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More than 30 alumni of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Young Adults Training for Religious Amity programme gathered online over the last two weeks for a unique “Train the Trainers” event to equip former participants with the skills to organise interreligious dialogue and training in their own communities. The training, which brought together former participants from 2014-2019, included four webinars focussed on deepening interreligious awareness as well as developing leadership competencies in facilitation.

An interreligious conference exploring religion and migration was hosted from 27-30 January in Sweden by Religions for Peace co-president and Church of Sweden Archbishop Dr Antje Jackelén.

The annual meeting of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) was hosted by the WCC at the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva, and at the nearby Chateau de Bossey from 6-7 February.

A lively interchange on the rapidly changing landscape of interreligious encounter marked the launch of a new journal at the Ecumenical Centre on Friday, 7 February. The occasion was the unveiling of the new incarnation of Current Dialogue, the pioneering World Council of Churches periodical on interreligious dialogue. Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), welcomed the new publishing arrangement as an historic moment for the ecumenical movement, through which Current Dialogue joins the WCC’s other two academic journals, noting that the journal brings a distinctive ecumenical perspective to the growing field.

Current Dialogue, the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) long-standing journal on interreligious relations, is now available online and as a print issue in a new format.

During a visit from World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC member churches in Japan received expressions of appreciation from the WCC for hosting various visits and forums that strengthened ecumenical ties.

WCC members in Japan reported a deepening spirit of koinonia as well as more involvement in the programmatic life of the WCC, particularly as the ecumenical movement sets its sights on the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly in 2021 in Karlsruhe, Germany.

As the Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity opened at the Yonsei University Chapel in South Korea on 18 September, participants were already learning to live into the theme “Stewards of Hope, Seekers of Harmony.” For the first time, the training includes not only young people from Asia but from across the world, and is being co-coordinated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) Programme for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, the Council for World Mission, and youth representatives from the ecumenical movement.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is currently working on learning from its member churches and other partners about the realities around the world of racism, discrimination, and xenophobia, WCC director of international affairs Peter Prove has told a gathering at the United Nations in Geneva.
Prove, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, Prove was speaking on 17 September at a side event during the 42nd UN Human Rights Council from 9 - 27 September at the Palais des Nations.

Twenty-seven young ecumenists from across Asia are currently attending the month-long Asian Ecumenical Institute organized by the Christian Conference of Asia. The programme aims to provide ecumenical formation and leadership development training for prospective church and ecumenical leaders. It is being held at the Christian Conference of Asia headquarters in Payap University Campus in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz hosted an international conference on “The Many Faces of Jesus Christ: Contextual Christology in a New World Come of Age.” Meeting from July 4-6 on the university campus, the conference brought together 20 scholars from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America to listen to and debate new developments in Christology from around the world. Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal and Reformed theologians made presentations on Christology, as reflected in theological writings, poetry, art, music and murals, and lived experience.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) hosted a Sikh-Christian dialogue on 5 July with the theme “Pursuing Peace in a Pluralistic World” to commemorate the 550th birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak, the first guru of the Sikhs.

Young students from all over the world were welcomed to the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland on Tuesday for the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Interreligious Studies.
The theme of the 2018/2019 academic year is “Engaging for just and participatory societies - belongingness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam”.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit sent greetings to Muslim friends and colleagues as they celebrated the festival of Eid al-Fitr.

“Many Christians find that it is an enriching experience, and indeed a positive challenge to their faith, to observe something of how Muslims practise their faith through the month of Ramadan,” wrote Tveit. "For example, your commitment to fasting, to mutual forgiveness, and to remembering the needs of the poor and hungry, is a welcome reminder to Christians that these practices are also important to us in our own faith.”

At a conference with the theme “Promoting Peace Together” held in Geneva on 21 May, religious leaders focused on two historic documents related to peace-making. The first, “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” was jointly signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi in February. The second, “Education for Peace in a Multi-Religious World: A Christian Perspective,” jointly prepared by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the World Council of Churches (WCC), was officially launched at the conference.

As Buddhists across the world prepare to observe the festival of Vesak, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit extended greetings to the WCC’s Buddhist partners. “May you continue to be inspired by the wisdom of Gautama Buddha whose birth, enlightenment and death you commemorate on this festive day,” wrote Tveit.

Racism is a curse that continues to haunt the global community, with new forms constantly emerging. This curse brings us to the realisation that no country is free from racism and we cannot afford any attitude of pretence or denial that no further action is needed to focus on racial justice in order to re-establish human dignity and equal human rights on a global scale.

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.”

From 23-25 March, 1,600 young people from 43 countries came together in Beirut, Lebanon with the brothers of the ecumenical, monastic community of Taizé (France). Middle Eastern and Western Christians discovered how fruitful and stimulating an ecumenical exchange can be.

The latest issue of Current Dialogue tackles diverse themes ranging from Jain approaches to religious plurality to the elimination of nuclear weapons. Marrying theory to practice, it seeks to throw light on the foundations for interreligious engagement of particular religious traditions while also highlighting the various challenges that communities of faith face in contemporary contexts across the world.