Search results

The World Council of Churches welcomed Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si'”, released on June 18, which highlights what churches and ecumenical organizations have been doing for decades on caring for the earth and climate justice issues.

The 2014 Annual Review of the World Council of Churches, now published and posted online, reports on the 2014 activities and projects of the council.

“Christianity in China” forms the theme of 14 articles published in the March 2015 issue of The Ecumenical Review, a quarterly journal of the WCC. According to guest editors Xiao Ping Sun and Dietrich Werner, “Although early issues of The Ecumenical Review devoted some attention to the developments in Chinese Christianity and the need for better understanding and dialogue, in recent years the journal has published few articles” describing expressions of faith in China.

The life and works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer were revisited by three historians in a panel held by the WCC.

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, officials of the Inter-religious Dialogue and Cooperation team of the WCC and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue met in Rome.

The newly published issue of Current Dialogue is now available online. Along with key documents from the WCC 10th Assembly, the issue includes several strong pieces addressing some thorny issues in contemporary inter-religious encounter and dialogue, including the recent Malaysian prohibition of Christian use of the name Allah for God, the relationship of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, the particular difficulties in dialogue among the Abrahamic traditions, and the limits of dialogue itself.

The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

“Diakonia”, or the service ministry of the church, provides the theme for the October 2014 issue of a quarterly journal published by the WCC with Wiley Blackwell of Oxford.

More than 250 mission workers and church leaders from around the world gathered in Berlin, Germany, 27 to 28 August, for the Mission Respect congress which reviewed the 2011 document "Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World - Recommendations for Conduct".

At the Central Committee meeting of the WCC, leadership of the Council’s consultative bodies was announced. These bodies will steer through the work of the WCC in accomplishing the call from its 10th Assembly to engage in a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”. The WCC assembly was held in the Republic of Korea in 2013.

“The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” a conceptual framework for the future work of the WCC, receives critical elaboration and reflection in the latest issue of the WCC quarterly journal, The Ecumenical Review.

A wealth of substantive engagements with and responses to contemporary trends in the theology and practice of mission and evangelism are featured in the newest issue of International Review of Mission.

The March 2014 issue of The Ecumenical Review features reflections on the global context of ecumenical theology from leading theological scholars and students who participated in classes, research and ecumenical events in Busan and Seoul, Republic of Korea, in the fall of 2013.

In an audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit stressed the significance of Christian unity. He also expressed appreciation for Pope Francis’s call to pray for peace in Syria and his call for churches to remember the poor, encouraging Christians to work for economic justice.

The WCC staff working in the field of inter-religious dialogue and cooperation welcomed in Geneva representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, continuing the practice of regular annual meetings between staff of the Vatican and the WCC.

Chief contributions and highlights of the WCC 10th Assembly are available in the newest issue of The Ecumenical Review, a quarterly journal of the WCC.

On 1 November, in the exhibition hall at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea, former general secretary of the WCC Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser discussed his book Religion, Power, Politics. Raiser is a theologian from Germany and author of many works in the area of political ethics and public theology, including For a Culture of Life: Transforming Globalization and Violence.

During a visit to Rome the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit called on the churches to be congregations of peacemakers. Tveit also met with Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church as part of his participation in an event sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

A new WCC document on mission and evangelism was presented and discussed at a recent European ecumenical study course in Josefstal, Germany.

“The prospect for a religion-based approach to peace-making has a great potential in sub-Saharan Africa,” Dr Yacob Tesfai said presenting his new book Holy Warriors, Infidels and Peacemakers in Africa.