When Rev. Rita Famos became involved in the youth programmes of her local congregation in Bern, Switzerland, back in the early 1980s, a lifelong commitment to the Reformed Church and the ecumenical movement started to evolve.
The climate emergency is already causing serious food insecurity on a global scale, members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee heard at a plenary session on 23 June—and they added that climate justice is a matter of both faith and action.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee opened on 21 June with common prayer that recalled the 75th anniversary of the founding of the WCC in 1948 and remembered those active in the ecumenical movement who have died over the past year.
The World Council of Churches (WCC), in collaboration with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Soka Gakkai International, and Brahma Kumaris, convened a side event titled "Deliver climate action: Support a Robust Global Stocktake from a human rights and Ethical perspective," on 5 June in Bohn, Germany. The event brought together experts and stakeholders to emphasize the importance of integrating human rights, ethical considerations, and climate justice into the forthcoming Global Stocktake process.
With the topics of the war in Ukraine and climate protection as the focal points, the 38th German Protestant Kirchentag takes place in Nuremberg, Germany from 7 to 11 June. The World Council of Churches’ presence in the Kirchentag’s exhibition space “Market of Opportunities” (hall 9, stand 9-C32) enables lively encounters and an opportunity to learn more about the ecumenical movement.
The 38th German Protestant Kirchentag will take place in in Nuremberg, Germany on 7 – 11 June 2023, gathering more than 100,000 participants from Germany and beyond.
Pastor Joachim Leberecht, from Herzogenrath/Germany, has won the international Menno Simons Sermon Award from the Center for Peace Church Theology (University of Hamburg) together with the Mennonite congregation Hamburg-Altona.
There is an old Lutheran adage that to be Lutheran is to be ecumenical, so the theme of the upcoming Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) taking place in Poland, "One Body, One Spirit, One Hope,” is seen as totally appropriate for the times.
Participating in a Ökumenetag (ecumenical day) in Karlsruhe, Germany, on 22 April, former World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Fr Ioan Sauca reflected back on the WCC 11th Assembly, and expressed deep gratitude to the host churches.
The leaders of regional ecumenical organizations met on 19-20 April at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey to consult and collaborate with each other and with the World Council of Churches (WCC).
In his first address after his election on 19 April 2005, Pope Benedict XVI pledged to work for the full and visible unity of all of Christ’s followers, Dr Stephen G. Brown, editor of the World Council of Churches journal The Ecumenical Review, has recalled in an address to a symposium in Dublin.
Opening the launch of the text “Future of Mission Cooperation”—the last in a World Council of Churches (WCC) trilogy reflecting on the centenary of the International Missionary Council—WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay described the volume as “the outcome of a rich and long process.”
During an Africa-Europe Ecumenical Forum on Migration, held 15-19 March In Hamburg, Germany, nearly 60 people gathered to discuss, among many other issues, the negative effects of “irregular” migration, caused in part by the growth of inequality within and between countries.
A new volume of “The Future of Mission Cooperation” will be released during a hybrid event on 24 March, and will be followed by a discussion for an editorial group to discuss next steps with scholars and schools who contributed to the text.
Brother Alois, prior of the Taizé Community, along with a group of 60 young people from the community, visited the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 6 March for a time of prayer and sharing.
The latest issue of Current Dialogue, the journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on interreligious dialogue and cooperation, takes as its theme “Healing Wounded Memories through Interreligious Perspective and Engagement.”
The publication “Called to Transformation – Ecumenical Diakonia” is newly available in German, offering resources to strengthen the diaconal capacity of churches and to advance the cooperation with specialized ministries.
“It’s okay not to be okay.” That’s the catchy way Denis Pattinasarany, from the Protestant church in the Mollucas, Indonesia, describes one of the most important things he learned at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute.
