Search results

Through adoption of a resolution in support of the Thursdays in Black campaign in August, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly has publicly affirmed the church’s commitment to fostering gender justice. The action is a significant official step that now formally “calls upon all people across all expressions of the church to participate in the #ThursdaysinBlack campaign by wearing black on Thursdays and actively participating in the various reflection and action items.”

Rev. Claudia Bandixen is the recently retired director of Mission 21, an international mission organisation headquartered in Basel.

As South Africa grapples with a gender-based violence crisis, president Cyril Ramaphosa is convening, on 18 September, the entire parliament for a special session on how to create a society in which women feel not only safe, but enjoy human rights equal to men. With 52,420 sexual offences reported in the last financial year - and many unreported - hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa are publicly saying “#EnoughIsEnough.” Churches and faith communities are a vocal, visible part of this call for change. Will the momentum grow? Will we stand with the women of South Africa?

This is the second in a series of interviews with Thursdays in Black ambassadors who are playing a vital role in increasing the impact of our collective call for a world without rape and violence. Rev. Chris Ferguson is general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

Moravian women pastors and evangelists have said: “Enough is enough: no more rape and violence against women." Women leaders of the church marched in the streets of Mbeya town in Tanzania wearing black on Thursday to officially launch the Thursdays in Black global campaign to stand against rape and violence.

Dr Agnes Abuom is moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee. From Kenya, Abuom is a laywoman in the Anglican Church of Kenya.

Leaders from organizations, communities and churches are committing to be “Thursdays in Black Ambassadors” to inspire action against gender-based violence and injustice.

Twenty years after the signing of the landmark “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Roman Catholic Church in 1999, the latest issue of The Ecumenical Review, the quarterly journal of the World Council of Churches (WCC), focuses on the achievements and challenges of contemporary ecumenical dialogue.

As Makerere University in Uganda admitted new undergraduate students in August, trained “ambassadors of change" were able to speak about preventing sexual and gender-based violence and HIV transmission. The ambassadors were trained though workshops offered by the World Council of Churches Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy programme.

A group of United Nations experts together say that countries have an important role to play in promoting religious tolerance and cultural diversity and that they can do this by promoting and protecting human rights, including freedom of religion or belief.

Rev. Nathan Day Wilson is a pastor with the Disciples of Christ in the United States and currently holds the position as director of communications at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is associate editor and columnist for the Faith and Values section of the Indianapolis Star. Wilson was a lecturer at the seminar, “Equipping each other for Christian Witness in a multi-cultural and multi-faith world”, taking place at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute from 5-15 August.

More than 1,000 attendees at the 15th Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly have formally endorsed the Thursdays in Black campaign for a world free from rape and violence.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is standing in solidarity with the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and WCC member churches in the USA as they demand an end to gun violence, racist rhetoric, and white supremacy.

Along Lake Geneva from 2-21 July, an exhibit, “Women in War,” highlighted the stories of women who were combatants, activists, mothers, leaders and survivors of war. The exhibit, developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross in collaboration with National Geographic, aimed to break the stereotypes that reduce women to the status of victim only, and to highlight the sometimes complex and difficult roles they have in wars.

Students at Makerere University in Uganda have launched an evangelical and health mission in Kayunga, one of the rural villages in Mityana district located about 50 km from Kampala, Uganda.
The initiative follows the October 2018 launch of the Thursdays in Black Campaign against sexual and gender-based violence in Uganda by the Anglican community of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity at Makerere University.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) hosted a Sikh-Christian dialogue on 5 July with the theme “Pursuing Peace in a Pluralistic World” to commemorate the 550th birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak, the first guru of the Sikhs.

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.

Communities and individuals everywhere are invited to make a powerful, international statement of their commitment to end rape and violence through contributing to a large tapestry exhibit being developed by the World Council of Churches (WCC).

The last of three capacity-building seminars on Human Resources and Church Leadership for Diakonia and Development took place in Maputo, Mozambique, 18-20 June. This most recent seminar was for Portuguese speakers in Africa, with participants coming mainly from Angola and Mozambique. The first two seminars - for French and English speakers respectively - were held in May in Cotonou, Bénin, and Nairobi, Kenya.

On 20 June at Kirchentag, the thriving Protestant church festival in Germany, #ThursdaysInBlack, the global campaign for a world without rape and violence, will take the stage during a noon presentation.