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The 70-year-old War Armistice Agreement should be replaced with a peace treaty, urged the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee in a public statement. “In a time of renewed escalation of tensions and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, we recall that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the 1953 Armistice Agreement which established a ceasefire, but not a formal end, to the Korean War,” reads the text. “We pray for peace and dialogue to end this dangerous cycle, and for denuclearization not only of the Korean Peninsula but of the entire world.”

During the World Council of Churches (WCC) leadership delegation visit to Ukraine in May, an ecumenical prayer service was held in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on 12 May. The service, led by the WCC leadership, WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC moderator Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm and Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, with participation of members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO), took place at St Andrew Orthodox Church in Bucha.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, in a public statement, urged a permanent cessation of hostilities in Sudan, where people are facing a humanitarian catastrophe following weeks of intense fighting between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

World Council of Churches central committee moderator Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm delivered a lecture at the Kitzingen deanery, a regional church district near Würzburg, for the parishes of the deanery as well as for the public. The lecture, entitled “Just Peace through Military Force? Peace Ethical Considerations in Light of the War of Aggression against Ukraine,” was offered on 29 April

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay is visiting Moscow this week, meeting with H.H. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia, and representatives from the largest WCC member church.

The World Council of Churches joined other global and regional groups in delivering to the UN an interfaith statement in support of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

During the 75th commemoration of what Palestinians refer to as the nakba, or “catastrophe”—when hundreds of thousands of people were uprooted during Israel's creation in 1948—World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed solidarity with member churches in the Holy Land.

During an ecumenical morning prayer held 15 May, the World Council of Churches (WCC) staff and partners observed the UN International Day of Living Together in Peace, holding in prayer many nations across the world facing challenges to living together in harmony.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed deep concern about the ongoing ethnic and communal violence which flared up last week in India’s north-eastern State of Manipur, involving the Hindu majority Meitei community and the mostly Christian Naga and Kuki tribal communities.

In a pastoral letter to the churches of South Sudan and to Norwegian Church Aid, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed shock and sadness about the news of an attack on Norwegian Church Aid vehicles in Imehejek, Lopa Lafon, in the Eastern Equatoria region of South Sudan.

Church leaders in Papua, in a position statement directed toward government officials, said “the current situation is a human tragedy,” expressed grave concern about extrajudicial killings and other violence, and called for immediate measures for a sustainable peace.

“They came to our house. We refused to open the door so they broke in though the window.”

That’s how Damaris Blessing Tiswan, a finance student at Kaduna Polytechnic, began describing her ordeal of being kidnapped with her four siblings at midnight.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed grave concern about the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan, and urged an end to hostilities.

In a statement on 21 April, the Youth Office of the Sudan Council of Churches reflected on the difficult situation in the nation.

In a recent report, WCC partner Human Rights Monitor expressed grave concern as Indonesian security forces intensify operations in West Papua.

During a noon prayer on 19 April, the World Council of Churches (WCC) called for global solidarity with the people of Sudan as an escalating conflict has plunged many innocent people into a situation in which they are barely able to survive. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed deep sadness at the sudden escalation of conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.