Search results

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is bringing prayers and expertise to the 23rd session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, which is running in New York from 15-26 April. 

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.”

Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and H.E. Archbishop Dr Vicken Aykazian, moderator and vice moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee, respectively, traveled to New York City on 3-4 April to deepen the WCC’s engagement with the United Nations. 

An Easter prayer from the Korean Peninsula—a tradition that has continued for 28 years—brings forth the vision of reunification and peace. 

With an intervention delivered by Max Weber, a student at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, the World Council of Churches expressed deep concern for human rights in Haiti. 

The World Council of Churches, in an intervention before the UN Human Rights Council, called upon the UN to ensure that counter-terrorism laws and practices, including efforts to combat terrorism financing, do not unjustly curtail the legitimate activities of civil society organizations, impede civic space, or hinder humanitarian endeavors in the Philippines. 

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-Canel at 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.”

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay will visit Cuba from 17-19 December to reiterate WCC support for the churches and people in Cuba.

Sharing hopes and challenges for the search for peace on the Korean peninsula, members of the Ecumenical Forum for Peace, Reunification & Development on the Korean Peninsula (EFK) gathered for an informal meeting this week.

Canadian churches—including the Anglican Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Evangelical Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church, and United Church—prepared a report for Canada’s Universal Periodic Review. 

On 27 October Korean Theology Forum on Climate Crisis organized a conference “The Response of the WCC to the Climate Crisis and its Policy for Carbon Neutrality” for the formation of church leaders, pastors and students interested in ways to connect local activities to the global horizon. The conference was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.