Search results

The theme “Discrimination, Persecution, Martyrdom: Following Christ Together” remained in sharp focus at a Global Christian Forum consultation in Albania. The event from 1-5 November in Tirana gathered some 150 international participants, including representatives of the WCC.

Today 35 bishops and church leaders from 20 countries gathered in Munich, Germany to discuss the refugee situation and the role of the churches in Europe.

Adebayo Anthony Kehinde leads an African group supporting ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Its interfaith campaign is especially significant on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Japan.

Women are virtually invisible in news reporting on peace and security issues in nations experiencing conflict.

In view of the current refugee crisis, European churches are being encouraged to deepen their efforts in receiving, supporting and protecting refugees who arrive in the region. This call was made in a letter issued jointly by the WCC, the Conference of European Churches and the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe.

The role of Christian unity in today’s world was explored by the Rev. Dr Anders Wejryd, Archbishop emeritus of the Church of Sweden and president for Europe of the WCC, in his speech at an international conference in Tirana, Albania.

In the wake of recent crisis with the refugees in Europe, it is “absolutely and critically necessary that all European states take their proper responsibility in terms of reception and support for people seeking refuge, safety and a better future for themselves and their families. This cannot be left only to the states where they enter first,” says the WCC general secretary.

Seventy years after nuclear fireballs exploded over two Japanese cities, an ecumenical group of pilgrims has come to Hiroshima to listen to those who survived and renew the struggle against their own countries’ continued reliance on nuclear weapons.

Church leaders from seven countries currently making historic choices for or against outlawing nuclear weapons will embark on a pilgrimage in early August to the two Japanese cities that were decimated by atomic bombs 70 years ago.

Expressing shock at the killings in Kuwait, Tunisia and France that took place on 26 June, the WCC acting general secretary Georges Lemopoulos said, “I grieve with those who have lost loved ones, and those who have been injured as a result of these appalling acts, which have marred the month of Ramadan, sacred to Muslims everywhere.”

The WCC general secretary extended prayers and congratulations to Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom who has been honoured for his services in promoting human rights and religious freedom.

Meeting from 17 to 24 June, the newly reconstituted Commission on Faith and Order of the WCC has begun to define its principal trajectories for ecumenical study and common activity from 2015 until the next WCC Assembly in 2020.

Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church interacted with the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC on 22 June during their week-long meeting at the Caraiman Monastery in the southern Carpathian Mountains of Romania.

At its first meeting after being reconstituted following the 10th Assembly of the WCC, the 49-member Faith and Order Commission has elected five vice-moderators to assist the commission’s moderator, British theologian Rev. Dr Susan Durber of the United Reformed Church in the United Kingdom.

On a visit to Romania from 16 to 18 June during which he addressed a meeting of the Faith and Order Commission, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit paid formal visits to Romanian President Klaus Werner Johannis, and Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The WCC says it is grateful that the churches of the Union of Utrecht, the Philippine Independent Church, and the Episcopal Church have embarked on a study about Globalization and Catholicity.

Deeply concerned for migrants in many regions, especially those “driven to undertake journeys of desperate risk and danger”, the WCC Executive Committee has declared: “All members of the international community have a moral and legal duty to save the lives of those in jeopardy at sea or in transit, regardless of their origin and status.”

Four weeks of negotiations on nuclear weapons came to a close on Friday 22 May, as the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended without a formal agreement. Despite the outcome, a bright new prospect towards a world without nuclear weapons has emerged in the form of a Humanitarian Pledge, now endorsed by 107 states, which promises “to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.

“Nuclear weapons are incompatible with the values upheld by our respective faith traditions”, representatives of some 50 Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Jewish organizations said on 1 May. The inter-religious statement came in a joint call to the 191 governments participating in the world’s largest disarmament treaty. The call, co-sponsored by the WCC, was made during civil society presentations to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City.

Amidst intimidation, illegal arrests, disappearances, torture and killings in Tanah Papua resulting from tensions between the Indonesian authorities and the Papuan pro-liberation groups, churches seek justice, peace, dignity and security for the Papuans.