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A call to make thanksgiving a priority amplified in South Sudan as the world’s newest nation celebrated the recently signed revitalised peace agreement in Juba city on 31 October.

A delegation from the Evangelical Church in Germany is visiting the WCC on 26-27 October for an ecumenical learning experience that includes prayers with students from the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, an introduction and overview of the work of the WCC, a meeting with the Lutheran World Federation, and a guided tour of the Ecumenical Centre.

Maryland-based, Ghanaian-born Rev. Dr Casely Essamuah was in February selected as secretary of the Global Christian Forum. Originally ordained in the Methodist Church in Ghana, he began his work officially in July. This week he made a study visit to the WCC and the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva and the WCC was able to converse with him.

The joint ACT Alliance-Caritas Internationalis response to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur remains a powerful witness to the Christian unity possible in diakonia.

The year 1948 was historical not only for the founding of the World Council of Churches, but also for the launch of its neighbour down the road in Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The seeds of peace come from the ground.” That is the vision that Rev. Dr Shanta Premawardhana, former director of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation at the World Council of Churches and now president of OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership, tries to follow with his organization.

On 4 October, the South Sudan Council of Churches released a statement on the revitalized peace agreement as well as an action plan for peace through 2023.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) welcomes the award of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to Ms Nadia Murad and to Dr Denis Mukwege for their work against “sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict”.

Thirty years ago, the founders of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women were searching for ways to not only help women across the globe seek justice but also highlight their contributions to churches and the world.

On 21 September, an event unfolded in Liberia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the WCC. Held in conjunction with other civil society organizations observing the International Day of Peace in Monrovia, people gathered for a ceremony and a parade.

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.

Catholic and World Council of Churches (WCC) leaders, meeting in Rome to discuss ways of combating racism and xenophobia, have pledged to uphold the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees.

“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.

Speaking in Lviv, Ukraine on 30 August, World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri presented a paper on ”Women and Ecumenical Engagement for Peace in South Sudan,” reflecting on the experiences of a Pilgrim Team visit by the WCC in May 2018.

The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar, or Fiangonan'i Jesoa Kristy eto Madagasikara (FJKM), celebrated its 50th anniversary on 18-19 August with events that included a special thanksgiving worship service in Toamasina.

World Council of Churches leaders spoke on the theme “Hospitality: On a Pilgrim’s Way of Justice and Peace" at a symposium on 23 August at the Protestant Theological University Amsterdam.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, as head of a delegation visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), offered a sermon on 19 August encouraging peacemakers during an ecumenical service in the Protestant Cathedral in Kinshasa.

I have experienced many good stories with the WCC, but unfortunately disappointing ones as well, says Rev. Dr Margot Käßmann, Lutheran theologian and former chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany. She was a member of the WCC Central and Executive Committees for many years, until her resignation in 2002. The story she contributed for the WCC 70th anniversary commemoration looks back to the 1998 WCC Assembly in Harare, which marked the end of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women.

Escalating violence in Cameroon, including graphic violence against women and children, has drawn condemnation from the World Council of Churches.

As election polls closed in Zimbabwe on 31 July, and people awaited announcements of results, reports on the ground were indicating that, although peace was holding, the situation is tense.