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Toward the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order

Commemorating the Council of Nicaea: Where Now for Visible Unity?

The Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will take place from 24 to 28 October 2025 near Alexandria, Egypt, around the theme “Where now for visible unity?” The conference will be the centrepiece of the WCC’s activities to mark the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a key moment in the history of Christian faith and for the ecumenical journey today.
This booklet provides the context for and overview of the proposed conference.

Towards a Global Vision of the Church Volume I

Explorations on Global Christianity and Ecclesiology, Faith and Order Paper 234

 As a part of the reception process of the convergence document The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV), the ecclesiology study group of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order undertook a wide range of conversations on global Christianity and ecclesiology. This  included perspectives from various regions (especially Asia, Africa, and Latin America), denominational families (such as evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and independent churches), and forms of being church (such as ecclesial movements, new forms of monasticism, and online churches) which have not always been clearly or strongly represented in the discussions on the way to TCTCV. 

This first of two volumes offers a taste of the insights, contributions, lively dialogue, diverse perspectives, and mutual exchange of ecumenical gifts between the members of the commission and theologians from  around the world, which took place through a series of international consultations between 2015-22.

The fruit of this work is offered with the hope that it will contribute towards a clearer, global vision of the Church in the 21st century.

Together in the Mission of God

Jubilee Reflections on the International Missionary Council

What is so important in the International Missionary Council (IMC) and its historical successor, the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, that they will have their own centennial volume?

By reading this book, the reader will gain a better understanding of how important and crucial they have been in the development of the ecumenical movement and of what today is often called World Christianity.

This volume aims to highlight how, in the course of the past century, structured efforts to foster unity in mission cooperation have shaped not only Christianity but even the world.

Common Threads

Key Themes from Responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision. Faith and Order Paper No 233

Churches now agree more than they disagree on many characteristics of the Church and its faith, mission, and life: the responses to the convergence statement The Church: Towards a Common Vision make this clear. Within this growth in agreement, key themes come to the fore, calling for greater understanding, study, and common conversation: visible unity, communion, mission, the role of the people of God in ministry and decision-making, sin and the church, and more. 

This volume presents essays on sixteen of these key themes. Each essay was written by a member of the subgroup of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order that focused on reading and analyzing the responses. The essays were then discussed by the group and revised in light of the discussions. Some of the themes have been prominent since the 1982 convergence statement Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Others have emerged more recently. 

Together with the report What are the Churches Saying about the Church?, the essays illuminate the many ways in which the vision of unity has inspired and changed the churches, as well as critical areas where future work is needed.

Sharing and Learning

Bible, Mission, and Receptive Ecumenism

Receptive Ecumenism can be described as an ecumenism of the wounded hands. It brings to the fore the self-critical hospitality, humble learning, and ongoing conversion that have always been quietly essential to ecumenical work. “What do we, in our tradition, need to learn and receive, with integrity, from others?”

The book is meant for all those interested in the theological relations between mission and unity, as well as in Receptive Ecumenism. It is intended for all who are interested in the practical consequences of committing themselves to foster the unity and mission of the Church in the world. It serves both academics and practitioners engaged in mission and unity. If the book can be a source of inspiration for them, it will have fulfilled its purpose.

What Are the Churches Saying About the Church?

Key Findings and Proposals from the Responses to The Church: Towards a Common Vision

Faith and Order Paper no. 236

This report was developed by the WCC Commission on Faith and Order as part of an ongoing conversation by churches about the Church that has included various elements. Following the publication of the two volumes of Churches Respond to The Church: Towards a Common Vision, this text provides an accessible summary of the findings of a process that took years of intense and hope-filled listening. It provides some highlights and impressions of what those who have listened have discerned what they heard.

The Commission on Faith and Order hope that readers will find this short text fascinating, challenging, and significant and that it will encourage the churches to take stock of the theological unity made evident here.

Churches and Moral Discernment (III)

Volume 3: Facilitating Dialogue to Build Koinonia

Faith and Order Paper No. 235

The study document “Churches and Moral Discernment: Facilitating Dialogue to Build Koinonia,” harvests the fruits of the study process on moral discernment which began in 2015. In its analysis, the document describes patterns in the complex negotiations between continuity and change as churches respond to moral challenges. At its core, the study document invites the churches to more deeply understand the significance of “the conscience of the church” in moral discernment processes and points to its ecumenical potential. The document offers a tool to analyse core elements in the conscience of the church that shape moral discernment.

Churches Respond To The Church: Towards A Common Vision Volume I

Faith and Order Paper No. 231

This publication and its companion volume collect the responses received to The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV) between 2013 and 2020.

The responses address the Church’s mission, unity, and its being in the Trinitarian life of God in order to encourage and advance the churches’ growth in communion with each other in apostolic faith, sacramental life, mission, and ministry for the sake of God’s world.

