Search results

Pope Benedict XVI saluted the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) on Sunday, praying that “every act of violence is eliminated.”

More than midway through the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in Kingston, Jamaica, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said he believes the convocation's outcomes will both tangible and significant.

When Archbishop Valentine Mokiwa visited a gold mining operation in Tanzania, he came across something he never expected to see: a world-class runway and sprawling houses with private swimming pools.

Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia, is home to more than 11,000 people, whose very existence, which at one time was tied to the ocean and its bounty, is now threatened by rising ocean water levels.

As peace advocates from around the world relayed heartrending stories of violence and oppression, they also expressed their ongoing hope that a movement of peace will prevail during the proceedings of the second day of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) being held in Kingston, Jamaica.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, who since July 2010 has served as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), has completed his first official visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.

With the voices of speakers including Martin Luther King III and German Lutheran pastor Dr Margot Kässmann, the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) will begin next week. This major ecumenical event organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) is to take place at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Kingston, Jamaica.

Three decades into the AIDS pandemic it has become clear that churches, non-governmental agencies and governments need to redouble their efforts to combat the disease and its effects, said the central governing body of the World Council of Churches (WCC) during its meeting in February 2011.

“God of life, lead us to justice and peace” will provide the theme for the 10th Assembly of the WCC.

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) takes new steps to promote Christian unity and inter-religious harmony, will the challenges of organizational governance and re-structuring drain “the life out of the ecumenical movement”?

Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, moderator of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, argued forcefully today that unity as well as justice and peace should be included in the theme for the next assembly of the world’s largest ecumenical body.

In the aftermath of an international consultation on the engagement of Christians in ministries of service, relief and development, Cuban theologian Reinerio Arce agreed to be interviewed on the continuing need for “diakonia” as an essential ministry of the ecumenical movement. Dr Arce, president of Matanzas Theological Seminary and moderator of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, was a participant in the Global Consultation on Prophetic Diakonia in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 13 through 15 December 2010.

Thirty representatives of Orthodox institutions gathered in mid-November 2010 at the Andrei Saguna theological faculty in Sibiu, Romania to reflect on the topic “The Ecumenical Movement in Theological Education and the Life of Orthodox Churches”. This discussion was moderated by Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople).

Church representatives gathered in News Orleans were reminded of their calling "to bring the churches to the same table where we can share as many of God’s gifts as possible, and to prepare for the visible unity of the Lord’s table" by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit on Thursday, 11 November.

The wholeness of creation and the commitment for justice are two biblical insights that have guided ecumenical concern on climate change, say the editors of the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, published under the title, "Churches Caring for Creation and Climate Justice".

By Stephen Brown (*)

"To launch together a new beginning for common mission in the 21st century" is the challenge put before participants at an international mission conference taking place in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, from 2-6 June.

Hope and tenacity are essential for the ecumenical movement stated the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit at the Second Ecumenical Kirchentag which took place in Munich, Germany, from 12-16 May.

How Christians living in a rich society deal with the concern for the poor was one of the subjects discussed by participants at a German church convention (Kirchentag) celebrated in Munich, from 12-16 May.

In an act of solidarity with the 2.5 billion people in the world who do not have access to safe, private and hygienic lavatories, staff members of a number of church-related organizations based at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, including the World Council of Churches (WCC), queued in front of a symbolic "toilet door" for ten minutes on World Water Day, 22 March.