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An appeal from representatives of Religions for Peace in Norway is urging the Norwegian government to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which will come into force on 22 January.

Looking toward their graduation ceremony scheduled for 26 January, students at the World Council of Churches Bossey Ecumenical Institute are set to expand their encounters with the ecumenical world.

In a first-ever online visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC), members of the Focolare Movement gathered on 14 January in place of what, until COVID-19 prevented it, has annually been a joyful in-person gathering.

In a communiqué released 11 January, the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon condemned forcefully and unequivocally all those who perpetrate violence in the nation. “Violence will never win, but justice and peace will,” reads the text. “The prevalence of these gruesome and inhuman acts on Cameroonians indicates that this cycle of violence is in no way near the end.”

As the years change over the World Council of Churches interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca on 31 December condemned the vicious Yemen attack hitting civilians. Sauca also expressed solidarity and prayers with churches and responders who continue to help hundreds of injured and traumatized people of the earthquake in Croatia and Norway landslide.

In the midst of the nationwide lockdown, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Germany finds new ways to connect people in its congregations. It encourages all people to step out on balconies or come together by open windows, at 8 pm on Christmas Eve, and let their voices ring out loud in the Christmas carol "Silent Night.”

The new surge in COVID-19 related hospitalizations and deaths has drastically increased the need for pastoral care almost everywhere. Brazil and Great Britain are two hard-hit countries, where the pandemic has brought existential questions on the table.  

World Council of Churches (WCC) interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca sent a congratulatory message to Bernard Munono Muyembe for receiving the John Paul II International Prize.

In a pastoral letter to “sisters and brothers in Ethiopia,” eight faith-based organizations expressed Christian love and care, as well as a commitment to accompany churches and people of Ethiopia as they face the challenges confronting their country.

Online training for church leaders in Zimbabwe is helping them find creative, positive theologies to navigate the many challenging facets of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a solidarity visit to South Sudan, a delegation from the All Africa Conference of Churches urged all parties in South Sudan to pursue peace even amid challenges.

After a two-day workshop in Buea, religious leaders from Cameroon issued a statement saying "that the cost and consequences of the armed conflict in Anglophone Cameroon and the Boko Haram insurgence in the North are becoming increasingly unbearable on the local populations who are paying a high price for these conflicts."

Damaris, a Nigerian woman, described her experience of 2020: “We’ve gone through hell.”

Damaris and her sisters were kidnapped in March 2020 and threatened with death as their kidnappers demanded money. Her father had to sell everything and beg on the streets to meet their demands. “We are just a common people in Nigeria,” she said. “We don’t know what we did.”

The Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau has commemorated its decision 50 years ago to fund the Programme to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches (WCC), in the face of widespread public criticism, as a continuing obligation to oppose all forms of racism and inhumanity.

In a 23 November letter to Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, World Council of Churches (WCC) interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca urged the protection of religious and cultural monuments the Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh region.