Church leaders in Pakistan are calling for international solidarity and for measures to ensure the safety and security of Christians in Pakistan. Their messages come in the wake of church burnings in the city of Jaranwala, in eastern Pakistan, where 24 churches have been burned, affecting at least 600 families.
The World Council of Churches (WCC), in partnership with the Association of Theological Institutes and Faculties in the Middle East (ATIME) and the Middle East Council of Churches, held the first-ever Regional Ecumenical Theological Institute in Cairo under the theme “Respect for Creation is the Glorification of the Creator.”
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed shock at receiving reports of violent attacks against churches and Christians in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
Human rights violations in Israel and Palestine have nearly tripled during the past year, according to reports from the most recent set of ecumenical accompaniers from the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) condemned a bomb attack in Pakistan that killed 40 people and injured 200 others—including children—as they gathered for a political rally in Pakistan’s northwestern Bajur district. At least 40 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded, including children. The attack is one of the worst in recent years.
Iranian rector Ayatollah M. Seyyed Abolhassan Nawab and Ms Zahra Sedigh, from the Iranian Mission to the UN,visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 27 July, discussing education and formation, as well as the importance of strengthening the role of interreligious cooperation.
Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, Mission of Palestine to Switzerland; Ambassador Dr Omar Awadallah, assistant minister for United Nations and Specialized Organizations; and Doa Nofal, second secretary at the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 6 July to discuss the current situation in Palestine.
Resources—including reflections, prayers, and more—are now available to help churches and all people of good will to observe the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel from 16-23 September 2023.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay called for an end to the Israeli military’s assault in Jenin. The WCC condemns the assault and calls for the cessation of all violence in the West Bank including that from Israeli settlers.
World Council of Churches (WCC) president for Eastern Orthodox Churches Metropolitan Vasilios of Ammochostos has three-quarters of his diocese on the island of Cyprus under Turkish occupation, but no Christians are still living in the occupied part.
The WCC central committee expressed continuous concern about two significant territorial crises in the eastern Mediterranean: those within Palestine and Israel, and those within Cyprus. “These politically driven conflicts have resulted in illegal occupations that have spanned decades,” reads a minute released by the governing body.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee meeting brings great joy, its moderator said, as its 148 members met at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva to discuss the governance of one of the planet's most diverse fellowship of churches.
During the World Council of Churches (WCC) leadership delegation visit to Ukraine in May, an ecumenical prayer service was held in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on 12 May. The service, led by the WCC leadership, WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC moderator Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, with participation of members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO), took place at St Andrew Orthodox Church in Bucha.
The latest group of World Council of Churches (WCC) ecumenical accompaniers reported incidents between 14 April and 22 May that ranged from violence to displacement, from harassment to intimidation in the West Bank.
World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed concern over a violent protest by rightwing Jewish activists against an Evangelical Christian event in Jerusalem on 28 May.
Exclusive interview: World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay shares details on a recent meeting with Patriarch Kirill, including topics discussed at the meeting, what the WCC contributed to the dialogue, and steps forward.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay shared joyful congratulations with Archbishop Hosam Naoum, who was installed as new primate of Anglican Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.
World Council of Churches central committee moderator Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm delivered a lecture at the Kitzingen deanery, a regional church district near Würzburg, for the parishes of the deanery as well as for the public. The lecture, entitled “Just Peace through Military Force? Peace Ethical Considerations in Light of the War of Aggression against Ukraine,” was offered on 29 April
Marking 75 years since Al-Nakba—the Arabic term for the events of 1948, when many Palestinians were displaced from their homeland by the creation of the new state of Israel—religious leaders reflected on what Al-Nakba means today.
