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A wave of change is blowing at the All Africa Conference of Churches, as the African ecumenical body implements a new five-year strategic plan. In an ambitious six pillar road map, the grouping of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and indigenous churches has unveiled completely new areas of work, as it moves to inject new energy into older programmes. At the core of the strategy is effectiveness, efficiency and reliability for the ecumenical body, which is keen to deliver on its prophetic mission.

A statement from the World Council of Churches (WCC) Executive Committee commemorated the quad-centennial of the forced transatlantic voyage of enslaved African peoples from Angola to Jamestown, Virginia (USA).

For HIV-infected people in Nairobi, the Eastern Deanery Aids Relief Program makes a difference. By providing a quarter of the antiretroviral therapy care, it helps around 26,000 HIV-infected people in the Kenyan capital to live normal lives.

The WCC invites applications for a seminar on Youth and Racism Awareness in Asia, to be held in Osaka, Japan on 8-12 September 2019.

Peace education to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between people involving the religious and secular sectors is needed to counter uncertainty fed by radicalization and xenophobia, says a leading human rights advocate.

Catholic and World Council of Churches (WCC) leaders, meeting in Rome to discuss ways of combating racism and xenophobia, have pledged to uphold the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees.

At a global conference on xenophobia in Rome, a panel of four religious leaders from, respectively, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Islamic traditions, spoke candidly about how xenophobia can sometimes be woven deeply into the fabric of these traditions.

World Council of Churches leaders spoke on the theme “Hospitality: On a Pilgrim’s Way of Justice and Peace" at a symposium on 23 August at the Protestant Theological University Amsterdam.

In a plenary presentation given at the 11th All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda, on 5 July, World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Isabel Apawo Phiri offered “An Overview on the Imperative of Diakonia for the Church.”

The marketplace - also referred to as a “sokoni" - became an opportunity for faith and community-based institutions to share what they do to improve the lives of people around them.

Thirty participants gathered on 9-10 March in a ‘warsha’ - or workshop - entitled “Building Capacity for Migration & Multicultural Ministries: From Chaos to Hope” in Arusha, Tanzania.
“Warsha,” a Kiswahili term, defines an arena for discussing new ideas that advance creative thinking, in this case on how the the church today can inform and inspire mission and ministry with the migrants.

More than 50 women from across the globe, representing diverse faith traditions, gathered on 6-7 March in Arusha, Tanzania, for a pre-conference on the theme “Women in Mission on the move of the Spirit: Mentorship for Transformation”.

In a symbolic event dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), students of the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) 2018 planted 12 trees at Tumaini University Makumira, Arusha, Tanzania on 7 March.

On 2 March, Christian women from 170 countries will observe the World Day of Prayer, a tradition that has continued since 1927. The 2018 theme, “All God’s Creation is Very Good!” features materials written by people from Suriname, on the northeastern coast of South America.

In 2018 we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches. In order to create a lively firsthand account of the ecumenical fellowship and of our shared journey, member churches have contributed stories of people, events, achievements and even failures, all of which have deepened our collective search for Christian unity. This story was written by Olle Eriksson, a Namibian who worked for 35 years (1968 – 2003) with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission and Lutheran World Federation.

Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser has been on an ecumenical journey for most of his adult life, which spans 80 years. The former WCC general secretary relates some of this pilgrimage in his newest publication, “The Challenge of Transformation: An Ecumenical Journey.” On 5 February, shortly after Raiser’s birthday, ecumenical experts from different generations, confessions and continents met in Geneva to discuss the newest publication by the man who led the WCC from 1993 to 2003.

It’s 70 years since the World Council of Churches was founded in Amsterdam on 23 August. In addition to a commemoration service in Amsterdam on 23 August, the WCC, its member churches and partners are planning a variety of events to move forward on our ongoing Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, and at the same time honour and learn from these 70 years of ecumenical endeavour. Dr Abuom, from the Anglican Church of Kenya, is the moderator of the WCC Central Committee. She is the first woman and the first African in the position in WCC’s history. In an interview, she reflects on the evolution of the WCC in the past 70 years.

Fifty church development practitioners and leaders as well as organisations for persons with disabilities in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda met in Nairobi, Kenya from 9-13 October to share their experiences on disability inclusion in church development programmes and to explore strategies to ensure inclusion of persons with disabilities in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The meeting was organised by WCC Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network Project on Disability Inclusion in Development.

During a solidarity visit in Kenya on 10-12 October, leaders from the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee met with Kenyan church representatives, expressed their support for Kenyan churches working toward peace and justice, and deepened their vision for future WCC events, including the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism set for March 2018.

Participants at the Africa Pre-Conference of the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, arrived in black clothing on 14 September to act in solidarity with the worldwide “Thursdays in Black" campaign.