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World Day of Health and the Veneration of the Holy Cross: two celebrations with significant meaning

This year, the World Day of Health, which is celebrated annually on 7 April, falls on the third Sunday of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church that is dedicated to the Veneration of the Holy Cross.

11 April 2024

Rev. Dr Stavros Kofinas

Bossey student reflects on “the joy of discovering the other”

Radu Constantin grew up in the small hamlet of Cioatele, in northeastern Romania, a village he describes as “religious people, very involved in the church life.”

11 April 2024

July 2020: Volunteers from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, USA, prepare to help patients at a drive-thru testing site for COVID-19 at St. Luke Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Nashville. Teams from the United Methodist-related school offered testing at area churches on Saturdays.

WCC, WHO commemorate 50 years of collaboration

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are celebrating 50 years of collaboration. Their work together includes strategizing, publications, seminars, webinars, and responding to crises such as HIV, the Ebola outbreak, and COVID-19 pandemic.

04 April 2024

WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing will consider “the whole person”

In a World Council of Churches (WCC) video interview, moderator of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing Rev. Dr Stavros Kofinas reflects on the direction of the commission, its vision for considering “the whole person,” and how it plans to involve young people.

07 March 2024

WCC webinar explores decolonizing beauty

With a close look at the “skin-whitening pandemic,” a 4 December webinar hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) explored the intersections of mission, gender, racism, and health.

11 December 2023

Eileen Peralta and her 12-year old daughter Erin, who has autism, sit on the step of their home in the Malate neighborhood of Manila. They're being visited by other members of Kaisahan ng Magulang at Anak na Maykapansanan (Kaisaka), a mothers' group that carries out community based rehabilitation with families which have members with disabilities.

Recognizing autism as a disability

As a parent of an autistic child, it is important for me not only to embrace and accept that my child has autism but also to raise awareness on autism. We are all called upon to champion acceptance, embrace, appreciate, and accept autistic people as valued members of the community.

25 July 2023

Ann Kioi

Christ’s Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity: Report of the WCC 11th Assembly

The Report of the WCC 11th Assembly is an important element of a wider collection of resources that offers a flavour of what took place at the assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022, which gathered more than 4500 people, including 659 official delegates from the WCC’s 352 member churches around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”

This report includes an overview of the assembly, the message and unity statement, various reflections, an overview of the spiritual life of the assembly, reports of the work since the previous assembly, an overview of thematic plenaries and ecumenical conversations, reports of assembly committees, statements and minutes, messages from pre-assemblies, greetings to the assembly and various appendices.

25 June 2023

Report on the Ecumenical Conversations at the WCC 11th Assembly

This book is a collection of all the reports of 23 ecumenical conversations addressing different issues pertinent to the unity of churches and their common witness and service to the world that took place at the WCC's 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe. It presents the deliberations and the ensuing affirmations and challenges that the participants saw as imperatives for the work of the WCC and the wider ecumenical movement in the 2023-2030 strategic period until the 12th Assembly takes place.

The report from each conversation contains an abstract, short notes on the proceedings, and a list of key affirmations and challenges to guide the fellowship in reflecting and acting on the issues identified.

24 June 2023

Prayers focus on “Health for All”—and the deep role churches can play

During a prayer service on 3 April, the World Council of Churches (WCC) focused on the theme for the upcoming World Health Day—“Health for All.”

05 April 2023

Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata: “God summons us to take action that is hope giving”

Below, Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, World Council of Churches (WCC) director of Public Witness and Diakonia, reflects on the relevance of ecumenical diakonia and public witness today.

16 March 2023

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Overcoming obesity—more than changing one's behaviour; it is a matter of ensuring systemic justice!

We mark 4 March as World Obesity Day. Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a health risk. Obesity has more than tripled since 1975, and more than 1 billion people are obese in the world today.

04 March 2023

Masimba Kuchera

Black and orange booklet cover with an AIDS ribbon

HIV and AIDS Civil Society Networks and the Faith Sector

Lessons Learnt from Strategic Engagement in India, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and Jamaica

This booklet highlights the lessons learnt in a project, Strategic Engagement of Civil Society Networks and Faith Actors in the HIV Response in Four Countries, implemented by the World Council of Churches (WCC), with the support of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), from July to December 2022

This initiative facilitated dialogue between civil society networks, faith actors, and key national HIV stakeholders in the Dominican Republic, India, Indonesia, and Jamaica.

31 January 2023

Pandemic and pedagogy: what are the valuable lessons?

Rev. Prof. Dr Benjamin Simon, World Council of Churches programme executive for Ecumenical Theological Education, offered reflections after a December hybrid conference entitled “Theological Education: Pandemic and Pedagogy,” held at the Trinity Theological Seminary in Accra, Ghana. The conference was co-organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC), World Communion of Reformed Churches, Lutheran World Federation, and Evangelische Mission Weltweit. The conference drew more than 80 participants from all over the world.

21 December 2022

Women suffering from fistula need urgent help

Rose Mantey qualified as a state registered nurse in Ghana in 1996, and completed training in midwifery in 2002. In 2005 she started working in a maternal and child health community clinic, attached to the Mercy Women’s Catholic Hospital in Mankessin, Ghana.

09 December 2022

Mwai Makoka

Kathryn Lohre (right) with Rev. Nicqi Ashwood (left), WCC Program Executive of the Just Community of Women and Men, and Dr Agnes Abuom (center), former moderator of the WCC Central Committee, Photo: Courtesy of Kathryn Lohre

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America looks back on WCC assembly as “a beautiful reunion”

To the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, relationships are at the heart of its membership in the World Council of Churches (WCC).

06 October 2022

WCC 11th Assembly: safe and welcoming environment for all

Whether in the plenary hall, restaurant, prayer tent, or in different meeting places, delegates and participants of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11^th Assembly held from 31August to 8September in Karlsruhe, Germany would be greeted with a warm smile and the words “are you doing good?” by men and women in orange vests who formed the pastoral care and solidarity team. This was one of the ways that the assembly ensured a safe and welcoming environment.

19 September 2022

Assembly workshop looked toward ending AIDS epidemic by 2030

At a workshop held at the World Council of Churches 11th Assembly, participants expressed grave concerns over the fact that, although public health experts warned about the dangers of ignoring other epidemiological efforts at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries had to reshuffle critical medical resources, thereby preventing routine treatment of HIV.

19 September 2022

Photo essay

Christ’s Love (Re)moves Borders – GETI 2022 in images

GETI 2022, the third global iteration of a Global Ecumenical Theological Institute, brought together some 100 young theologians from across the globe for six weeks of intense ecumenical sharing and learning – first online for four weeks and then for two weeks in person onsite – as the World Council of Churches (WCC) recently gathered for its 11^th assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany.

13 September 2022