World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay sent a pastoral letter to Haitian brothers and sisters whose lives are lived in a land with hatred, violence, and suffering. “Although we might be physically distant, we are close to you in heart, in the spiritual sense,” wrote Pillay. “We all are children of God. We belong to one family, as Jesus Christ himself said.”
World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay continued his visit in Lebanon on 21 March, focusing on meeting with heads of churches to pray and work together.
As World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay began a visit to Lebanon on 20 March, his agenda included a private meeting with His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay will visit Lebanon from 19-22 March, to commemorate the 50th jubilee of the Middle East Council of Churches and meet with all WCC member churches from Lebanon and Syria.
In a visit to Cuba from 17-19 December, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay met with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canelat the Palacio de las Convenciones in Havana. “I was deeply impressed with our heart-to-heart meeting with the president of Cuba,” expressed Pillay.
In a sermon entitled “Being church today in a world in crisis,” offered at the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba on 17 December, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay shared thoughts of hope and transformation.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay offered a lecture at University of Havana in Cuba on 19 December entitled “Christians, cry out for peace! The perils and promise of peace today.”
Marking 10 years since the kidnapping of archbishops of Aleppo Paul Yazigi and John Ibrahim, the Middle East Council of Churches held an “Ecumenical Day for the Abducted and the Forcibly Absented” on 24 April.
As Caribbean members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) gathered for a regional meeting, they explored how, together. they can discern the most effective and efficient ways for the Caribbean region to engage with the WCC.
The Jamaica Baptist Union, at its 173rd General Assembly, elected and appointed Rev. Merlyn Hyde-Riley as its new general secretary. Hyde-Riley is the first woman to be appointed to this post.
Hyde-Riley is currently one of two vice-moderators for the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee.
Following the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake on 6 February, the presidents of the Middle East Council of Churches held an emergency meeting to discuss the disaster and how to respond.
In a congratulatory letter, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed great joy and gratitude over the appointment of Archbishop Mor Anthimos Jack Yakoub as the patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem, Jordan, and the Holy Land by His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II.
H.E. Mor Boutros Kassis, who has been serving the community for the last seven years as a temporary bishop, was installed as archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo on 15 October.
World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca extended condolences in the wake of a supertanker explosion and fire in the Matanzas supertanker port in Cuba. Blackouts and toxic fumes were still affecting the area.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca visited Syria, alongside the Middle East Council of Churches secretary general Dr Michel Abs, the general secretary of ACT Alliance Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, and WCC senior advisor on peace building Michel Nseir.
From the gateway to the eastern Mediterranean and its pearl, Beirut, an ecumenical delegation came to the Middle East in order to visit spiritual leaders who historically constituted the pillars of ecumenical work.
As Patriarch John X headed the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Cross church in Damascus in Syria, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca shared a message on behalf of a WCC-led delegation visiting the country for the first time since 2008.
In a bridge-building visit to member churches in Lebanon, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation visited Beirut on 7 July, meeting with church leaders as well as the Middle East Council of Churches to hear and carry a message for the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly, to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August-8 September.
As the ninth anniversary of the abduction of the archbishops of Aleppo approaches, World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca invited prayer for the safe return of the two religious leaders, as well as others missing amid conflicts and crises.
On 5 April, World Council of Churches (WCC) leadership and staff met with representatives of WCC member churches from Syria, who came to the Bossey Ecumenical Institute for consultations on the WCC’s longstanding programmatic work relating to Syria. WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, was the convener of the meeting.