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On 11 October, students of Makerere University officially launched the WCC Thursdays in Black campaign against sexual and gender based violence in Uganda.

In 2018 we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches. In order to create a lively firsthand account of the ecumenical fellowship and of our shared journey, member churches have contributed stories of people, events, achievements and even failures, all of which have deepened our collective search for Christian unity. This story was written by Olle Eriksson, a Namibian who worked for 35 years (1968 – 2003) with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission and Lutheran World Federation.

Rev. Rahab Wanjiru Kariuki, an Anglican priest living with HIV in Kenya, strongly believes there’s a reason for an uptick in HIV infections among young people: “It is because we have kept silent.” Kariuki refuses to be silent and refuses to remain passive. These are mantras not only for the way she lives but for the ways in which she ministers and cares for others.

A lay Anglican woman in Uganda is helping to build an HIV competent community and church, in a country where the epidemic is still a big challenge. Josephine Kasaato is president of the Mothers’ Union in the Namirembe Diocese in the capital of Uganda, Kampala. She is using her position to create awareness and educate the community about HIV and AIDS.

“I believe we need an advocacy strategy to listen, share experiences, and address the issues we face in working for treatment adherence,” said Rev. Dr Nyambura Njoroge, World Council of Churches Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy (WCC-EHAIA) coordinator as she addressed a consultation on HIV Treatment Adherence and Faith Healing in Africa on 5 September.

Taking place on 4-8 September in Kampala, Uganda, a WCC and UNAIDS regional consultation on HIV Treatment Adherence and Faith Healing in Africa has gathered to address issues of “faith-healing only” practices in the context of HIV and AIDS. At the core is the question of how religious leaders can partner with governmental organizations nationally and internationally, as well as with other parts of civil society to develop strategies to advocate for HIV treatment adherence, and to build bridges to those among faith-healing only practitioners who are open to dialogue.

The diocese of West Ankole Church of Uganda consecrated its fourth bishop, Rev. Johnson Twinomujuni who replaced the Rev. Yonah Katonene on 28 May. Katonene has served as a member of World Council of Churches Central Committee since 2013, and retired from being the diocesan bishop last October.

As the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) gathered for its 12th Assembly in Windhoek, Namibia from 10-16 May, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit presented greetings on behalf of the World Council of Churches, a worldwide fellowship of 348 member churches which represents more than half a billion Christians around the world.

Almost 800 participants, including 324 delegates, are gathering in Windhoek from 10-16 May for the Twelfth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the highest LWF decision-making body that meets every six years. World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will address the plenary on 12 May.

At the initiative of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network, the Church of Uganda is now including persons with disabilities in its “Empowering youth and women for sustainable livelihoods” project. This project, which is being implemented by the church’s Planning, Development and Rehabilitation Department in the Busoga Diocese, aims at impacting and improving household incomes through farming skills and management ethics for sustainability.

Twenty church leaders from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania met in Arusha, Tanzania from 7-11 November to discuss deepening inclusion, participation and active involvement of persons with disabilities in the spiritual, social, economic and structural life of the church and society. The forum was organized by the WCC Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network and hosted by the Council of Churches in Tanzania.

Forty representatives of national councils of persons with disabilities from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda met in Kigali, Rwanda from 8-11 August to explore ways in which they can promote disability-inclusive development in East Africa.

“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.

“Science and religion can provide solutions to poverty and injustice.” This was the theme of the 3rd International Conference on Sustainable Alternatives for Poverty Reduction and Ecological Justice (SAPREJ) in Kampala, Uganda, on 4-7 April. The conference was organized by the Kyambogo University and the WCC economic and ecological justice programme.

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.

When 505 percent more girls than boys get infected with HIV, the virus that is in its fourth decade can, indeed, be said to wear a woman’s face.

In a letter of consolation to the family and friends of Canon Kodwo E. Ankrah of the Church of the Province of Uganda, the WCC general secretary has expressed sympathy following the death on 29 May of “this great Pan-Africanist and ecumenist.”

A long time academic and professor of missiology at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Dr Paul J. Isaak has been appointed as director of elections by President Hifikepunye Pohamba in Namibia. Isaak commenced his new position at the Electoral Commission of Namibia in September.

Botshelo Moilwa, a young African woman from Gaborone, Botswana, called on churches to affirm the dignity of women amidst the realities of HIV and AIDS and sexual violence, if they are to realize the Christian vision of justice and peace.