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How should the twin legacies of colonization and enslavement affect the future shape of Christian evangelism?

When disability advocates met this summer in Lebanon, they saw first-hand the difficulties facing persons with disabilities in refugee camps and zones of conflict in the Middle East.

Eighteen leaders from the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network met in Beirut, Lebanon on 3-5 July, to addresses concerns in the region and to evaluate the strategic plan.

How much is the mission of the church related to people with disabilities? These days we talk a lot about inclusive societies and churches. But, have we arrived there? Are our societies and churches taking seriously the problems and challenges that people with disabilities face on a daily basis? People with disabilities find themselves quite often at the margins of the societies and even of the churches.

Rev. Luca Maria Negro, president of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy, has been instrumental in founding the Humanitarian Corridors programme, an ecumenical project for safe passages for migrants developed by the federation’s Mediterranean Hope team with the Comunità di Sant’Egidio in 2015. Humanitarian Corridors have since been opened in France, Belgium and Andorra for a total of nearly 3,000 arrivals in Europe.

The Arusha Call to Discipleship is at once exhilarating, transformative and challenging to the point of discomfort for some, reflected leaders of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) during a 20 May press conference and book launch in Helsinki, Finland.

“As Christians, we are called every day to generously practice hospitality”, said Bishop Samuel Aguilar, from the Methodist Church of Peru, as he lamented cases of xenophobia, discrimination and violence suffered by thousands of Venezuelans in different parts of Latin America.

World Council of Churches partners in Arusha, Tanzania reflected on the realities in the communities they serve as they met one year after the World Council of Churches’ Conference on World Mission and Evangelism.

The headline for a newspaper letter extolling a man who lived what he espoused, engaging with shunned people often unable to effectively communicate verbally, said, "Jean Vanier was a living saint".

The World Council of Churches (WCC) welcomed representatives of the organization Faith and Light to explore together how the WCC can help more people be enriched by the gifts of those with intellectual disabilities.

“Think about your policies, practices and actions, not to just look back at the past, but to ask what can we do today?” These are the reflections of Judith Roberts, director for Racial Justice Ministries for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

The WCC invites applications for a seminar on Youth and Racism Awareness in Asia, to be held in Osaka, Japan on 8-12 September 2019.

Bread for the World is releasing a publication entitled “Lament and Hope: A Pan-African Devotional Guide Commemorating the 2019 Quad-Centennial of the Forced Transatlantic Voyage of Enslaved African Peoples to Jamestown, Virginia (USA).”

In an opening address at a Forum on Modern Slavery in Istanbul on 7 January, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew spoke on “Awareness, Action and Impact.” After many centuries of progress and advancement, we still live in a world where injustice and slavery continue to thrive, and where human dignity is exchanged for the sole purpose of greed, gain, and profit, reflected Bartholomew.

Dealing with people on the move is crucial to the work of the Church in the 21st century says Greek Metropolitan Gabriel of Nea Ionia and Filadelfia. More than 31,000 irregular migrants arrived in Greece by sea in 2018 and almost 17,000 arrived by land, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

WCC News met with the Very Reverend Archimandrite Dr Alexi Chehadeh, who leads the Department of Ecumenical Relations and Development for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East in Damascus, Syria. He is an impressive role model and peacemaker in Syria.

Many ecumenical pioneers, including former WCC general secretary Philip Potter, were in a sense a product of the Sunday School movement. Ulrich Becker tells a story that seems to be in danger of being forgotten.

On 3 December, the world marked the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) under the theme “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”. The theme focused on empowering persons with disabilities for the inclusive, equitable and sustainable development envisaged in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“Let us promote inclusion from the family to society level.” This was the clarion call made by Rachna Singh, National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) executive committee member and Sanjay Singh, director of the Church of North India stewardship ambassadors’ ministry during the Christmas celebrations of people with disabilities on 1 December at the NCCI Campus in Nagpur.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation and World Council of Churches held a learning exchange activity in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland on 28 November. The activity was attended by indigenous peoples’ organizations and support networks from the Philippines, Zambia, Peru, and Colombia.