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Observing the 70th anniversary of the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) brings special focus and heightened attention to this year’s Central Committee meeting, 15-21 June in Geneva.

Most South Africans know of Brigalia Bam as chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), where she served from 1999 to 2011. Previously secretary general of the South African Council of Churches, and already an IEC commissioner, she was chosen by then-President Nelson Mandela from the list of parliamentary nominees for this critical role. In a country that had recently been on the brink of racial civil war, she guided South Africans with humour, tolerance and impartiality along the path of inclusive democracy.

In a powerful symbol of unity, Christians from North and South Korea sang together yesterday during celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The Koreans linked arms to sing the 600-year-old folk song Arirang that is the unofficial anthem of Korea – the united Korea that existed until civil war divided the country in the 1950s.

“The pilgrim experience is one great communal prayer by walking together”, said Rev. Dr Fernando Enns, speaking to the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee on 18 June, during a plenary on the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

Mass media can play a positive role in creating attitudes of tolerance and greater understanding in situations where racism might inflame an already difficult situations, says the head of a Christian global communication rights organization.

Work for the unity of the church is inseparable from work for the unity of the human community and the whole of creation, according to the director of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Just a stone’s throw from the United Nations headquarters in Geneva lies the English-speaking Roman Catholic parish of St John XXIII. Together with the central Notre Dame Basilica, it provides for the spiritual needs of a diverse international crowd of diplomats, UN staff, business people and domestic workers.

Scholars and students around the world will soon have access to a unique collection of documents that relate to the search for Christian unity online, instead of having to visit the archives in Geneva of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to seek out texts that are often difficult to obtain elsewhere.

It’s taken a while, but a Protestant congregation in Italy has learned to live together despite wide cultural diversity. The process has been guided by the pastor’s conviction that intercultural work is an expression of Christian unity.

You wouldn’t pay two thousand times more than the value of a cup of coffee, so why pay that for a glass of water? That’s one of the reasons why members of the World Council of Churches’s Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) are encouraging you to consider joining the “Blue Community” and to stop using bottled water in places where tap water is safely and freely available.

In his report to the gathered members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee, its general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, offered both affirmation and challenge to the member churches and their representatives.

“Where is God?” Evoking the desperate cry of a South Sudanese girl stranded in a refugee camp far from home, WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom opened the Central Committee’s biennial meeting on 15 June with a stirring yet clear-eyed cry for deeper engagement by the WCC and its member churches to counter the world’s most intractable problems through nurturing hope and empowerment.

As the Conference of European Churches (CEC) convened in Novi Sad, Serbia for its 15th general assembly, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit conveyed a greeting on behalf of the WCC.

Interview with pastor Martin Robra on the visit of Pope Francis to the World Council of Churches by Antonio Spadaro, SJ

The landmark visit of Pope Francis to the World Council of Churches on 21 June will be a centrepiece of the ecumenical commemoration of the WCC's 70th anniversary.

The Theological Faculty of Aristoteleion University in Thessaloniki organized an international colloquium on 19-20 April to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) as well as the 70th anniversary of the election of Patriarch Athenagoras as head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has told participants at the Global Christian Forum’s Third (GCF) Global Gathering in Bogota, Colombia that the GCF is remarkable in building trust among participants and opening ways for new forms of cooperation.

The relationship between the WCC and Chiara Lubich dates back to the time of the Second Vatican Council. On her death, Samuel Kobia paid tribute, saying: “Our love for Chiara and immense gratitude for the gift of God she has been to the ecumenical movement, will continue to motivate and inspire us in our work for the visible unity of the church”.