Looking toward the 2022 assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) that will gather around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity,” the latest issue of the WCC journal International Review of Mission focuses on the relationship between mission and unity.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, students, WCC staff, and friends gathered on 13 November to pray and sing together in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Bossey Ecumenical Institute.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) website will be included in the archives of the Swiss National Library as part of a collection of websites of “patrimonial importance” in Switzerland. “The Swiss National Library collects specifically non-commercial websites, that are relevant to the nation’s heritage,” explained Anne-Emmanuelle Tankam-Tene, archivist at the WCC.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee will meet for the first time in two years, 12-17 November, focusing on preparations for the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2022, and celebrating 75 years of ecumenical formation at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute.
From peacebuilding to spiritual life, from children’s rights to planning for the 11th Assembly, the World Council for Churches (WCC) is a busy place, as students from the WCC Bossey Ecumenical Institute learned during a “Week of Focus” offered by WCC staff.
“Dies Academicus,” is a special annual gathering at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Bossey Ecumenical institute. This academic year’s installment took place on 4 November. The current cohort of 33 students from 20 countries listened to a panel of four speakers who shared reflections on the theme, “Is racism a faith question?” The panel reaffirmed the WCC 4th Assembly held in Uppsala, which declared racism as sin.
Over 23-29 October, a Global Conference of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora (AAD) revisited the historical 1945 Manchester Pan-African Conference and critically reviewed progress made since then. Speakers and participants also worked to determine and develop effective global strategies to radically change the lot of Africans and people of African descent globally—and thereby defeat the scourge of racism in the world.
Taking its cue from a lecture by former World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Philip Potter, the October issue of the WCC quarterly The Ecumenical Review explores the meaning of the “oikoumene,” which in Greek refers to the whole inhabited earth and gives “ecumenism” its name.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) and United Bible Societies (UBS) held a leadership summit on 26 October, sharing words of hope amid ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and also discussing preparations for the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2022.
On 25 October, students, faculty and friends of the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Institute at Bossey marked the 75th anniversary of the “living laboratory of ecumenism,” as Bossey is affectionately called.
A new Formation en Théologie Interculturelle course begins at the World Council of Churches (WCC) Bossey Ecumenical Institute on 22 October, marking the first such course for French-speaking parts of Europe.
The application deadline has been extended for the World Council of Churches (WCC) Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) 2022, which will take place in two phases—online and residential—under the theme “Christ’s Love (Re)moves Borders.”
During a discussion hosted by the Dicastery for Catholic Education on 5 October, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca met with representatives of religions to discuss the major challenges for education in today's world.
A team from the Church of Westphalia visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Institute at Bossey from 27 September to 1 October, exploring a global view of ecumenism by learning about the WCC as a global ecumenical organisation.
At a 23 September webinar commemorating 90 years since the entry of Dietrich Bonhoeffer into the ecumenical movement and its witness for peace, speakers reflected on how Bonhoeffer’s wisdom has withstood the test of time and still illuminates the ecumenical movement today.
Bishop Johan Tyrberg and a delegation from the Church of Sweden in Lund visited the World Council of Churches on 22-23 September, participating in a morning prayer for Christian unity, receiving a guided tour and discussing the theme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”
World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca met with Dr Muhammad Bin Abulkarim Al-Issa, secretary general of the Mecca-based Muslim World League and Aamir Javed Sheikh, head of the Norway-based Foundation Dialogue for Peace, at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute on 31 August.
“It’s more than just an English course.” Created specifically for the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey students, the English course is designed to reinforce students’ vocabulary, grammar and writing skills, arming them with the tools necessary to pursue not only their studies at Bossey but also participate in the ecumenical movement.
Absorbing Philip Potter’s profoundly simple direction for the ecumenical movement—“only connect”—those gathered for an online tribute to the former World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary tapped into the still-growing legacy of a remarkable man.
