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After four years as general secretary of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), Dr Jørgen Skov Sørensen has returned home to Denmark, filled with confidence in the future of CEC and its growing influence on European affairs. With a clear mandate to sharpen CEC’s purpose and profile fulfilled, and strategic directions for the future affirmed at last year’s general assembly in Estonia, he now continues an extraordinary ecumenical journey, a journey where the search for his own Christian identity has played a significant role.

In an annual audience during the ongoing Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Bishop Bo-Göran Åstrand of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland gifted a pair of gloves to Pope Francis, described as “a modest gift, to warm the Pope’s hands in an otherwise cold world.” 

Communication from the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 2023 involved prophetic storytelling and growing channels to highlight justice, reconciliation, and unity across the world. 

Women and children in Gaza are bearing the heavy brunt of the ongoing war, according to reports from the United Nations, with close to a million women and girls displaced and 12,882 women and children already perished in a war that has now raged for more than 100 days.

Across the globe, churches shared Christmas and New Year messages expressing hope amid the grave challenges in the world. 

Lucina Di Meco, co-founder of #ShePersisted, shared research on gendered disinformation and online abuse against women in politics. She also shared suggestions for action during her presentation, part of a workshop for young church leaders on “Tackling Online Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.” 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission met for the first full meeting, which took place on 27 and 29 November, and 1 and 4 December online. 

A new publication, “Towards a Global Vision of the Church, Volume II,” was released during a webinar on 14 December hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order. 

“I have cerebral palsy spastic quadriplegia, meaning all of my limbs are severely affected by my cerebral. However, I am not defined by my cerebral palsy. There's much more to me than my cerebral palsy,” Julius Van Der Wat, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in Pretoria, South Africa, told a recent churches’ disability conference in South Africa.

In the Caribbean, there is an increased sense that persons with disabilities have rights and the church is strengthening the view that all are created in the image of God, said a Jamaican cleric and academic who campaigns for disability rights.

War has always tragically impacted women and children, but the traumatic effects of weaponizing women in war have long been swept under the carpet.On 8 December, the World Council of Churches (WCC) held a hybrid discussion watched globally as part of the 16 Days Against Gender-based Violence.