After an historic meeting in South Africa in June 2017, study groups within the WCC Faith and Order Commission are using theological reflection as a tool to build unity between churches. The questions Faith and Order considers are not abstract issues but, in many contexts across the world, matters of life and death.
The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in South Africa is currently striving to revive and enhance its missional identity with its core aspect being a church for Africa, said DRC general secretary Dr Gustav Claassen.
For the World Council of Churches Comission on Faith and Order, meeting in South Africa this year holds special significance. In 1960 a WCC meeting with member churches in the country was followed by a parting of ways with one of those churches for more than half a century, over the question of apartheid.
The World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order will begin an 8-day meeting this week in Pretoria, South Africa, dedicating an opening ceremony to youth, reflecting on their struggles with past injustices and noting their key role in opening gateways to the future.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit joined others in congratulating Prof. Jürgen Moltmann for receiving an honorary doctorate of divinity degree on 5 April from the Theological Faculty of Pretoria University, South Africa.
Increasingly, the unity of the church is threatened by different positions on moral issues. In response to this, the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC continues to study how churches arrive at the ethical decisions they make.
Christians need a "spirituality of resistance" to face oppression, violence and experiences of defeat, the WCC general secretary said in an address at Germany’s biggest Protestant gathering.