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A webinar on 4 December will focus on “Decolonizing beauty: mission, gender, racism, and health in the skin-whitening pandemic.”

World Council of Churches (WCC) specialized ministries and roundtable partners are gathering on 3-4 May at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute for a “Working Together” meeting filled with a spirit of interconnected learning and preparation for the WCC 11th Assembly.

Following the decision of the Executive Committee during its meeting of November 2021, the World Council of Churches (WCC) is posting the opening of three staff leadership positions. The openings include programme director for Unity and Mission, programme director for Public Witness and Diakonia, and director of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order.

A compilation of the most-read stories published by the World Council of Churches (WCC) reveals a global fellowship focused on a better future even amid the grave challenges the world faced during 2021.

At an event called “Ecumenical Continuing Formation: Youth, Transformative Masculinity 

and Femininity,” young people from the Pacific gathered from 15-19 November, both online and in-person, to express their honest feelings about the issues most important to them.

 

The legacy of sexual slavery before, during and after the brutal Korean War weighs heavily on the shoulders of the thousands of Korean women who lived for decades under a brutal militarized patriarchy.

A Women of Faith Pilgrim Team gathered, some in person and others virtually, in South Korea from 13-15 July. They were there to listen and accompany Korean church women as they called for an end to patriarchy – manifested in the Japanese colonization of Korea and establishment of ‘comfort women’ and also in the Korean War — and to the resulting pain and injustice that remains a grim daily reality for many today.

South Sudanese church leaders have welcomed a new cabinet, which the country’s president Salva Kiir Mayardit announced on 12 March.

The unveiling of the cabinet ended months of anxious waiting for a new unity government which was mandated by a 2018 peace pact, known as the Revitalised Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan. The government has 34 ministers and 10 deputies.

Beate Fagerli, World Council of Churches (WCC) assembly coordinator, answers the most frequently asked questions about the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly in 2021.

The South African Council of Churches is calling on the De Klerk Foundation to retract and apologize in the wake of a 14 February statement issued by the foundation amplifying the position that apartheid was not a crime against humanity, but a Soviet propaganda ploy.

A message released 9 November from the South Sudan Council of Churches reflected that the will for peace is not measured only by deadlines and technical arrangements. “Whether the government is formed on 12th November 2019 or a further extension is agreed, it is a question of the heart and of the political will,” the message reads. “The people of South Sudan have begged their political leaders to find a peaceful way forward, to look beyond political interest, emotional turmoil and historical grievances, and to hold their duty towards the people of the country as a sacred calling which is to be gravely cherished in holy servitude and with deep respect.”

Churches across southern Africa are publicly saying #EnoughIsEnough,” with many denominations and congregations continuing to issue strong statements, arrange special prayer events, and speak out against rising levels of violence.

Both the Dutch Reformed Church and the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) have been discussing gender justice and how to keep the momentum going on the unprecedented public demand for change.

A new concern for South Sudan is emerging, as African religious leaders warn that the failure to implement the latest peace agreement could push the young nation back into war.

The leaders spoke in Nairobi on 12 September, the day the world’s newest nation marked a year since the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan.

As the Waldensian Methodist Synod met in Torre Pelisse in the north of Italy, the assembled delegates received a letter from Pope Francis, who expressed warm greetings.

“I pray for each of you that you may experience the Holy Spirit in these days of encounter, prayer and reflection,” wrote Pope Francis. “Please allow me to join in your prayer that the Lord would deepen the ecumenical spirit among Christians and lead our churches into a growing communion with each other.”

A group of United Nations experts together say that countries have an important role to play in promoting religious tolerance and cultural diversity and that they can do this by promoting and protecting human rights, including freedom of religion or belief.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) are calling upon young Africans to participate in an essay contest for the African regional publication on Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace. Africans from the continent and the diaspora up to 35 years of age are invited to send their texts by 15 October 2019.

Conversations at the World Council of Churches (WCC) exhibition booth at the Kirchentag showed there is a growing interest in ecumenical movement among German churches. The topics of a particularly high interest were the Thursdays in Black campaign and studies at the Ecumenical institute in Bossey.