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Rev. Fr Dr Lawrence Iwuamadi is dean of the Ecumenical Institute, the graduate school which opened its academic year this week. Below, Iwuamadi reflects on the arrival of new students at the Ecumenical Institute during this remarkable time.

As Christians across the world prepare to celebrate Easter shuttered in their homes, they will still find the joy of the day and feel closer to each other, thanks to creative thinking by church leaders.

From including photos of church members within webcast worship services, to placing written greetings at doorways, Easter celebrations can still safely connect people who want to celebrate the resurrection of their common Lord.

As the National Council of Churches in Australia held its 10th National Forum in late June, more than 65 people gathered in Canberra to participate in a Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace with First Nations people.

In January 2019, Aya Maasarwe, a university exchange student in Melbourne, was walking home at night and speaking to her sister on her phone. She was attacked, raped and murdered.
The public outcry intensified a national debate about violence against women in Australia following several high-profile murders in the country.

Social media was awash with messages of love on Valentine’s Day, but from Thursdays in Black supporters, the flowers came with strong messages that love is not violent.

The date: 20 February 1991. The last day of the WCC 7th Assembly. The hours were packed with remaining agenda items, the assembly had acquired a second unofficial theme. As moderator, how was Bishop Heinz Joachim Held supposed to bring this incomplete, basically unfinished assembly to a close?

Each year students from all over the world arrive at Bossey near Geneva for a three-month language training course to pave their way for ecumenical studies that follow on straight after. “The title captures the goal of the course,” says Father Lawrence Iwuamadi, the Nigerian priest who studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and is academic dean of the Ecumenical Institute.

The signing of the National Covenanting Document in Australia in 2004 was a significant ecumenical milestone. Ray Williamson Oam traces this journey towards deeper unity with its roots in the Canberra Statement of the WCC 7th Assembly.

The adoption of consensus decision-making for WCC meetings was proposed in 2002. Dr Jill Tabart of the Uniting Church in Australia was consensus mentor as these new meeting procedures were introduced at the 9th Assembly and beyond.

It is time to revitalize the Asian ecumenical movement to respond to contemporary realities in Asia, according to Mathews George Chunakara, general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, in the article that opens the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the WCC.

In a keynote speech in Yangon, Myanmar on Sunday, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit praised the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) for its longstanding commitment to ecumenism and mission, and its efforts to unite Christian churches on the continent.

As a retired person in his late 60s, Frederick “Fred” Rainger often asks himself: ”what can I stop doing?” His days are filled with engagements in community activities and it hasn’t gotten any less busy since he became more involved in the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Network (PIEN), a network of Australian Christians seeking lasting peace for the people of Palestine and Israel.

An interreligious consultation on “Voices of Hope for a New Era” has called for enhanced collaboration between Buddhists and Christians in a spirit of humility and honesty and in service of a shared humanity.

The general secretary of the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, opened his ecumenical and interfaith tour of New Zealand and Australia on 6 October. The first stop was Auckland with a powhiri at Te Karaiti Te Pou Herenga Waka Maori Anglican church in Mangere. Tveit will visit the region between 6-17 October.

"We worship in different languages and cultures, yet all one in Christ. This is an immensely enriching experience,” said Dr Jude Long, principal of Nungalinya College, in Darwin, Australia, as she explored spirituality with indigenous people from across the world this week.

At a time when Indigenous communities worldwide struggle for recognition, survival and the right to exist as distinct and self-determined peoples, the WCC convenes a consultation on Indigenous Spirituality and Theology, in Darwin, Australia (NT).

From Paris to Pakistan, Orlando to Myanmar, Iraq to Nigeria, each day witnesses conflict and violence perpetrated in the name of religion or committed against persons because of their religious identity.

Violence in the name of religion echoed in the distance, demanding a response, through the November 2015 meeting of the 25-member Executive Committee of the WCC in Bogis-Bossey and nearby Geneva, Switzerland as it planned the work of the Council in the coming years.