Search results

The World Council of Churches (WCC) offered insights and participated in dialogue at the Youth Pre-assembly for National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), held 17-19 April in Hyderabad.

Organized by the India Peace Centre, the Youth Pre-assembly was held under the theme “The Hour has Come: The hour of Youth Building a World of Peace and Sustainability.”

 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) publication highlights the lessons learnt from the project Strategic Engagement of Civil Society Networks and Faith Actors in the HIV Response in India, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and Jamaica.

The National Council of Churches in Korea has published a Korean translation of The Light of Peace: Churches in Solidarity with the Korean Peninsula, a book the World Council of Churches (WCC) fellowship is using to recognize 70 years of unresolved conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

Rev. Fr Dr Lawrence Iwuamadi is dean of the Ecumenical Institute, the graduate school which opened its academic year this week. Below, Iwuamadi reflects on the arrival of new students at the Ecumenical Institute during this remarkable time.

Participants of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 2019 Eco School in Asia have pledged to serve as “Eco Ambassadors” who will protect our waters, promote food sovereignty, health and wellbeing and stand for climate justice with a sense of urgency.

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.

As the Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity opened at the Yonsei University Chapel in South Korea on 18 September, participants were already learning to live into the theme “Stewards of Hope, Seekers of Harmony.” For the first time, the training includes not only young people from Asia but from across the world, and is being co-coordinated by the World Council of Churches (WCC) Programme for Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, the Council for World Mission, and youth representatives from the ecumenical movement.

At the most glorious moment in her career, Rev. Prof. Dr Sang Chang discovered that society is not always friendly and that politics can be devilish. But thanks to God, she got over it. Without bitterness and even more determined in her fight for gender equality and social justice.

After three intense days with deep discussions and productive sessions, the bi-annual meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) ECHOS Commission came to an end on Thursday. Fourteen young committee members and staff from 20 different countries all over the world had gathered in Seoul, Korea to further strengthen the WCC young peoples movement and continue the pilgrimage of justice and peace.

From 6-12 August, young people from all over the world will meet in Korea and embark on a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, as their counterparts at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva walk alongside them, thousands of miles away but side-by-side in spirit.

Twenty-seven young ecumenists from across Asia are currently attending the month-long Asian Ecumenical Institute organized by the Christian Conference of Asia. The programme aims to provide ecumenical formation and leadership development training for prospective church and ecumenical leaders. It is being held at the Christian Conference of Asia headquarters in Payap University Campus in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The third edition of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Eco-School on Water, Food and Climate Justice will be held 4-17 November 2019 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, hosted by the Christian Conference of Asia. This year, the Eco-School will focus on Asia and therefore only open to Asians. Deadline for applications for WCC Eco-School 2019 for Asia on Water, Food and Climate Justice extended to 31 July 2019.

The WCC invites applications for a seminar on Youth and Racism Awareness in Asia, to be held in Osaka, Japan on 8-12 September 2019.

His Eminence Metropolitan Zachariah Mar Nicholovos of the Northeast American Diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church celebrated his Episcopal Silver Jubilee, or 25 years in ministry, on 17 November. Metropolitan Nicholovos is a member of the WCC Executive Committee. In an interview with WCC Communication, he reflects on his 25-year milestone, as well as on the challenges and joys of the ecumenical movement today.

The date: 20 February 1991. The last day of the WCC 7th Assembly. The hours were packed with remaining agenda items, the assembly had acquired a second unofficial theme. As moderator, how was Bishop Heinz Joachim Held supposed to bring this incomplete, basically unfinished assembly to a close?

Each year students from all over the world arrive at Bossey near Geneva for a three-month language training course to pave their way for ecumenical studies that follow on straight after. “The title captures the goal of the course,” says Father Lawrence Iwuamadi, the Nigerian priest who studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and is academic dean of the Ecumenical Institute.

“Congratulations for being a student at Bossey!” Fr Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, director of the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey and deputy general secretary, welcomed the students for the new academic year 2018-2019. Thirty-one students from diverse countries and traditions will start their classes at the ecumenical institute on Tuesday.

Whether as individual believers or as a community, it is our collective task to advocate for Christian unity, says Melanio L. Aoanan from the Philippines. A clear vision for religious and ecumenical theological education is needed that is relevant in the 21st century.

Dr Erlinda N. Senturias, from the Philippines, gives thanks that WCC has created safe spaces for the churches to talk about HIV and AIDS. She asks that the ecumenical movement continue to be a beacon of support for this ongoing journey of health and healing.

The signing of the National Covenanting Document in Australia in 2004 was a significant ecumenical milestone. Ray Williamson Oam traces this journey towards deeper unity with its roots in the Canberra Statement of the WCC 7th Assembly.