Search results

During a visit to Angola held 21-28 January, World Council of Churches (WCC) staff met with local church and community leaders to discuss how preventing obstetric fistula is a matter of human rights.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is mourning the loss and celebrating the life of Rev. Dr Jose Belo Chipenda, an African theologian and ecumenical leader.

Chipenda passed away on 10 January in Canada at the age of 95. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is mourning the passing away of Hendrew Lusey-Gekawaku on 13 October 2020. He was a registered nurse, public health practitioner and ecumenist who contributed enormously to ecumenical and interfaith HIV and AIDS responses.

Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith is senior associate for Pan African and Orthodox Church Engagement at Bread for the World. She also serves on the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee. She recently participated in a rally and march in Washington, DC, where thousands gathered to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963 that included Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream" speech.

Dr Jørgen Skov Sørensen is general secretary of the Conference of European Churches. On 26 March, the WCC and Regional Ecumenical Organizations released a historic joint pastoral statement affirming the urgency of standing together to protect life amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The WCC has since been gathering viewpoints from diverse regions about the importance of taking care of our one human family.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) was represented at a gathering of more than 40 organizations from across Europe involved in the Blue Community initiative. Blue Communities, a concept founded by the Council of Canadians and the Blue Planet Project, recognize water and sanitation as human rights, promote public control over water resources and ban or phase out the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at events.

A statement from the World Council of Churches (WCC) Executive Committee commemorated the quad-centennial of the forced transatlantic voyage of enslaved African peoples from Angola to Jamestown, Virginia (USA).

Church leaders in Europe stand together for an approach on refugees and migrants “based on dignity, respect, and where possible compassion”. This is the conclusion of a festive ceremony in which the leaders of the Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC) handed over on 4th December a European Church leaders Christmas statement to the European Parliament’s 1st Vice President Mairead McGuinness.

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.

As a result of a consultation on 9-10 November in Washington, D.C., Pan African Women of Faith have released a Call to Action toward a vision of sustainable communities and an end to hunger and poverty.

It ended 100 years ago, and on 11 November, church leaders will remember World War One, praying and calling for reconciliation, despite a century passing since one of humanity’s most brutal conflicts.
From Flanders in Belgium to villages across France, the UK and Germany, bells will toll to remember.

More than 220 church leaders representing over 20 churches from Belgium, France, Luxemburg and Switzerland are meeting from 27-31 October in the French city of Lyon for the first Francophone Christian Forum.

There are indications of a “pattern of invisibility” of refugees and migrants themselves in news reports on asylum and migration in European media, according to a new report presented in Brussels on 16 November.

The first ever WCC Eco-School on Water, Food and Climate Justice will be held 24 July to 3 August, hosted by the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Blantyre Synod. Applications are now open with a deadline of 11 June (deadline extended).

The Church and Peace network is warning against extending a financial and political instrument at the disposal of the European Union (EU) that could strengthen the military capacity of non-EU countries, a move the network sees as a major shift.

After nearly a year of effort, archivists at the WCC have prepared a significant part of European ecumenical history for lasting preservation and use. Through their efforts, the Geneva history of the Conference of European Churches is catalogued online and ready for public use.

An exclusive offer for you! EKD, CEC and WCC invite you to Wittenberg and Berlin Preview visit to the Reformation anniversary sites with a limited number of participants. Take a look behind the scenes at preparations for this great historical event - the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Retrace the footsteps of Martin Luther.

“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.