The World Council of Churches invites the global fellowship and all people of good will to join, on 15 August, a prayer for peace and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula.
Nine translations are now available for the publication “Christ’s Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity: A reflection on the theme of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Karlsruhe 2022.”
After the recent war and its impact on the whole of Armenia and particularly in the region of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh, some pilgrims from the fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC) visited Armenia from 27 May to June 1.
From 31 May to 3 June, representatives from the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace Reference Group, Working Group on Climate Change, and the Young People in the Ecumenical Movement of the World Council of Churches formed a Pilgrim Team Visit to indigenous Sami communities in the south of Norway.
As a group of three laureates of the “National Human Rights Award in Colombia” engaged in meetings with diplomats and United Nations representatives in Geneva, a tray lunch event was organized on 8 June at the Ecumenical Centre by the World Council of Churches and ACT Alliance to offer the delegation the opportunity to share about the deterioration of the peace process in the country and the importance of international solidarity.
A newly released volume, “Transformative Spiritualities for the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” provides a selection of reflections from indigenous perspectives to women’s voices, from black communities ́ to campesino/as ́ struggles, from specific Christian traditions to sister faiths.
As the World Council of Churches’ first substantial digital publication and its largest free collection, the Faith and Order Papers open a new frontier for scholars, ecumenists, and anyone interested in traversing the twists and turns of the path towards Christian unity.
The joint publication of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ACT Alliance, offering resources to strengthen the diaconal capacity of the churches and to advance cooperation with their ecumenical partners, will be presented online on 9 June at 15.00 CET.
In a statement, the World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee affirmed its support for the churches of Sudan in their witness and ministry. The statement welcomed an ecumenical solidarity visit to Sudan on 20-25 April undertaken jointly by the WCC, All Africa Conference of Churches, and Fellowship of Christian Councils and Churches in the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa.
Three World Council of Churches (WCC) Pilgrim Team Visits, one to Italy, a second to Armenia and a third to Norway, are continuing the WCC’s accompaniment for communities in their quest for justice and peace under the theme of “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” through the lenses of post-war trauma healing, gender justice, and migration.
Rev. Dr Hyunju Bae represents the Presbyterian Church of Korea on the World Council of Churches central and executive committees and serves on the WCC Gender Advisory Group. She is a former professor of New Testament Studies at the Busan Presbyterian University, Republic of Korea, and now a co-president of the Korea Christian Environmental Movement Solidarity for Integrity of Creation. Below, she reflects on a recent prayer vigil for peace, as well as other ecumenical activities in South Korea.
The Central Mediterranean route is the overseas crossing from North Africa to Italy. Those migrating on this route generally aim to reach Italian shores but leave from a variety of North African countries bordering the Mediterranean. Though in past years most migrants have departed from Libya, which is a destination for migrants as well as a transit country, there is also a proportionally small but growing number of departures from Tunisia, Egypt, and Algeria.
Rich examples of the work promoted by member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Italy in assisting refugees and migrants, have been the highlight of the first days of WCC delegation visit to the region this week.
The majority of the initiatives visited are led by women.
As the World Council of Churches (WCC) fellowship prepares for the WCC 11th Assembly to be held in Karlsruhe, they also expressed their wish to prepare for the spiritual life and experience of the assembly.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee, during its February 2022 meeting, approved a set of Gender Justice Principles that clearly define the WCC’s own approach to gender justice.
A Gender Advisory Group developed the principles through many rounds of review by leadership and staff, as an internal document for WCC staff, governing bodies, commissions, and reference groups.
A new publication from WCC, “Coexistence: Peace, Nature, Poverty, Terrorism, Values (Religious Perspectives)” by Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës, and All Albania, is now available in hard copy and as an eBook.
For each assembly, the central committee submits an accountability report, describing and offering an assessment of the activities of the WCC between the assemblies; in this case, since the 10th Assembly, in Busan, Republic of Korea, in late 2013.
Encouraging the WCC fellowship in its ongoing call to discipleship together, the WCC central committee commended to WCC member churches the document “Called to Transformation—Ecumenical Diakonia and Addendums.”
At the end of a 9 February press conference — which followed a long day of videoconference meetings — Dr Agnes Abuom and Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauce fielded a surprise question: what first got them involved in the ecumenical movement?