Search results

A global call for prayers and support for the Democratic Republic of Congo has amplified as floods and landslides left hundreds of people dead in South Kivu, a province in the east of the country.

As Pope Francis travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo, then with Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, and Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, to South Sudan on 3- 5 February, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay said he welcomes and supports the visits.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay denounced a bomb attack that killed 17 members of the parish of the 8th Community of Pentecostal Churches of Congo on 15 January. Thirty-nine people were wounded.

In South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the peace and reconciliation work of pastors, priests and lay Christians remains critical for the people, as the global church and ecumenical groups amplify their concerns over the complex but separate conflicts in the two African countries.

World Council of Churches (WCC) interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca sent a congratulatory message to Bernard Munono Muyembe for receiving the John Paul II International Prize.

After hearing about death threats against Nobel laureate Dr Denis Mukwege, physician director of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Council of Churches (WCC) urged UN officials to call upon the government to ensure the protection of the life of Mukwege.

As Congolese churches, the United Nations and international medical organizations continued to move to stop the spread of a 40-month Ebola virus epidemic, new cases have been confirmed in Uganda, igniting fears that the deadly disease is on the march.

Dr Cecile De Sweemer, who served as staff of the Christian Medical Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) from 1982 to 1986, died on the 27 November in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). De Sweemer, a Belgian medical doctor with a doctorate in International Health from Johns Hopkins University, with extensive experience in Asia and Africa, was a dedicated and compassionate physician.

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”.

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.

Citing a litany of horrors In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has called out the “deepening political, human rights and humanitarian crisis” in the DRC, and the risks of further conflict, massive human rights violations and atrocity crimes there.

As Ebola breaks out in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), church and church agencies are moving to help counter the virus, which has left at least 25 people dead and more than 50 infected.

Forty years after the Soweto uprising, leaders of churches in conflict-torn countries gathered in South Africa to study the ways of peace and reconciliation.

“Statelessness renders people’s vulnerability to abuse and to denial of their rights invisible to national authorities. In this sense the right to a nationality is a threshold issue for access to protection of all other human rights - almost a 'right to have rights'”, said Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), following a regional training workshop on birth registration and gender discriminatory nationality laws in Africa, organized by the WCC in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 11–13 May.

The African continent bears witness to the tragic consequences of the manipulation of religion to incite violence. Yet it is also the home of untold instances of the power of religious leaders and actors to exert a positive influence, said panellists at an international meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, today.

Rev. Kakule Molo, president of the Baptist Community in Central Africa, reflected on the rule of law and the electoral process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a side-event at the 30th Session of the Human Rights Council on 16 September in Geneva, Switzerland.

A major conference on peace and security in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), convened by the WCC, began on Wednesday its search for solutions to the DRC’s steepest challenges.

The WCC and its member churches expressed deep concern over reports of widespread violent demonstrations in Kinshasa since 19 January.

A workshop with the aim of strengthening electoral process in the Democratic Republic of Congo was held Kinshasa by the Church of Christ in Congo and the Independent National Electoral Commission in partnership with the WCC and the All Africa Conference of Churches. Participants in the workshop encouraged renewed engagement from local churches in the nation.

Grateful for the opportunity of working for a global fellowship of the churches, the two new interns at the WCC aspire to use their personal and professional experiences from Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the WCC’s work on gender justice and health issues.