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The Council of Christian Churches in France (CÉCEF) is encouraging local churches to support a recently created Green Church environmental certification label, asking that offerings made at ecumenical services during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity go to help finance the initiative.

It’s 70 years since the World Council of Churches was founded in Amsterdam on 23 August. In addition to a commemoration service in Amsterdam on 23 August, the WCC, its member churches and partners are planning a variety of events to move forward on our ongoing Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, and at the same time honour and learn from these 70 years of ecumenical endeavour. Dr Abuom, from the Anglican Church of Kenya, is the moderator of the WCC Central Committee. She is the first woman and the first African in the position in WCC’s history. In an interview, she reflects on the evolution of the WCC in the past 70 years.

In a sermon at the Trinity Church in Oslo, Norway on 9 December, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit reflected on peacemakers: those who create trust and foster good relations, those who try to bring out the best in us, those who attempt to solve conflicts.

Church and political leaders have marked the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Reformation in Wittenberg, Germany where on 31 October 1517 he published his 95 Theses denouncing church abuses.

Together with the heads of the Coptic, Syrian, Armenian and Indian Orthodox Churches, the Evangelical Church in Germany celebrated on Saturday evening in Berlin an ecumenical prayer for Christians in the Middle East. The jointly prepared service was the highlight of a historic visit. For the first time, Pope Tawadros II, Patriarch Ignatius Afrem II, Catholicos Karekin II and Catholicos Baselios Morthoma Paulose II visited together in Germany to inform political and church representatives on the bad and sad situation in the region of origin of Christianity.

As the 44th conference of the International Ecumenical Fellowship came to a close, those gathered departed for their home countries with a vision for “the church of tomorrow” and a renewed commitment to unity.

The Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, delivered a public address at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 24 April as part of his official visit to Switzerland on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his enthronement as Ecumenical Patriarch and the 50th anniversary of the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy.

In a country where Christians are in clear minority, often suffering discrimination, and in a context that has seen repeated frictions and violence between people of different religious traditions, the Church of Norway and Church of Pakistan have broken new ecumenical ground during a recent week in Lahore, Pakistan.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, celebrated worldwide from 18-25 January, will be hosted this year by the Council of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK). As 2017 marks the commemoration of the Reformation, the week of prayer will reflect on the legacy of the Reformation and the current spirit of reconciliation in Christ.

The Taizé religious community from the east of France is meeting over the New Year’s period in Riga, Latvia and world church leaders from many traditions have bestowed greetings of hope on its annual gathering.

He earned the title “Green Patriarch” as a religious leader addressing alarming environmental issues over at least two decades. In 2008, Time Magazine named His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as one of 100 Most Influential People in the World, for “defining environmentalism as spiritual responsibility”.

Following a 6-November ceremony where recently retired Very Rev. Dr Sheilagh Kesting was “knighted”, as Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope Francis, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit now extends congratulations to Kesting, a long-standing colleague and ecumenist from the Church of Scotland.

“What happens when we journey on a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage of justice and peace, with people who share our values but who may or may not accept the institution of the church? And what does it mean to be on a pilgrimage of justice and peace, when the next generation shares our concerns for justice and peace, and want to follow God, but do not share our spirituality as confined by church and by tradition?”

The six presidents of the organization Churches Together in England are encouraging all churches to pray together through an initiative called “Thy Kingdom Come.” The effort focuses on praying for Christ’s transforming love to bring hope and joy to all.

The 2016 WCC Central Committee concluded its third day with an afternoon prayer service in one of Trondheim’s most beautiful churches. Built in 1715, the Bakke Church, with its remarkable architecture and artistry, is one the oldest buildings in the Bakklandet area of Trondheim.

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 should be a profoundly ecumenical, as well as European and international celebration, according to Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

Prayers for peace in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas of Armenia and Azerbaijan were offered on 4 April in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. Joining in the Geneva service of common prayer were staff from ecumenical and other international organizations including the WCC and the LWF.

The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church will hold a joint ecumenical commemoration of the Reformation on 31 October in Lund, Sweden.

Anglican parishes in the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough in the Republic of Ireland are seeking new paths and projects for 2016 after considering the results of a survey that identified successes and concerns among laity.

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.