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On the eve of presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof Dr Jerry Pillay, on behalf of the global fellowship, extended prayers for an enduring peace for the people and nation of Nigeria.

Visiting Madagascar in partnership with the Catholic Spiritan brotherhood and the non-government organization Geneva for Human Rights last week, the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation explored how the resources shared better equip churches to help women suffering from obstetric fistula – condition which impacts millions of women around the world, particularly in sub-saharan Africa.

World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed deep concern about the worsening security situation in Nigeria, and the impact on the people and churches of the country.

In Nigeria’s northwest state of Kaduna, Christians are bearing the brunt of insecurity and violence, as bandits attack homes, villages and churches, killing Christians and kidnapping others for ransom.

At the centre of the communal violence is religious persecution, territorial ambition and ethnic cleansing in the region where communities have settled along religious lines, according to Rev. John Joseph Hayab, the country director for the Global Peace Foundation, Nigeria.

 

A three-day workshop facilitated in Jos, Nigeria by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the Christian Council of Nigeria trained religious leaders, humanitarian workers and government officials on how to provide support for migrants who are vulnerable to HIV.

The World Council of Churches interim general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca condemned the violence in Nigeria in a statement on 22 October and offered condolences to those who have lost loved ones.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with an estimated 210 million people, has a distinctive mix of people with almost equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, most of whom get on, living their normal lives intertwined in peace, except when terror strikes.

Africa is of huge concern around the novel coronavirus pandemic for the World Health Organization (WHO), but the continent’s churches have been preparing for the silent and lethal virus for some time.

The WCC-EHAIA programme organized a workshop on 27-29 November during which young people in Nigeria could highlight positive masculinity and femininity.

The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC), at its meeting in Trondheim, Norway, 27 June 2016, has elected a new executive committee with 11 new members.

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.

“Disability does not mean inability! Human rights for all! Equality and access to good health care! Leave no one behind!” Slogans were plentiful at the 18th International Conference on AIDS and STIs. Some participants felt that the conference venue sadly belied these clarion calls as it was ill-equipped to handle the mobility and access needs of persons with disabilities.

Adebayo Anthony Kehinde leads an African group supporting ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Its interfaith campaign is especially significant on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Japan.

The WCC has expressed deep shock over the attacks by extremist group Boko Haram in Nigeria, which is said to have cost the lives of more than 2,000 people, including children used in suicide bomb attacks.

Following the attack on the Great Mosque of Kano in Nigeria on 28 November resulting in the deaths of over 100 people, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit extended sympathies for those bereaved or wounded.

The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

Inspired by the theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace”, the Central Committee of the WCC, a chief governing body of the Council, has set directions for the work of the Council from 2014 to 2017.