Search results

A team from the Church of Westphalia visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey from 27 September to 1 October, exploring a global view of ecumenism by learning about the WCC as a global ecumenical organisation.

Bishop Johan Tyrberg and a delegation from the Church of Sweden in Lund visited the World Council of Churches on 22-23 September, participating in a morning prayer for Christian unity, receiving a guided tour and discussing the theme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”

The latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), focuses on the Pan-African Women’s Ecumenical Empowerment Network (PAWEEN), a project of the WCC’s programme on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE).

Formally established as a network in 2015, PAWEEN aims to celebrate, commemorate, and build upon the legacy of Pan‐African women in the ecumenical movement.

Students at the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Institute at Bossey marked Thursdays in Black on 10 October, together with a group of visitors from Sweden.

Conversations at the World Council of Churches (WCC) exhibition booth at the Kirchentag showed there is a growing interest in ecumenical movement among German churches. The topics of a particularly high interest were the Thursdays in Black campaign and studies at the Ecumenical institute in Bossey.

On 20 June at Kirchentag, the thriving Protestant church festival in Germany, #ThursdaysInBlack, the global campaign for a world without rape and violence, will take the stage during a noon presentation.

Social media was awash with messages of love on Valentine’s Day, but from Thursdays in Black supporters, the flowers came with strong messages that love is not violent.

From 3-8 July, gender justice advocates from over thirty countries are convening at the Ecumenical Center, in Geneva, Switzerland, for an advocacy training on women’s human rights for faith-based organizations.

An exhibit entitled “Faith in Gender Justice” will open in the Scottish Parliament on 8 March in conjunction with International Women’s Day.

This week world leaders are gathered in Davos under the very theme of “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”. They do so at a time when we see poverty amongst plenty; hunger and thirst in the midst of abundance; shocking disparities in the quality of life between neighboring communities: real problems that the world has the potential and the possibilities to resolve.

“The world is calling upon the faith leaders to use their power for justice for the excluded and discriminated against, and for the exploited planet earth,” says WCC deputy general secretary Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri.

Reconciliation was once primarily seen as a message of the church but is now used by secular leaders trying to establish peace in communities torn by conflict and war, the WCC president for Africa, the Rev. Mary Anne Plaatjies van Huffel, has said at a major Protestant gathering in Germany.

Stories of women in church leadership are vital to forming a new generation of female pan-African leaders, say speakers at World Council of Churches event.

Encouragement, inspiration and storytelling animated the plenary discussion of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

Women of African descent have been a force within the global ecumenical movement for decades but are still not well recognized for their contributions. It is time for that to change, say the organizers of a network of pan African theologians, laywomen and clergy within the WCC.

A WCC member church in Kenya has consecrated its second woman bishop, Rev. Alice Muthoni Mutuma, on 31 January in Meru. Rev. Pauline Wanjiru Njiru, East Africa regional coordinator for the WCC Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy, attended the service and brought greetings from WCC.

The Basel University honoured Ghanaian Methodist theologian Mercy Amba Oduyoye with a doctor of theology honoris causa.

Justice and peace are not possible without the involvement and participation of women. To accomplish this vision the United Nations Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 1325 can be an important negotiation tool for religious women's on-going work for conflict resolution and peace-building around the world.