Search results

A Discussion Document 

HIV treatment is very effective and tolerable nowadays. However, some faith leaders, out of misinformation, continue spreading messages of exclusive healing by faith, asking people living with HIV to abandon their medications as proof of their faith in God.

In Good News about HIV Treatment, Cure, and Healing, the initiators of the conversations and the discussants analyzed the concepts of treatment, cure, and healing in HIV, using principles of Christian and Muslim theologies, and concluded that faith communities have the mandate to heal. They discussed the six recent six cases of people with HIV who have been declared cured, which sparks hope for a definitive cure for all. Meanwhile, faith communities must support people living with HIV in adhering to their treatment. Medications and treatments are part of the healing touch of God, who is the ultimate source of healing.

This simple factsheet provides background about the Mpox zoonotic disease,: what it is, how it is transmitted, signs and symptoms, vaccines and treatment, and, most importantly, the role of faith communities in responding to the disease.

God’s created world is today groaning under the burdens that God’s creation has had to carry for centuries, caused by our appetite to consume. The spirit of uninhibited consumption led to the exploitation of creation, the enslavement of peoples, the colonization of lands and peoples and the wanton extraction and exploitation of natural resources from far and wide. Entire groups of people have been racially exploited. The World Council of Churches acknowledges that even faith communities, including some of its member churches and their members, have participated and contributed to the many cases of racially motivated exploitation, past and present. <p>

The World Council of Churches stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of racism, xenophobia, casteism, and all other forms of discrimination. Through this booklet, the WCC offers Christian communities a resource to develop biblically-based Christian responses to overcome these scourges.

Unlearning—Undoing—Relearning— Redoing

Unconscious biases and microaggressions are being experienced by many people in society, as well as in faith communities. Faith-based and related workplaces are not immune to these attitudes and practices. While significant investment has gone into mitigating conscious biases, racism, xenophobia, casteism and discrimination, the impact of unconscious biases and microaggressions are equally destructive. This toolkit invites and challenges Christians to intentionally invest in mitigating unconscious biases and microaggressions by employing a diversity, equity and inclusion lens in policies, practices and programming. Inclusive cultures in community and workplaces are more desirable and Christ-like.

An Emerging Consensus to Enhance the “Feast Of Creation” and Honour the Creator - The story so far

In March 2024, over a hundred delegates from all continents gathered in Assisi – with many more connecting remotely – to consider the idea of elevating the “Feast of Creation” from its current “world day of prayer” status to become a liturgical feast.

This report tells the “story” of that remarkable gathering, describing the origin of the observance, the theological and liturgical dialogues carried out in Assisi, and the extraordinary consensus that emerged. It also provides some framing of the theological and liturgical questions that remain open, and proposes next steps and directions for ongoing discernment during 2024-2025. Our hope is that this story will be a useful resource as our conversation is taken forward in different denominational contexts.

This is the detailed financial report and appendix of the World Council of Churches for 2023.

The transversals of Overcoming Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Discrimination and the Just Community of Women and Men of the  WCC are committed to ‘leaving no one behind’ by ensuring that issues of dignity and equity are included in all conversations as faith communities. They seek to strengthen male-female and race relations within the WCC fellowship, while advocating for shifts in the power structures which undergird this.

Recognising the role of Western epistemological systems in the gender and racial binaries, they advocate for decolonisation and decoloniality in their work and beyond.

This brochure shares ore information about the work and invites the fellowship to this pilgrimage of discovery, truth-telling, and transformation from the churches to the world and back to the churches.

The ecumenical fellowship find inspiration in two major anniversaries that fall in 2025, the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 and the 100th anniversary of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm in 1925.

This brochure highlights WCC activities and events that will commemorate these two events, but also a number of other significant anniversaries.

Young People and Their Voices from the Warzones continues the theme of last year’s Ecumenical Youth Day. Political insurrection and ideologies have permeated the fabric of society. This has caused division and hatred, resulting in the loss of innocent lives.

Addressing the realities young people face in the world today represents a moral imperative for, and a crucial aspect of, peace-building. Through this toolkit, the World Council of Churches, via its Commission on Young People in the Ecumenical Movement (YPEM), invites all member churches and ecumenical partners to participate in this year’s International Youth Day. By doing so, we affirm youth agency and draw attention to the situation of young people living in the realities of wars, conflicts, and injustice, whether in civil or cross-border wars. 

This document is adapted from the 2023 toolkit and contains adaptable resources and suggested ways to observe this day. 

The climate emergency represents the most dangerous threat to children’s lives and the survival of future generations. Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the most significant contributor to the global climate emergency, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Therefore, halting new investments in fossil fuel expansion is one of the most powerful ways to accelerate climate solutions and save children’s lives.
This document provides concise guidelines for using the investment potential of individuals, organisations and churches to stop investment in fossil fuels.

This publication is part of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network’s (EDAN’s) work under the Advocacy for the Rights and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities project.