These responses are of great importance, not only because they test the points of convergence and of difference identified in TCTCV but also because they express the interests and concerns of many member churches and ecclesial bodies engaging in the work for Christian unity. They also provide invaluable insight and guidance for future work on ecclesiology.

Churches Respond To the Church: Towards a Common Vision Volume II

Faith and Order Paper No. 232

This publication and its companion volume collect the responses received to The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV) between 2013 and 2020.

The responses address the Church’s mission, unity, and its being in the Trinitarian life of God in order to encourage and advance the churches’ growth in communion with each other in apostolic faith, sacramental life, mission, and ministry for the sake of God’s world.

These responses are of great importance, not only because they test the points of convergence and of difference identified in TCTCV but also because they express the interests and concerns of many member churches and ecclesial bodies engaging in the work for Christian unity. They also provide invaluable insight and guidance for future work on ecclesiology.

Love and Witness

Proclaiming the Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ in a Religiously Plural World

Faith and Order Paper No. 230

“Love and Witness,” intends to flesh out more fully the insights of Come and See with regard to peace and religious plurality. It seeks to engage with the insights of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and others to ask what our many traditions can say together as we journey towards visible unity about the encounter with other religions that will necessarily be a part of the Church’s pilgrim way.

Cultivate and Care

An Ecumenical Theology of Justice for and within Creation

Faith and Order Paper No. 226

The alarming climate change demands that the churches’ journey toward visible unity must include a sustained dialogue with a theology for justice for and within creation and seek ways to put the fruits of that dialogue into practice.

This theological document seeks to demonstrate how a committed response to the environmental devastation of our time can be motivated by Christian faith in God the creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.

We have sought, first, to point to some of the urgent environmental situations which cry out for Christian reflection and action. Next, we have sought to root such a response in the progressively increasing ecumenical consideration of creation on the part of the WCC in recent decades and in various theological, ecclesiological, and ecumenical convictions which our churches share and which call them to join together in engagement to protect the environment. Finally, we have proposed ways in which such engagement can take form.

Churches and Moral Discernment (I)

Volume 1: Learning from Traditions

Faith and Order Paper No. 228

The volume features 14 self-descriptions of different traditions regard­ing moral discernment: their sources, the interplay of sources, and the processes of ecclesial deliberation. The different self-descriptions are presented to enable reflection on and provide awareness of how processes of moral discernment are envisioned by the respective traditions. They invite the reader, as well as churches, to study them, reflect on the moral discernment of their own tradition, and learn how others engage in moral discernment.

 

Churches and Moral Discernment (II)

Volume 2: Learning from History

Faith and Order Paper No. 229

Many of the tensions between and among churches can be traced to the different positions they take on important ethical issues that face the churches and society. Yet, even within traditions positions change. In this second volume examining moral discernment in church traditions, the authors imagine changes in position on issues such as usury, slavery, marriage, suicide, as well as freedom of religion, apartheid, and involvement in war and peace.

For Those Who Wish to Hear

Emerging Theologians on Mission and Evangelism

For those who wish to hear, these novel voices of emerging theologians offer authentic clues to translating the received traditions of Christianity in ways that might also transform the world.

Come and See

A Theological Invitation
 to the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

Faith and Order Paper No. 224.

This document invites the churches to explore the ways that “pilgrimage” can help the churches deepen and express the commitment to oneness in their work.

Growth in Agreement IV:

International Dialogue Texts and Agreed Statements, 2004–2014, Volumes 1 and 2

A gift to the ongoing work of reconciliation among Christians, the textual fruits of ecumenical dialogue over the last decade are presented here in complete documents. The vast yield is here collected in two volumes, incorporating bilateral and multilateral dialogues of the churches across the Christian confessions—Orthodox, Catholic, and Reformation traditions—and evinces not only agreements and disagreements but also the new insights that dialogue itself reveals.

Sources of Authority, Volume 1

The Early Church. Faith and Order Papers 217

Living and witnessing to their faith in the first centuries after the New Testament, the men and women of the early church—theologians and bishops, ascetics and martyrs—have exerted a profound influence and authority in the subsequent theological and ecclesial periods and traditions.

Reading the Gospels with the Early Church: A Guide

Faith and Order Paper No. 213

“New refreshing insights on our understanding of the gospel in the 21st century from our ancient past—this is the surprising impact of what is captured in this small book in which the thoughts of early church figures are brought alive in a new way.” —Setri Nyomi, World Communion of Reformed Churches, General Secretary

The Church: Towards a Common Vision

Faith and Order Paper No. 214

At once the instrument of and obstacle to Christian unity, the identity of the church itself has often been the subject of debate and division in Christian history. Yet, despite such diversity and the steep challenges presented by the present context, The Church: Towards a Common Vision presents a genuine ecumenical convergence of understanding on the fundamental character and mission of the Church from a variety of communions, traditions, and regions.