Search results

The WCC general secretary extended greetings from the worldwide fellowship of churches to Archbishop Dr Antje Jackelén at her inauguration. Jackelén, born 1955 in Germany, was ordained in the Church of Sweden in 1980, and elected to be Sweden's first female archbishop in October 2013.

Father Ioan Sauca of the Romanian Orthodox Church and Peter Prove, a Lutheran lawyer and international affairs expert from Australia, have been named to key staff positions in the WCC.

An “inter-generational dialogue on faith, culture, HIV and sexual reproductive health and rights” was initiated on 11 March in New York City by the World YWCA in partnership with the WCC and other international organizations. The dialogue was organized as a side event at the United Nations 58th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

The WCC has expressed “great concern” over the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in the case of Perinçek v. Switzerland, recalling that the Swiss National Council and the Federal Tribunal in the past have clearly recognized the Armenian genocide as a historical fact.

Strong concerns were expressed by the WCC Executive Committee over the increasing number of internally displaced persons and the on-going conflict in South Sudan in statements adopted by the committee on 12 February, during its meeting in Bossey, Switzerland.

The WCC general secretary, following a session on climate change at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, stressed the “significant role of financial policy-making by the states in addressing climate change.”

At the Second United Nations Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights, human rights defenders from Colombia and Guatemala exposed degrading environmental, ecological, economic and social impacts on indigenous communities. These impacts are consequences of the projects run by multinational companies in a number of countries.

During 2014 the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey will be holding a number of seminars raising awareness on issues related to women’s concerns, justice and peace, ecology and Christian theology, interfaith relations and migrant churches.

Three human rights activists from indigenous communities in Guatemala and Colombia will present cases highlighting human rights violations by multinational corporations in their countries, including instances of land grabbing, at the Second United Nations Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights.

The WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has conveyed his best wishes and prayers for Rev. Dr Antje Jackelén on her appointment as archbishop of the Church of Sweden. A Lutheran pastor, and bishop in Lund in southern Sweden, Jackelén is the first woman to hold this position.

Work for the rights of religious minorities should be done in the spirit of universalism, said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, in his opening address at a WCC consultation.

A WCC consultation in Geneva will facilitate dialogue on issues related to religious minorities and the politicization of religion, which contributes to discrimination and persecution of religious minorities around the world.

The Archives of the WCC in Geneva have provided both research materials and a space for public consideration of “the ecumenical movement and Cold War politics”.

“Welcoming and protecting the strangers and the aliens, especially the migrants, are at the core of our mission as churches,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, in a meeting with Prof. François Crépeau, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants.

In Tahiti, an ecumenical delegation was told about the need for re-inscription of French Polynesia (Maohi Nui) on the United Nations list of countries to be decolonized.

As the uncertainty of the whereabouts of two Syrian church leaders kidnapped in Syria on Monday continued Wednesday, the patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox churches have issued a joint communique calling on churches around the world to “stand fast in the face of what is going on and witness to their faith in the power of love in this world.”