Search results

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.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Château de Bossey is mourning the passing of Anglican Bishop Desire Mukanirwa, from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

With great sadness, the World Council of Churches (WCC) received news of the demise of Prof. Vuyani Vellem on 4 December. A member of the WCC’s Commission on Ecumenical Education and Formation, Vellem was director of the Centre for Public Theology and associate professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He also served as deputy secretary of the South Africa Council of Churches.

Kenyan religious leaders, scholars, students and ordinary people have mourned Prof. John Samuel Mbiti, world-renowned Christian philosopher and writer who died on 6 October.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) fellowship joined family and friends of Prof. John Samuel Mbiti in giving thanks for his life and grieving his death on 6 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.

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.

Discipleship takes place when we intentionally, sacrificially, and consistently live every moment of our daily lives in commitment to following Jesus, said Rt Rev. Dhiloraj Ranjit Canagasabey at the missional formation plenary of the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) on March 12.

Gathering in Makumira near Arusha, Tanzania on 5 March, more than 100 theology students from around the world celebrated the opening of the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute 2018, organized by the WCC.

For Nigerian Nwankpa Kenneth Chinedu, attending a course on peacebuilding in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Geneva opened his eyes and helped eliminate stereotypes and myths he had built in his mind about Muslims.

“We’ve seen in the case of refugees, how the church takes a strong standpoint in welcoming those who have fled. But it isn’t always so easy in the congregations. There are many who feel fear, as we receive not only refugees but sometimes also people of other faiths. In this case, we can see a gap between what the church says, and what is actually lived.”

Marking an important milestone in the history of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at Château de Bossey, the first candidate of the institute’s doctoral programme successfully completed his research with a viva voce examination at the University of Geneva on 24 May.

Greta Nania-Montoya Ortega has an enthusiastic message for young people considering signing up for the 2018 Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI): “Do not miss this unique opportunity. It will change your life!”

Rev. Dr Benjamin Simon was born in Germany, but he is also very much a product of Africa. Since September 2016, he has held the post of Professor of Ecumenical Missiology at the WCC's Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, a post he assumed just in time for the celebrations of 70 years’ serving ecumenism worldwide.

As the Bossey Ecumenical Institute marks 70 years of ecumenical formation, hundreds of current and former students, professors, partners and friends have gathered at the Château du Bossey for days highlighting the work of the institute and the role it has had and continues to play in the ecumenical movement.

Starting preparations for a Global Ecumenical Theological Institute in the context of the 2018 World Mission Conference in Africa was a tangible result of a meeting of 20 ecumenical educators from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. They met from 22-24 May in Halle (Germany) at the invitation of the World Council of Churches project on Ecumenical Theological Education.

A long time academic and professor of missiology at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Dr Paul J. Isaak has been appointed as director of elections by President Hifikepunye Pohamba in Namibia. Isaak commenced his new position at the Electoral Commission of Namibia in September.