Search results

The church and migration is the focus of the latest issue of the International Review of Mission (IRM). The biannual journal is sponsored by the World Council of Churches and focuses on the ecumenical practice of mission while giving voice to other theological perspectives, such as those of Pentecostal and Evangelical missiologists.

Five general secretaries of international ecumenical organizations engaged in lively conversation with leaders of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) on Friday 8 April, the final day of the EKD Council’s visit to the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. The general secretaries are heads of the ACT Alliance, the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

By Marcelo Schneider (*)

As churches worldwide prepare for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in Jamaica in May, the latest edition of the World Council of Churches (WCC) quarterly journal, Ecumenical Review, will focus on challenges of peacemaking in places as varied as the Middle East and Africa.

“Without any doubt, ecclesiology remains in our times the crucial issue for Christian theology in ecumenical perspective.” This was one of the conclusions drawn by a week-long consultation in Cyprus at which forty Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox representatives provided a common response to The Nature and Mission of the Church, a 2005 ecumenical text published by the WCC Commission on Faith and Order.

“Water and Just Peace” will be the theme of this year's Lenten reflections provided by the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN). Starting on Monday 7 March the weekly reflections will explore the connection between access to water, struggles over this precious resource and building just peace.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is among 25 religious and secular organizations who have addressed a letter to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations strongly urging the appointment of a UN special rapporteur or a similar procedure to investigate climate change.  The goal of such an investigation would be to identify “the adverse impacts of climate change for human rights” and make recommendations for further action by international bodies. “Climate justice, a core demand in the WCC climate change work, includes looking at how human rights are protected and enhanced, especially looking at the most vulnerable populations, such as those in Africa, Asia, the Pacific or the Caribbean,” said Dr Guillermo Kerber, the WCC programme executive for climate change. “The WCC has clearly stated that climate change has human rights implications,” he added. “It became clear to us after the COP 15 Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, at Copenhagen in December 2009, that other avenues in the UN system would have to be explored to protect victims of climate change. Having a special procedure on climate change and human rights would be a way to enhance that protection.” The letter to the UN Human Rights Council calls for action to be taken at the council session to be held in June 2011.

At their meeting this week the WCC Central Committee issued a statement strongly welcoming the recognition of water and sanitation as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council.

Some 40 theologians, most of them indigenous and representing different regions of the world, will meet in La Paz, Bolivia this weekend to share their various experiences and theological reflections.

Staff at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, had their offices blessed today on the feast of the Theophany following the celebration of a service of the Great Blessing of the Waters.

"Indigenous faith is as diverse and as colourful as a garden full of flowers, all diverse, fragrant and beautiful, ready to be shared with whomever is capable of embracing them," guest editor Maria Chavez Quispe writes in her introduction to the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review .

Experts, activists and church representatives met at the Asia consultation of the Ecumenical Water Network and debated on what it means to give a Christian witness on water issues.

By Maurice Malanes (*)

The Cancun Agreement, adopted by the vast majority of parties at the United Nations climate change conference (COP16) in the early morning hours of 11 December, gives guarded hope to churches and civil society groups who had called for decisive action by the world's governments. In an improvement on the process that led to the much-criticized Copenhagen Accord last year, the president of the conference managed to keep the climate negotiations in the multilateral track and make some, although insufficient, steps forward.

In a statement to the high-level segment plenary of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, a delegation of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has criticized the lack of action during the last decade.

Faith communities came together to address climate change, poverty and sustainable development in a side event jointly organized by Caritas Internationalis, ACT Alliance and the World Council of Churches (WCC) at the Cancun climate summit on 7 December.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation on ecumenical accompaniment in Colombia was held in Geneva on 2-3 December. Participants affirmed the ecumenical commitment to strengthen the peace process in Colombia. The consultation decided to explore ways to initiate an international ecumenical accompaniment programme in Colombia as a contribution to the Colombian peace process.

Members of the WCC delegation attending the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 16) in Cancun, together with other delegates and members of local parishes, participated at an inter-religious celebration organized by Caritas Mexico and the WCC. The event was held on Saturday 4 December at the Church of the Risen Christ in Cancun and took as its motto “United in prayer: United for the creation that needs us”.

Members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation to the United Nations climate talks joined the Time for Climate Justice campaigners on Tuesday morning for a protest march in the streets of Cancun, Mexico.