World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay sent a pastoral letter to Haitian brothers and sisters whose lives are lived in a land with hatred, violence, and suffering. “Although we might be physically distant, we are close to you in heart, in the spiritual sense,” wrote Pillay. “We all are children of God. We belong to one family, as Jesus Christ himself said.”
World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay continued his visit in Lebanon on 21 March, focusing on meeting with heads of churches to pray and work together.
As World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay began a visit to Lebanon on 20 March, his agenda included a private meeting with His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay will visit Lebanon from 19-22 March, to commemorate the 50th jubilee of the Middle East Council of Churches and meet with all WCC member churches from Lebanon and Syria.
In a visit to Cuba from 17-19 December, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay met with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canelat the Palacio de las Convenciones in Havana. “I was deeply impressed with our heart-to-heart meeting with the president of Cuba,” expressed Pillay.
In a sermon entitled “Being church today in a world in crisis,” offered at the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba on 17 December, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay shared thoughts of hope and transformation.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay offered a lecture at University of Havana in Cuba on 19 December entitled “Christians, cry out for peace! The perils and promise of peace today.”
As Caribbean members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) gathered for a regional meeting, they explored how, together. they can discern the most effective and efficient ways for the Caribbean region to engage with the WCC.
The Jamaica Baptist Union, at its 173rd General Assembly, elected and appointed Rev. Merlyn Hyde-Riley as its new general secretary. Hyde-Riley is the first woman to be appointed to this post.
Hyde-Riley is currently one of two vice-moderators for the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee.
World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca extended condolences in the wake of a supertanker explosion and fire in the Matanzas supertanker port in Cuba. Blackouts and toxic fumes were still affecting the area.
From the gateway to the eastern Mediterranean and its pearl, Beirut, an ecumenical delegation came to the Middle East in order to visit spiritual leaders who historically constituted the pillars of ecumenical work.
Dans le cadre du rapprochement avec les Églises membres au Liban, une délégation du Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE) s'est rendue à Beyrouth, le 7 juillet. Elle y a rencontré des responsables d’églises ainsi que le Conseil des Églises du Moyen-Orient, dans le but d'entendre et de transmettre un message en vue de la 11e Assemblée du COE, qui se tiendra à Karlsruhe (Allemagne), du 31 août au 8 septembre.
In a bridge-building visit to member churches in Lebanon, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation visited Beirut on 7 July, meeting with church leaders as well as the Middle East Council of Churches to hear and carry a message for the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly, to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August-8 September.
Le secrétaire général du Conseil des Églises du Moyen-Orient, le professeur Dr Michel Abs, a accueilli le secrétaire général par intérim du Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE), le père prof. Ioan Sauca, le 14 décembre au siège du Secrétariat général du Conseil des Églises du Moyen-Orient à Beyrouth. Le président de l'Union évangélique nationale au Liban et président du Conseil pour la famille évangélique, S.E. le Révérend Dr Habib Badr, ainsi que l'équipe du Secrétariat général à Beyrouth, ont également reçu le père Sauca.
Le 15 décembre, le père Ioan Sauca, secrétaire général par intérim du Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE) a rendu visite à Sa Béatitude Jean X, patriarche de l'Église orthodoxe grecque d’Antioche et de tout l’Orient, à sa résidence de Balamand, au Liban.
Middle East Council of Churches secretary general Dr Michel Abs welcomed World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca on 14 December at the headquarters of the Middle East Council of Churches General Secretariat in Beirut. The president of the National Evangelical Union in Lebanon and president of the Council for the Evangelical Family, H.E. Rev. Dr Habib Badr, as well the General Secretariat team in Beirut, also received Sauca.
On 15 December, Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches paid a visit to His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of the Antioch and All the East at the patriarchal residence in Balamand, Lebanon.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) extended congratulations to Rev. Merlyn Hyde Riley, who has been appointed acting general secretary of Jamaica Baptist Union.
The World Council of Churches reached out to churches in Haiti in a letter to express solidarity and prayerful concern in the wake of the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse, and amid ongoing waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.