World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca shared greetings with the Evangelical Church of the River Plate in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay; as well as the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil. Both churches had gatherings during which they elected leaders and prayed together.
Rev. Romi Bencke, general secretary of the National Council of Christian Churches of Brazil, believes that being an ecumenical leader means having the courage to ask the most difficult questions even in a polarized society.
The brutal killing of Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, 40, a black man, at the hands of two white security guards outside a supermarket in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 19 November, the eve of National Black Consciousness Day, has sparked outrage across the country. World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches raised their voices to condemn the killing and to express deep concern regarding systemic racial injustice in Brazil.
World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has told participants at the Global Christian Forum’s Third (GCF) Global Gathering in Bogota, Colombia that the GCF is remarkable in building trust among participants and opening ways for new forms of cooperation.
“We all sin against the Holy Spirit if we ignore climate change”, said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, during the opening day of the 24th Pentecostal World Conference, in São Paulo, Brazil, on 7 September. “We have to remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit is the life-giver, active in creation from the very beginning till today. The Holy Spirit sustain us and all creatures every day”, he said.
Interview with the WCC general secretary, who is currently in Brasilia, about violence committed in the name of religion, human rights and climate justice in Brazil.
Dr Fulata Mbano-Moyo, the WCC programme executive for Women in Church and Society, called on the movement of Christian students to reclaim its radical transforming nature towards a “pilgrimage of gender justice”.
