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Julia Rensberg, a passionate advocate for youth and Indigenous Sami communities from the Church of Sweden, took centre stage at the Faith Pavilion's side event on “Interfaith Youth Dialogue on Climate Justice, Promoting Resilience and Hope.”

The World Council of Churches and International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) are co-hosting a hybrid event on 2 June at Stockholm+50. Exploring the theme “Climate Action and Water for Life towards Creation Justice!” the event will reflect on the current scenario of the climate emergency and global water crisis which are interconnected and impact each other as well as the sustainability of the earth. 

The 5th Ecumenical Pilgrimage for Climate Justice from Poland to Glasgow crossed the English Channel from IJmuiden in the Netherlands to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England on 11 October. They were given a warm welcome on site. 

Bishop Johan Tyrberg and a delegation from the Church of Sweden in Lund visited the World Council of Churches on 22-23 September, participating in a morning prayer for Christian unity, receiving a guided tour and discussing the theme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”

Bishops from the Church of Sweden have issue a new missive on the climate emergency that combines scientific knowledge with pastoral care, theology and specific appeals.

The First World War had started, and the planet was in crisis when he became Archbishop of Uppsala in 1914, but through it all, ecumenical trailblazer and peace-seeker Nathan Söderblom envisioned a new way for the church, a man who acted.

Nowadays, any cause can be effectively promoted in a blink of an eye, with a click on a button. At virtually no cost, messages travel fast around the globe through social media and other digital platforms. For good and bad, but mostly for good. Because without it, grassroots movements, such as the Arab Spring, which started in Tunisia in 2010 and ended up toppling several governments, would have had a much harder time rallying support and getting their message across to key audiences.

Fifty years after its assembly in Uppsala, Sweden, decisively turned to public engagement, the WCC still seeks to engage and address issues of public concern and the common good.

Ten years after the near-collapse of the world’s economy, what has changed? Not much, says the WCC, and certainly not enough.

In its continuing efforts to outlaw nuclear weapons, the WCC has issued public support for French Polynesia’s petition to the UN for redress for ongoing effects of nuclear testing there.

It ended 100 years ago, and on 11 November, church leaders will remember World War One, praying and calling for reconciliation, despite a century passing since one of humanity’s most brutal conflicts.
From Flanders in Belgium to villages across France, the UK and Germany, bells will toll to remember.

“We look forward to working closely with you in the fulfillment of people’s hopes and needs worldwide to the glory of the one God”, said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in a message of greeting to Birgitte Qvist-Sørensen, elected moderator of the governing board of ACT Alliance, on 31 October, in Uppsala, Sweden.

Archbishop Antje Jackelén, primate of the Church of Sweden, opened the ACT Assembly on 28 October in Uppsala with a sermon reflecting on the theme of the assembly, “Hope in action – putting people first.”

Three weeks have now passed since this year’s edition of the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden was wrapped up and delegates from all over the world headed home, inspired to “float” the issues, as the WCC Ecumenical Water Network chairperson, Bishop Arnold Temple from Sierra Leone, put it.

The archbishop Dr Nathan Söderblom, an ecumenical forerunner and messenger of peace in war-torn Europe, challenged a deeply divided Christianity 100 years ago. Against all odds, the Stockholm Conference on Life and Work in 1925 gathered church leaders at a scale the world had not seen since Nicaea 1600 years earlier. And it did not end there.