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.
Women of faith who are African or of African descent held a powerful recent gathering, “Ubuntu: Remembrance, Diversity, and Advocacy in Unity Now!” in which they shared their call to action with a sense of Sankofa, or a season of now while looking back and forward. The event was organized by the Pan African Women’s Ecumenical Empowerment Network (PAWEEN) and Pan African Women of Faith (PAW).
Prof. Rev. Dr Simone Sinn began serving as academic dean at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in August. Prior to that, Dr Sinn served as vice dean and professor of Ecumenical Theology. Below, Dr Sinn shares reflections on the new role, on hopes for students and on how the Bossey Ecumenical Institute will remain a bridge builder amid the world’s serious challenges today.
Focolare students from the Montet Center of Formation and students from the Bossey Ecumenical Institute gathered to share the experience of multi-cultural community life and to pray together on 16 November.
Looking toward the 2022 assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that will gather around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” the latest issue of the WCC journal International Review of Mission focuses on the relationship between mission and unity.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee will meet for the first time in two years, 12-17 November, focusing on preparations for the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2022, and celebrating 75 years of ecumenical formation at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute.
From peacebuilding to spiritual life, from children’s rights to planning for the 11th Assembly, the World Council for Churches (WCC) is a busy place, as students from the WCC Bossey Ecumenical Institute learned during a “Week of Focus” offered by WCC staff.
“Dies Academicus,” is a special annual gathering at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Bossey Ecumenical institute. This academic year’s installment took place on 4 November. The current cohort of 33 students from 20 countries listened to a panel of four speakers who shared reflections on the theme, “Is racism a faith question?” The panel reaffirmed the WCC 4th Assembly held in Uppsala, which declared racism as sin.
Over 23-29 October, a Global Conference of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora (AAD) revisited the historical 1945 Manchester Pan-African Conference and critically reviewed progress made since then. Speakers and participants also worked to determine and develop effective global strategies to radically change the lot of Africans and people of African descent globally—and thereby defeat the scourge of racism in the world.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) and United Bible Societies (UBS) held a leadership summit on 26 October, sharing words of hope amid ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and also discussing preparations for the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2022.
On 25 October, students, faculty and friends of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at Bossey marked the 75th anniversary of the “living laboratory of ecumenism,” as Bossey is affectionately called.
A new Formation en Théologie Interculturelle course begins at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Bossey Ecumenical Institute on 22 October, marking the first such course for French-speaking parts of Europe.
The application deadline has been extended for the World Council of Churches (WCC) Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) 2022, which will take place in two phases—online and residential—under the theme “Christ’s Love (Re)moves Borders.”
During a discussion hosted by the Dicastery for Catholic Education on 5 October, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca met with representatives of religions to discuss the major challenges for education in today's world.
A team from the Church of Westphalia visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey from 27 September to 1 October, exploring a global view of ecumenism by learning about the WCC as a global ecumenical organisation.
Bishop Johan Tyrberg and a delegation from the Church of Sweden in Lund visited the World Council of Churches on 22-23 September, participating in a morning prayer for Christian unity, receiving a guided tour and discussing the theme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”
How can an experience be life-changing? If you have time, I invite you to read this small testimony of my theological pilgrimage during the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) 2018 experience, which was life-changing.
World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca met with Dr Muhammad Bin Abulkarim Al-Issa, secretary general of the Mecca-based Muslim World League and Aamir Javed Sheikh, head of the Norway-based Foundation Dialogue for Peace, at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute on 31 August.