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A groundbreaking agreement was announced Wednesday making all students attending the WCC’s Ecumenical Institute at Bossey eligible to receive an accredited certificate from the University of Geneva.

“There is no theological reflection that does not take place in God’s vulnerable world and in the midst of the joy and suffering of ordinary people,” said the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in his report to the first meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee that he has addressed as general secretary.

Graduate study in peacemaking will be available for academic credit at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC), held 17-23 May in Kingston, Jamaica and sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC). A course for seminarians and other graduate students will be offered on “Overcoming Violence: An Engagement with the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation”.

In the aftermath of an international consultation on the engagement of Christians in ministries of service, relief and development, Cuban theologian Reinerio Arce agreed to be interviewed on the continuing need for “diakonia” as an essential ministry of the ecumenical movement. Dr Arce, president of Matanzas Theological Seminary and moderator of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, was a participant in the Global Consultation on Prophetic Diakonia in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 13 through 15 December 2010.

New models of theological education involving migrant churches are an imperative for Christianity in the 21 st century. This was one of the key convictions expressed at a joint international consultation of the programme on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) of the WCC and the Academy of Mission at the University of Hamburg , Germany.

Thirty representatives of Orthodox institutions gathered in mid-November 2010 at the Andrei Saguna theological faculty in Sibiu, Romania to reflect on the topic “The Ecumenical Movement in Theological Education and the Life of Orthodox Churches”. This discussion was moderated by Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople).

Natividad Llanquileo is a young woman from the Mapuche people, an indigenous group that makes up some 4 percent of the Chilean population. In late November, she visited Geneva – seat of the United Nations Human Rights Council and other UN bodies – to inform the international organizations about the ongoing negotiations between the representatives of the Mapuche political prisoners and the Chilean government.

Leading experts in theological education in Africa came together 15-18 November for a continent-wide meeting at the headquarters of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) in Nairobi, Kenya.

The recently established Network for Ecumenical Learning in Central and Eastern Europe ( NELCEE ) held its first consultation in Prague, 14-17 October.

The future of theological education in Asia was addressed during a meeting of the Foundation for Theological Education in South East Asia (FTESEA) in the US city of Philadelphia, 4-5 October 2010. The FTESEA is preparing to celebrate its 75 th anniversary in 2012 and is looking back to years of creative partnership with both the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme on Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) and the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland.

The wholeness of creation and the commitment for justice are two biblical insights that have guided ecumenical concern on climate change, say the editors of the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, published under the title, "Churches Caring for Creation and Climate Justice".

By Stephen Brown (*)

By Kirk Sandvig (*)

A Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity, released at the Edinburgh 2010 conference, provides "a world-class resource for all of us who feel a need for continuing ecumenical formation", says the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

The endowment of two new scholarship funds geared towards facilitating studies at the Ecumenical Institute of the WCC was celebrated at the graduation ceremony for the 61st session of the institute's Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies on 3 February.

The role of the church in building just peace was highlighted last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where three World Council of Churches (WCC) advisory groups met to recognize the culmination of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) and the forthcoming International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) scheduled for May 2011.

Proper theological education is of strategic importance for the future of Christianity. So is ecumenical formation for the future of the ecumenical movement, according to a world report on the future of theological education.

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Religious diversity is an unavoidable reality today – and an opportunity, according to the participants of an interfaith seminar held in July at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey outside Geneva, Switzerland.