself is said to have walked in the Easter story. An Easter initiative by the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (WCC-EAPPI) now sets out to connect the Biblical narrative with current realities in Palestine and Israel, to spotlight the injustices of life under occupation.