In an annual audience during the ongoing Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Bishop Bo-Göran Åstrand of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland gifted a pair of gloves to Pope Francis, described as “a modest gift, to warm the Pope’s hands in an otherwise cold world.”
The world needs a “reformation of hope and confidence,” according to the moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, giving the Otto Karrer lecture in Lucerne, Switzerland.
As the World Council of Churches celebrates its 75th anniversary, a series of feature stories from different regions of the world will portray ecumenism at the local level—within churches, communities, and individuals who embody the spirit of ecumenism in unique ways. The feature story below offers a glimpse of some facets of ecumenism present in Germany.
Rev. Prof. Dr Heike Springhart is bishop of Landeskirche in Baden. Below, she offers reflections on her hopes for the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly and, more broadly, how ecumenical relationships can help us all sustain a sense of hope during these challenging times.
With the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly less than four months away, anticipation for the historic gathering of faith and fellowship is growing.
Daniel Kaiser, head of the cultural section of the north-German public radio station NDR 90.3, received the 2021 Menno Simons Sermon Prize from the Center of Peace Church Theology (University of Hamburg).
Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chair of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, and Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop in Munich and former president of the German Bishops’ Conference, were awarded the 2020 Augsburg Peace Prize for their “unconditional will to live together in peace.”