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Mister, why are you wearing robes?

The stories that imprint and accompany us the most are not necessarily the ones spoken most eloquently or from an orator’s elaborate formulations, but every so often those emanating out of the mouths of babes.

20 July 2023

V. Rev. Fr Hrant Tahanian

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

Honduras_Hawkey_World_Renew_drought_20140805_919

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

African churches and humanitarian agencies urge foreign debt suspension to help countries tackle drought crisis

As a severe drought triggered a humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa, churches and several humanitarian organizations there urged foreign debt suspension to enable the countries to tackle the catastrophe.

13 October 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

War, food, health, and faith examined in peace quest raised at foundation's conference

The World Council of Churches (WCC) had a pivotal place at a conference organized by the Foundation Dialogue for Peace in Geneva, drawing international speakers that would gladden the organizers of any world gathering as they interlinked trying to feed and heal people and get peace during war.

14 June 2022

Three men with hoes digging in the field.

On World Food Safety Day, clerics and farmers relate to food toxins

On World Food Safety Day, clerics and farmers in Kenya reflected about aflatoxin—a group of poisons found in maize and peanuts—that continue to cause deaths and related diseases in the East African country.

07 June 2022

As Horn of Africa drought bites, church leader highlights children’s malnutrition

In drought-stricken regions in eastern Africa, churches and church congregations continue to pray for rain, as the weather conditions leave millions of people without food, water and pasture for their animals.

20 May 2022

Women carry water in the cans on their heads

Churches reach out to communities suffering drought in the horn of Africa

As the war in Ukraine triggers an unexpected rise in food and commodity prices in African markets, church leaders are reaching out to communities struggling with food insecurity and shortages.

11 May 2022

Bible in the Chapel of the Ecumenical Centre, sun shining on the page open with Isaiah 42

New Year’s resolutions: a biblical reflection

The year often begins with making firm resolutions, taken with earnestness and commitment. The following weeks and months are familiarly littered with broken promises and failures. Successful and consistent adherence to new years’ resolutions is, from my experience, rare. To change this pattern of failure, I look to the holy scripture for help.

05 January 2022

Manoj Kurian

“Let us overcome inequalities with justice and love”

The following message was delivered by Rev. Canon Gideon B. Byamugisha during an ecumenical service on 1 December, World AIDS Day. He reflected on the theme ““Let us overcome inequalities with justice and love.”

01 December 2021

Reverend Canon Gideon Byamugisha

Hand manages a fireplace while cooking a meal.

At webinar on food systems, “the times are too dire to not speak truth”

At a World Council of Churches (WCC) webinar on “Sustainable Food Systems to Overcome Hunger” held 8 October, inter-generational speakers and participants provided feedback and analysis of the UN Food Systems Summit and the processes leading to the summit.

11 October 2021

woman wearing face mask and gloves offers a portion of food

Let the food systems nourish people and the planet rather than feed the profits of the privileged

The food system is a complex web of activities involving production, processing, transport, and consumption. Key issues concerning the food system include how food production affects the natural environment, the impact of food on individual and population health, the governance and economics of food production, its sustainability, and the degree to which we waste food.

22 September 2021

Manoj Kurian

Reflections on International Day for Biological Diversity

As we commemorate 22 May as the International Day for Biological Diversity (Biodiversity Day), we celebrate the beauty and diversity of creation. We acknowledge the glory of God manifested in the whole creation (Palm 104), and the entire creation praises God (Psalm 65).

22 May 2021

Manoj Kurian

The rights and dignity of the other

In the words of Prof. Rev. Dr John Langan SJ, a human right "is a right that a human person has simply by virtue of being (human), irrespective of his or her social status, cultural accomplishments, moral merits, religious beliefs, class memberships or cultural relationships.”

10 December 2020

Manoj Kurian

Mission Rediscovered: Transforming Disciples

A Commentary on the Arusha Call to Discipleship

Kenneth R. Ross

This book offers a commentary on the Arusha Call to Discipleship, unpacking the meaning of its 12-part summons. It provides an up-to-date theological and missiological view on a major ecumenical mission document with a personal reflection on the state of the world desperately in need of change and transformation. It intends to be a key resource for discovering what it means to become what Pope Francis described as "missionary disciples". Primarily meant for individuals and study groups in churches, mission agencies and theological institutions, it is a useful tool for anyone interested in the ecumenical mission movement and World Christianity.

02 December 2020

Called to Transforming Discipleship

Devotions from the World Council of Churches Conference on World Mission and Evangelism.

Bible studies and devotions from the 2018 World Conference on Mission and Evangelism (CWME)

17 May 2019