H.E. Mor Boutros Kassis, who has been serving the community for the last seven years as a temporary bishop, was installed as archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo on 15 October.
Walk around the streets of New York City and you may notice that there is one dominant color on the fashion palette: black. In this place, one of the world’s fashion capitals, residents want to show they are edgy, hip, and trendy.
Three new theological reflections are available to help people prepare and reflect for the World Week of Peace in Palestine and Israel, to be held 15-22 September.
It’s not easy to be a youth leader in the Holy Land. “Our youth have a need to recognize God’s calling in their lives,” explained Nadine Bitar, general secretary of Christian Youth in Palestine, a group that supports youth leaders in the homeland of Jesus.
World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca urgently called for an end to violence in Jerusalem, after on 14 August eight people were wounded in a shooting attack targeting a bus.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca visited Syria, alongside the Middle East Council of Churches secretary general Dr Michel Abs, the general secretary of ACT Alliance Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, and WCC senior advisor on peace building Michel Nseir.
Osama Sayegh has a heart for numbers: four in Deir Ghazaleh, 35 in Kufr Kad, 50 in Toubas, 35 in Jalameh, 67 in Burqin, 130 in Jenin.
He counts the number of Christians left in these communities across the northern part of the West Bank. He reaches with his heart for the people behind those numbers: why are young Christian families leaving? How can he convince them to stay?
A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation led by WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca visited Jerusalem and the West Bank from 14-17 July, meeting with patriarchs and heads of Christian communities as well as local clergy and laity.
After being received by representatives of the churches managing the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem on 15 July, President Joseph Biden was accompanied on a short tour to the site of the birth of Christ, where he was awaited by Patriarch Theophilos III, the Custos Father Patton, and the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Norahan Manugian, all of whom took Biden on a tour and exchanged discussion with him in the presence of a number of Palestinian officials.
In a joint letter to President Joe Biden, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ACT Alliance urged that he find ways in which the intended purposes of sanctions can be pursued without harm being inflicted on ordinary Syrians.
As a six-year-old boy, Abu El Walid Dajani began helping his father manage the New Imperial Hotel near Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem. The historic property is owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, and leased before 1967 to the Dajani family to run as a hotel. Now 77, Dajani has become the manager. But the threat of eviction is derailing a way of life his family has known for generations.
Since the election in mid-June of Rev. Dr Prof. Jerry Pillay as new World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, concerns have been raised, predominantly in Jewish media, about his position on Israel and the Jewish communities and their faith.
Rev. Dr Jeffrey Carter, Church of the Brethren, is president of Bethany Theological Seminary. His reflections below were drawn from an interview after the confessional meeting with historic peace churches and the Moravians that occurred during the recent World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee meeting. Carter is a member of the central committee.
In a public statement focused on the Holy Land, the WCC central committee expressed “deep solidarity with the member churches and Christians of the region in their life and work, keeping the Christian faith and witness in the Holy Land alive and vibrant, as well as with all people in the region.”
Um Ismail, in her 50s, loves her children fiercely and wholly, as mothers do all over the globe. But for Um Ismail, who lives in the Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin community, finding enough water for her ten children plunges the family daily into near catastrophe.
In a response to false reporting in Germany on Israel and Palestine, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca reiterated the WCC’s history of denouncing antisemitism and, at the same time, responding to the experiences and suffering of Palestinians.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca extended condolences to the loved ones and to all those mourning the loss of those gunned down in a grocery store in Buffalo last weekend and a McDonald’s in Chicago this week.
As the 2022 World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel approaches in September, the World Council of Churches (WCC) invites people and churches all over the world to pray, advocate, and stand in solidarity with people in the Holy Land.
On the International Day of Living Together in Peace declared by the United Nations, members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) fellowship from countries troubled by war and conflict gathered to pray for sustainable peace in the world.