In an online conference organized by the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations on 5 March, the World Council of Churches (WCC) was represented among inter-religious voices bringing their concerns and sense of solidarity in the lead-up to International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on 8 March.
The Thursdays in Black campaign now has a Youth Edition, developed by young people who are building a network in support of a world free from rape and violence.
The moment religious leaders from around 40 faith-based organisations worldwide agreed to keep defending the individual right to seek asylum during a gathering in Geneva marked a high point on the eve of the Global Refugee Forum, the world's biggest such international gathering.They met at a one-day event on 12 December at the World Council of Churches (WCC), chaired by an Armenian archbishop and a UN diplomat who was once a Turkish legislator.
His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew addressed an assembly of religious leaders gathered at the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Centre on 12 December—the day before the opening of the Global Refugee Forum.
In a message to the Global Refugee Forum released 12 December, faith-based leaders underscored their commitment to offering sanctuary for refugees as well defending their human rights.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission for World Mission and Evangelism and Programme for Overcoming Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Discrimination hosted a meeting of young Black European Christians.
50 young people from 24 countries have sent a message of hope to the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates at the end of 2023. The message was delivered during a special ceremony during the second edition of the Emerging Peacemakers Forum, held at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland.
Thirteen-year-old Ellyanne Chlystun-Githae Wanjiku, from Kenya, gave a clarion call during a 9 May webinar on climate responsible banking: “The children are not afraid to follow the money,” she said—and that means learning about responsible banking and influencing policy.
The fifth edition of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Eco-School on Water, Food, and Climate Justice, will be held 24-31 July in Crete, Greece. Convening in-person in the Orthodox Academy of Crete, Greece, the event is open to young people under 30 years of age from the Europe and North America region only.
The Dicastery for Promoting Interreligious Dialogue is hosting a conference in Rome on the importance of women building a culture of interreligious encounter.
Radically impatient. This is a common sentiment among young people across different backgrounds and regions of the world, criticizing the ongoing inaction of many world leaders, people of power and influence, including the church, on the issue of the climate emergency.
An interfaith breakfast held in conjunction with the 77th session of the UN General Assembly brought into focus the urgent need for policymakers to better address key gaps to end inequalities in HIV services for children.
As Loyce Maturu shared her story of growing up in Zimbabwe at an interfaith breakfast in New York City on 22 September, she held herself up as an example that faith communities really can make a difference for children who have HIV.
An interfaith panel discussion on climate, held 21 September, sent a clear message to the world’s governments: a social and spiritual transformation must underpin policies that care for the earth and the most vulnerable people living on it.
Karlsruhe, a city built over 300 hundred years ago without walls, open to friends and guests —at a time where other cities still hid behind their fortifications —welcomed people from all over the world to four pre-assemblies that are bringing forward powerful calls to the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
Four World Council of Churches (WCC) pre-assemblies are about to convene, drawing hundreds of people eager to, in a safe space, share their honest reflections and life challenges. The pre-assemblies include Indigenous Peoples, Ecumenical Youth Gathering, Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network, and Just Community of Women and Men.
Offering a churches’ perspective during a dialogue on humanitarian aid on 10 June, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca spoke on the faith and spiritual foundations for helping one another.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed the revulsion of the global fellowship of churches at the murder of Deborah Yakubu, a second-year college student beaten to death and burnt by a group of her fellow students in Sokoto, northern Nigeria.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) and Religions for Peace will issue on 9 May a joint message on statelessness, “Belonging—Affirmations for Faith Leaders”.
The document is one of the most recent fruits of WCC work that has been ongoing for more than a decade around the issue of statelessness. It is currently available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.