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The South African Council of Churches is calling on the De Klerk Foundation to retract and apologize in the wake of a 14 February statement issued by the foundation amplifying the position that apartheid was not a crime against humanity, but a Soviet propaganda ploy.

Young African clergy, theologians and laypersons are eager to engage with the challenging issues facing their continent and the world. This became clear in a recent essay competition for authors below 35 years by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC).

Numerosos jóvenes clérigos, teólogos y laicos africanos están dispuestos a comprometerse para afrontar los profundos desafíos a los que se enfrenta su continente y el mundo. Esto se puso de manifiesto en un reciente concurso de ensayos para autores menores de 35 años organizado por el Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) en colaboración con la Conferencia de Iglesias de Toda el África (AACC).

Churches across southern Africa are publicly saying #EnoughIsEnough,” with many denominations and congregations continuing to issue strong statements, arrange special prayer events, and speak out against rising levels of violence.

Both the Dutch Reformed Church and the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) have been discussing gender justice and how to keep the momentum going on the unprecedented public demand for change.

After a visit to Israel and Palestine on 21 February through 1 March, a delegation of South African and African-American church leaders, released a Group Pilgrimage Statement on Israel and Palestine.

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.

Los dirigentes del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI) hablaron sobre el tema “Hospitalidad: en un camino de peregrinación hacia la justicia y la paz” en un simposio el 23 de agosto, en la Universidad Teológica Protestante de Ámsterdam.

World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Isabel Apawo Phiri offered a keynote speech on ecumenical diakonia during the Africa Diaconia and Development Conference.

La secretaria general adjunta del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias (CMI), Isabel Apawo Phiri, pronunció el discurso inaugural sobre diaconía ecuménica durante la Conferencia de África sobre Diaconía y Desarrollo.

Most South Africans know of Brigalia Bam as chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), where she served from 1999 to 2011. Previously secretary general of the South African Council of Churches, and already an IEC commissioner, she was chosen by then-President Nelson Mandela from the list of parliamentary nominees for this critical role. In a country that had recently been on the brink of racial civil war, she guided South Africans with humour, tolerance and impartiality along the path of inclusive democracy.

“Where is God?” Evoking the desperate cry of a South Sudanese girl stranded in a refugee camp far from home, WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom opened the Central Committee’s biennial meeting on 15 June with a stirring yet clear-eyed cry for deeper engagement by the WCC and its member churches to counter the world’s most intractable problems through nurturing hope and empowerment.

“¿Dónde está Dios?”
La moderadora del CMI, la Dra. Agnes Abuom, inauguró la reunión bienal del Comité Central, el 15 de junio, con una petición conmovedora pero firme –evocando las desesperadas súplicas de una niña sudanesa perdida en un campo de refugiados– con la que instó al CMI y a sus iglesias miembros a comprometerse más en la lucha contra los problemas más espinosos del mundo, alimentando la esperanza y el empoderamiento.

“Reach out to one another in peace and humility. Stretch your hands to your neighbours, despite their circumstances. Go down on your knees and wash their feet,” Rev. Joseph Njakai, an Anglican priest in the Mount Kenya West diocese was urging on 28 March.

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.

El Rev. Dr. Konrad Raiser, de 80 años, ha recorrido un camino ecuménico durante la mayor parte de su vida adulta. El ex secretario general del CMI relata una parte de esta peregrinación en su publicación más reciente, “The Challenge of Transformation: An Ecumenical Journey”. El 5 de febrero, poco después del cumpleaños de Raiser, expertos ecuménicos de diferentes generaciones, confesiones y continentes se reunieron en Ginebra para hablar de la nueva publicación.