Although good work has been done on disability inclusion in churches, EDAN also identified gaps in that the voices of persons with disabilities within the church are not heard. The editors emphasize that “it is no longer valid for other Christians to speak about persons with disabilities as if we weren’t already present in the church to speak up for ourselves.”

The first part of this publication highlights the voices of persons with disabilities who are currently serving their churches in various roles and capacities and of those who had to leave a church due to the discriminatory behaviour and attitudes that they experienced. The second part of this publication shares the WCC statement “A Gift of Being: Called to be a Church of All and for All.”

The annual review records many of the WCC’s activities undertaken in 2023 and continuing into 2024.

The year 2023 was one of new beginnings: the WCC central committee met in person for the first time since the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe in September 2022, the WCC commissions newly convened, and implementation of the WCC Strategic Plan for 2023- 2030 started. The WCC Annual Review includes a special visual section commemorating the WCC’s 75th anniversary and highlighting an unprecedented number of exhibitions that graced the Ecumenical Centre.

The Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) of 2022 was an intercultural, short-term, academic study and exposure programme. It was a six-week blended learning experience - four weeks online and two weeks in residence alongside the 11th WCC Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 28 August to 8 September 2022. The programme was designed to explore the theme, “Christ’s Love (Re)moves Borders”. 

The tapestry that ensues in this volume brings together the keynote contributions of plenary speakers with the interventions and perspectives of GETI 2022 students in an intergenerational and interdisciplinary theological discussion grounded in scripture and in Christ’s love.

UNAIDS and PEPFAR developed this compendium in 2023. WCC collaborated on translating the Executive Summary into French and Portuguese.

This vital report brings together essential lessons from faith communities’ exceptional leadership in addressing the challenge of HIV in children. It documents evidence from the core roles that faith communities have played in identifying undiagnosed children living with HIV, improving the continuity of treatment, and supporting adherence to care and treatment. It also documents lessons from how faith leaders have driven advocacy to tackle stigma and discrimination and push for targets to be achieved. It will help faith communities and those who support and partner with them to advance a step change in progress towards the goal of ending AIDS in children by 2030.

The Waterfall of Solidarity and Resistance is a tapestry of over 180 cloth panels, all conveying stories of pain, resistance and hope in efforts to overcome sexual and gender-based violence.  The World Council of Churches invited individuals and groups to contribute panels as part of the Thursdays in Black global movement, and the resulting tapestry was launched at the WCC’s 11^th Assembly in September 2022. 

The tapestry itself makes a profound and moving statement of our need and commitment to a world without rape and violence. This publication brings all the panels and the stories and explanations of their creation together so that the words and images can make an even greater impact in our homes and communities. 

The Ecumenical Centre was designed by Geneva architects Henri Lesemann and the Honegger Brothers in the early sixties and was officially inaugurated at the WCC central committee meeting in July 1965.
This tour guide provides a brief overview in text and pictures of the rich ecumenical and art history of the centre.

The Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will take place from 24 to 28 October 2025 near Alexandria, Egypt, around the theme “Where now for visible unity?” The conference will be the centrepiece of the WCC’s activities to mark the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a key moment in the history of Christian faith and for the ecumenical journey today.
This booklet provides the context for and overview of the proposed conference.

A new global resource from The World Council of Churches and The Clewer Initiative, True Freedom is a six-week course for Lent. It draws on themes from the book of Galatians and encourages individuals and churches to respond to modern slavery in their communities.

True Freedom includes:

• A short Bible study on the book of Galatians
• A reflection written by Revd Dr Kenneth Mtata and Bishop Alastair Redfern
• Questions for group discussion or personal reflection
• Case studies from churches around the world
• Information and statistics about modern slavery
• Artwork to contemplate and discuss

True Freedom is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Korean 

This is the second of the two-volume set Towards a Global Vision of the Church, which forms part of the work done by the ecclesiology study group of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order between 2015 and 2022 to broadening the table of ecclesiological dialogue by going into more and wider conversations with ecclesiological perspectives from various regions (especially Asia, Africa, and Latin America), denominational families (such as Evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and independent churches), and forms of being church (such as ecclesial movements, new forms of monasticism, and online churches), “which have not always been clearly or strongly part of discussions on the way to TCTCV, and whose understandings of ecclesiology we want to discover and to enter into dialogue with.”

The first volume in this set included 24 chapters written from the perspectives of theologians from the global South. In this second volume, nearly all of the chapters have come from commissioners who have worked on ecclesiological issues during this past term.

The author shares the untold stories of several pan-African women of faith from Africa, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe who provided local, national, and global ecumenical leadership during formative periods of the modern-day ecumenical movement.

In addition to the author’s personal experiences with these women, the publication offers an important rewriting of the ecumenical narrative from a pan-African Women’s lens. It is hoped that the publication will strengthen the ecumenical agenda of a more inclusive community that embraces the objectives of the pilgrimage of justice and peace as it embraces the experience of these women who have historically been marginalized and affected by racism and gender discrimination.