With a focus on peacebuilding and human rights protection, The United Evangelical Mission’s International Summer School 2023, organized in cooperation with the World Council of Churches and other partners, took place in August and September in Hofgeismar, Germany.
World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof Dr Jerry Pillay extended condolences and expressed solidarity with the victims of a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida (USA).
On 28th August, during a visit with Ambassador Andranik Hovhannisyan, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the UN Office, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed solidarity with those making efforts to lift the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by reopening the Lachin corridor.
As the World Council of Churches celebrates its 75th anniversary, a series of feature stories from different regions of the world will portray ecumenism at the local level—within churches, communities, and individuals who embody the spirit of ecumenism in unique ways. The feature story below offers a glimpse of some facets of ecumenism present in Germany.
Forty retired World Council of Churches (WCC) staff gathered at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey on 22 August to celebrate the WCC’s 75th anniversary and to receive greetings and reflections from WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay.
After thousands of Orthodox Christians were denied access to Mount Tabor, in the Lower Galilee—site of the transfiguration of Jesus—World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed concern about the infringement on religious freedom in the Holy Land.
Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, World Council of Churches (WCC) programme director for Public Witness and Diakonia, led a delegation that visited Colombia on 8-11 August to express solidarity with the Colombian churches, government and people as they collaborate in the design, implementation, and advocacy for the construction of peace in the country. Below, he shares his impressions of the visit.
An ecumenical team from Burkina Faso facilitated by the local Chemin Neuf Community has been the convener for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2024 drafting group. The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican have now published the material in several languages.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is urging a renewal of a Joint Ecumenical Peace Appeal—one that calls for, among other actions toward peace, an immediate formal declaration of the end of the Korean War.
In a letter to Colombian president H.E. Gustavo Petro Urrego on 28 July, WCC general secretary Rev. Prof Dr Jerry Pillay expressed deep appreciation for the Colombian government’s initiatives for peace.
In a letter to the China Christian Council, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Plllay expressed deep sympathy and concern for churches and people in China in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri.
Vandalism targeting churches, cemeteries, and Christian properties in addition to physical and verbal abuse against Christian clergy have increased in the past months in the Holy Land, amid ongoing political tensions within Israeli society.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is calling on Azerbaijan for the immediate lifting of the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, as more than 120,000 people—including 30,000 children—are suffering under an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis.
In pastoral letters to His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, His Beatitude Hieronymos II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, and the Evangelical Church of Greece, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay conveyed sincere sympathies as wildfires raged across the land.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) will be represented at the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) World Assembly on 2-10 August in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) shared greetings, ideas, and solidarity on 27 July with the International Conference on the 70th Anniversary of Armistice Agreement on the Korean Peninsula.
A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation led by WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Pillay visited New York City and Washington, DC this week, meeting with United Nations representatives, the Papal Nuncio, the National Council of Churches in North America, other church leaders, and ecumenical organizations and state officials.
A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation, led by WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, is visiting the USA this week, traveling to New York City as well as Washington, D.C. to bring together ecumenical leadership.
The life and ministry of Dr. Sylvia Ross Talbot, a church leader whose ecumenical dedication included service as the WCC’s vice-moderator in the 1980s and president of Church Women United, was celebrated last weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation will visit New York City and Washington, D.C. 18-21 July with the goal of strengthening collaboration and partnerships.