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The Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will take place from 24 to 28 October 2025 near Alexandria, Egypt, around the theme “Where now for visible unity?” The conference will be the centrepiece of the WCC’s activities to mark the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a key moment in the history of Christian faith and for the ecumenical journey today.
This booklet provides the context for and overview of the proposed conference.

This guide aims to raise awareness in churches and church communities of the catastrophic condition of obstetric fistula—a childbirth injury usually caused by prolonged, obstructed labour without timely medical intervention. Obstetric fistula can have devastating physical, emotional, and economic consequences for women and can even result in permanent disability.

It introduces readers to obstetric fistula and explains why churches need to be concerned. It discusses how churches can help prevent the condition from occurring in the women in their congregations and local communities. It also offers practical and emotional support and encouragement to those who are suffering with obstetric fistula. Finally, this guide outlines the advocacy work being done and suggests some actions churches can take.

Available for download in English, Portuguese, and Malagasy.

An online conference, “The Future of Interfaith Dialogue,” held  7-8 December 2021, discussed principles for common formation as a vital element for the future of interfaith dialogue. 

The purpose of this booklet is both to share some of the key insights and learnings from the conference and to prompt further interest in and discussion of common formation among a range of faith communities and interreligious organizations. Topics covered include; Transformational Formation: Five Fundamental Principles, Ten Practical Pointers for Initiatives of Common Formation, and a Directory of Groups and Organizations Offering Learning Opportunities in the Area of Common Formation.

This book is a must for academics, pastors, or mission practitioners interested in how Christianity expanded in the 20th century through mission work, how this has transformed into World (or Global) Christianity, and what mission looks like in the 2020s and beyond.

The first part answers two questions through nine regional reports. These reports came from an international study process led by the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches for the centenary of the commission’s predecessor, the International Missionary Council, focussing on two questions: What is the understanding of Christians in the Global South mission in today’s world in crisis, and what will it be in the years to come? What hope can the good news of Jesus Christ give to those who are most vulnerable and often wounded through conditions that threaten their existence?

The second part of the book contains five studies of transnational mission networks. Transnational mission networks offer a huge potential for churches and mission actors in their work in a world that is facing many unexpected and overwhelming challenges. How can these networks foster mission, justice, reconciliation, and unity?

This booklet highlights the lessons learnt in a project, Strategic Engagement of Civil Society Networks and Faith Actors in the HIV Response in Four Countries,  implemented by the World Council of Churches (WCC), with the support of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), from July to December 2022 

This initiative facilitated dialogue between civil society networks, faith actors, and key national HIV stakeholders in the Dominican Republic, India, Indonesia, and Jamaica.

 As a part of the reception process of the convergence document The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV), the ecclesiology study group of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order undertook a wide range of conversations on global Christianity and ecclesiology. This  included perspectives from various regions (especially Asia, Africa, and Latin America), denominational families (such as evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and independent churches), and forms of being church (such as ecclesial movements, new forms of monasticism, and online churches) which have not always been clearly or strongly represented in the discussions on the way to TCTCV. 

This first of two volumes offers a taste of the insights, contributions, lively dialogue, diverse perspectives, and mutual exchange of ecumenical gifts between the members of the commission and theologians from  around the world, which took place through a series of international consultations between 2015-22.

The fruit of this work is offered with the hope that it will contribute towards a clearer, global vision of the Church in the 21st century.

The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace is intended to be an expression of international solidarity with people, particularly those in difficult circumstances.

This publication looks at work done directly within the context of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in Europe, as well as justice and peace issues promoted by churches that complement the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace agenda.

In the first section, the publication provides an overview of Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace events in Europe, offering reflections on some of the ways in which churches and ecumenical organizations were challenged and inspired and sharing stories and insights about the pilgrimage in Europe.

Section 2 does not necessarily represent official parts of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace but contains essays on issues of justice and peace in Europe from individuals working with churches and ecumenical partners across Europe, intended to stimulate debate, interest, and international comparison.

The Appendix includes additional resources, including statements from the WCC on the use of armed force to resolve disputes that could be resolved by dialogue.

With its sister volume, this book is a must for anyone, academic, pastor, or mission practitioner, interested in knowing how Christianity was considerably expanded in the 20th century, through churches’ mission and missionary work, and was transformed into World (or Global) Christianity.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part contains the introduction—background reading for the reports of the study process produced by the IMC Centenary Study process. The second part of the book includes 13 regional reports. Contributions from all over the world analyse and evaluate the impact—or the absence thereof—of the IMC and the CWME from 1921 until today.

What is so important in the International Missionary Council (IMC) and its historical successor, the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, that they will have their own centennial volume?

By reading this book, the reader will gain a better understanding of how important and crucial they have been in the development of the ecumenical movement and of what today is often called World Christianity.

This volume aims to highlight how, in the course of the past century, structured efforts to foster unity in mission cooperation have shaped not only Christianity but even the world.

The WCC, the Protestant Church in Germany and the United Evangelical Mission, initiated a two-year process of ecumenical study and reflection on the relationship between human dignity and human rights from biblical, theological, and victims’ perspectives, culminating in a Conference on Christian Perspectives on Human Dignity and Humans Rights held in Wuppertal (Germany) and online from 9–12 April 2022.

This publication consists of papers received from theologians, people with different academic backgrounds, experts in ethics and human rights, and human rights defenders—together with the joint message of the conference participants.

Within the framework of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, this publication is a reflection on the lived experiences of the pilgrimage from the perspective of the people and churches from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Korean Peninsula, Palestine and Israel, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Colombia.

It consists of an overview of the peace-building process in each country since the 10th Assembly and practical steps churches can take together toward the 12th Assembly.

During the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, initiated in 2013 at the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, the issue of racism has emerged as one of the pilgrimage’s four common themes. The chapters that make up this publication represent a selection of the papers presented at a series of webinars organized in late 2020 by the Theological Study Group of the Pilgrimage. Organized around three major themes—whiteness, including its relationship to slavery; racism; and hate speech—the contributions represent an invitation to the ecumenical fellowship to engage in self-critical examination of how practices, orders, configurations, methodologies, and structures of the church(es) have perpetuated the discrimination, xenophobia, and racism that counter unity in Christ.