Search results

In the wake of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, the Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership, based in Chicago, lifted up points of hope that peace will win in the end. In a 25 April message, Shanta Premawardhana, president of the institute, wrote that every person of every faith of every nation deserves to wake up in peace. “Every child deserves to feel safe, welcomed, and alive to the promise that each day brings,” Premawardhana wrote. “I'm sure you know that this is why we build Interfaith Peacemaker Teams in Sri Lanka.”

The Christian Conference of Asia gathered over 100 participants representing seven religions including Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, Bahai, Hindu and Sikh to meet with the participants of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace Reference Group to discuss relevant issues about religion and their implications to the Asian society.

La Conferencia Cristiana de Asia acogió a más de cien participantes representantes de siete religiones –el cristianismo, el budismo, el islam, el judaísmo, el bahaísmo, el hinduísmo y el sijismo– que se reunieron con los miembros del Grupo de Referencia de la Peregrinación de Justicia y Paz del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) para debatir sobre cuestiones relevantes relacionadas con la religión y sus repercusiones para la sociedad asiática.

An ecumenical delegation coordinated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) visited Indonesia on 15-22 February, including the provinces of Papua and Papua Barat - where increasing violence and discrimination against indigenous Papuan people was recently highlighted in a joint statement by five UN human rights mandate-holders.

Una delegación ecuménica organizada por el Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) visitó Indonesia del 15 al 22 de febrero. La visita incluyó las provincias de Papúa y Papúa Occidental, lugares en los que se destacó el aumento de la violencia y la discriminación contra los pueblos indígenas papúes en una declaración conjunta de cinco titulares de mandatos en materia de derechos humanos de las Naciones Unidas.

On 14 February, the Global Christian Forum Committee concluded a fruitful five-day meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where priorities were carved out and future directions of the network outlined.

El Comité del Foro Cristiano Mundial concluyó el 14 de febrero una fructífera reunión en Kuala Lumpur (Malasia) en la que se establecieron las prioridades y se trazaron las futuras orientaciones de la red intereclesial.

From 18-25 January, Christians will embark on the largest prayer gathering in the world, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Whether praying together, exchanging preachers or planning ecumenical services, they will bear witness to Jesus’s prayer for his disciples that “they may be one so that the world may believe.”

Del 18 al 25 de enero, los cristianos se embarcarán en el mayor encuentro de oración del mundo, la Semana de Oración por la Unidad de los Cristianos. Ya sea orando juntos, intercambiando pastores u organizando servicios ecuménicos, los cristianos darán testimonio de la oración de Jesús por sus discípulos: “que todos sean uno, para que el mundo crea”.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit sent greetings to Hindu brothers and sisters on Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated this year on 7 November.

“The seeds of peace come from the ground.” That is the vision that Rev. Dr Shanta Premawardhana, former director of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation at the World Council of Churches and now president of OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership, tries to follow with his organization.

As the worst flooding in half a century struck the southern India state of Kerala, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit called for prayers for those affected and for those responding, and expressed his sympathy for those who have lost loved ones in the disaster.

As the anniversary of Korea's liberation and division draws near, churches in Korea and around the world prepare for the Sunday of Prayer on 12 August.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit is condemning an attack on renowned social activist Swami Agnivesh in Jharkhand state in northeast India. A violent mob of alleged fringe fundamentalist groups in the Pakur district attacked Agnivesh on the same day as a Supreme Court judgment called mob lynching unacceptable and holding the local administration, the state and central governments responsible for preventing it.

El secretario general del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI), Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, condena el ataque perpetrado contra el conocido activista social Swami Agnivesh en el estado de Jharkhand en el noreste de la India. Una multitud violenta de grupos fundamentalistas radicales atacó a Agnivesh en el distrito de Pakur el mismo día que una sentencia del Tribunal Supremo declaró que los linchamientos eran inaceptables y que incumbía a la administración local y a los gobiernos estatales y central prevenirlos.

Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity (YATRA) began at the Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre, Hong Kong on 7 July. Drawing young women and men from across the World Council of Churches (WCC) fellowship in Asia as well as theological institutions, the focus of this year’s YATRA is ‘Passionately Christian and Compassionately Interreligious’.

Korea’s Christian leaders have urged Catholics to work together with the WCC to help bring peace and reconciliation to their country. Rev. Dr Sang Chang, president of WCC’s Asia region, and Rev. Dr Lee Hong-jeong, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) were speaking as Pope Francis visited the headquarters of the ecumenical movement in Geneva to mark the WCC’s 70th anniversary.

As many Buddhists prepare to observe Vesakh on 29 April - a day commemorating the life and legacy of Gautama Buddha - WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit extended his greetings to Buddhists across the world.

Applications are now open for YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity) 2018, an inter-religious training programme of the WCC. The intensive training course, held annually since 2014, seeks to enable young Christian leaders from Asian churches to contribute towards the building up of just, harmonious and peaceable communities by equipping them for ministries of justice and peace from an inter-religious perspective.

The adoption of consensus decision-making for WCC meetings was proposed in 2002. Dr Jill Tabart of the Uniting Church in Australia was consensus mentor as these new meeting procedures were introduced at the 9th Assembly and beyond.