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Canadian churches—including the Anglican Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Evangelical Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church, and United Church—prepared a report for Canada’s Universal Periodic Review. 

The United Church of Canada has launched the “Korea Peace Appeal Ten Thousand Signature Campaign” that declares, “70 years is enough. It’s time to end the Korean War.”

Grief and anger in Canada and across the world have followed the news that the remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of the Kamloops Residential School in the western Canadian province of British Columbia.

World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca called for prayers in the wake of an attack by a gunman that left 22 people dead in Nova Scotia, Canada over the weekend. The gunman was shot by police.

The World Association for Christian Communication is creating a rapid response fund to help support grassroots community media outlets that provide accurate, trusted coronavirus-related information to vulnerable people who often cannot access mainstream media. Individuals and organisations are encouraged to contribute to the fund.

In an opening address at a Forum on Modern Slavery in Istanbul on 7 January, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew spoke on “Awareness, Action and Impact.” After many centuries of progress and advancement, we still live in a world where injustice and slavery continue to thrive, and where human dignity is exchanged for the sole purpose of greed, gain, and profit, reflected Bartholomew.

Many ecumenical pioneers, including former WCC general secretary Philip Potter, were in a sense a product of the Sunday School movement. Ulrich Becker tells a story that seems to be in danger of being forgotten.

What else could your family, your parish, your community do to respond to the needs of migrants and refugees arriving in your country? Representatives of many different churches met in Rome in September to discuss that practical question, as well as respond to the broader challenge of how people of faith can combat the rising tide of racism, xenophobia and nationalist policies that increasingly target vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers.

Around 60 participants from Christian churches all over the world gathered in Beit Sahour for peace consultations two weeks ago.

When the WCC joined the Blue Communities Project on 25 October, water and eco-justice advocates from around the world offered congratulations, while at the same time urging WCC member churches to join the quest for global water and sanitation rights.

Leading religious scholars representing the major world religions have issued a declaration saying it is imperative that religions be a “positive resource for human rights”. The Declaration of Human Rights by the World’s Religions was released 15 September in Montreal, Canada at the 3rd Global Conference on World’s Religions after September 11.

Canadian Lutheran World Relief and the WCC are planning joint action on refugee rights now that the Canadian church agency has been approved for WCC membership. Plans are for CLWR to collaborate with WCC on advocacy initiatives through the Ecumenical United Nations Office in New York.

“We had heard that racism continues to be an issue in the United States,” said Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee. “But we did not expect to find it so deep, so wide and so pervasive.”

Two major crises have marked the months since the WCC called Katalina Tahaafe-Williams to work in Geneva on its migration, indigenous, and multicultural ministry programmes. When she took up the job in October, the European refugee crisis was in full flow. Then in November, terrorists attacked Paris.

Members of a small congregation in Toronto, Canada are celebrating. On Sunday the member of parliament for their riding came to the church to announce that the federal government has granted residency status to a Roma family that had lived under “sanctuary” protection in the church for 18 months.

In the midst of a mounting climate of fear of refugees and immigrants, the WCC is calling on Christians to be true to the Biblical imperative to “welcome the stranger”.

What do Indigenous peoples expect of churches in light of the report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on church-run residential schools for aboriginal children?

What do indigenous peoples expect of churches in light of the report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on church-run residential schools for aboriginal children? Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, responds.

What do indigenous peoples expect of churches in light of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on church-run residential schools for aboriginal children? Dr Marie Wilson, TRC Commissioner, responds in this wide-ranging interview with the WCC Communication.