Search results

Damaris, a Nigerian woman, described her experience of 2020: “We’ve gone through hell.”

Damaris and her sisters were kidnapped in March 2020 and threatened with death as their kidnappers demanded money. Her father had to sell everything and beg on the streets to meet their demands. “We are just a common people in Nigeria,” she said. “We don’t know what we did.”

The legacy of sexual slavery before, during and after the brutal Korean War weighs heavily on the shoulders of the thousands of Korean women who lived for decades under a brutal militarized patriarchy.

Our series of interviews with Thursdays in Black ambassadors highlights those who are playing a vital role in increasing the impact of our collective call for a world without rape and violence. Hanbeet Rhee, from the Presbyterian Church of Korea, is a member of the Ecumenical Youth Council in Korea. She is also a commissioner with the World Council of Churches (WCC) ECHOS programme, as well as a youth advisor for the WCC Central Committee.

In January 2019, Aya Maasarwe, a university exchange student in Melbourne, was walking home at night and speaking to her sister on her phone. She was attacked, raped and murdered.
The public outcry intensified a national debate about violence against women in Australia following several high-profile murders in the country.

In the wake of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, the Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership, based in Chicago, lifted up points of hope that peace will win in the end. In a 25 April message, Shanta Premawardhana, president of the institute, wrote that every person of every faith of every nation deserves to wake up in peace. “Every child deserves to feel safe, welcomed, and alive to the promise that each day brings,” Premawardhana wrote. “I'm sure you know that this is why we build Interfaith Peacemaker Teams in Sri Lanka.”

In den sozialen Medien hatten Liebesbotschaften am Valentinstag Konjunktur, aber von denjenigen, die die Bewegung Donnerstags in Schwarz unterstützen, wurde gleichzeitig auch nachdrücklich daran erinnert, dass Liebe keine Gewalt kennt.

Social media was awash with messages of love on Valentine’s Day, but from Thursdays in Black supporters, the flowers came with strong messages that love is not violent.

In einem äußert ungewöhnlichen Schritt haben die Oberhäupter der Jerusalemer Kirchen am Sonntag die Grabeskirche geschlossen. Die gemeinsame Protestaktion war eine Antwort auf Pläne der Jerusalemer Behörden, Steuern in Millionenhöhe von den Kirchen nachzufordern, sowie auf das Gesetzesvorhaben, das die Enteignung von den Kirchen gehörendem Grund und Boden ermöglichen würde.

In a highly unusual action, the leaders of Jerusalem’s churches closed the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday. The united protest was in response to moves by Jerusalem authorities to begin collecting tens of millions of dollars in taxes from churches, as well as proposed legislation to confiscate church-owned land.

Die Kirche muss ein sicherer Ort sein, an dem sündige Menschen aufgenommen werden, um aus ihren Fehlern zu lernen und sich zu ändern, und an dem diejenigen, denen Wunden zugefügt wurden, ihren Schmerz teilen und eine Zuflucht finden können, sagt Maria Dous, Medizinstudentin aus Ägypten. Im Juli nahm sie an einem Seminar teil, das vom Ökumenischen Netzwerks zur Stärkung von Frauen afrikanischer Herkunft (PAWEEN) veranstaltet wurde.

Church must be a safe place where sinners are welcome to learn and change, and where the wounded can share their pains and find refuge, says Maria Dous, a medical student from Egypt. In July, she participated in a seminar organized by the Pan African Women’s Ecumenical Empowerment Network at the WCC's Ecumenical Institute Bossey.