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A woman who works with youth in Kenya—young people who once turned to heinous crimes—had a group of young Christians, Jews, and Muslims weeping tears of compassion and joy as she recounted her tough upbringing and how she helps turn those youth from crime to community.

Peace is not a given these days, an international group of young Christians, Jews, and Muslims has heard from a woman whose father survived the Holocaust as she stressed the need to talk and listen to one another.

Racism has been identified as one of the most significant challenges facing the North American region in the United States and Canada, a World Council of Churches (WCC) meeting has heard.

Children who gathered prior and during  the New Global Financial Pact, held 22-23 June in Paris, delivered a clear message to President Macron and world leaders: the existing colonial economic model must be replaced with one that prioritizes humanity over profits.

“The Pacific is a large ocean region, and we see the smallness of our region as a strength not a weakness. Amidst the vulnerability our islands experience to climate change, geopolitical and neo-colonialism, we affirm our resilience as a gift of God, rooted in our Indigenous wisdom and celebrated as spirituality of abundance and hospitality,” said Iemaima Vaai, representing the Methodist Church of Samoa and youth advisor to the World Council of Churches (WCC) in her shared message to the central committee, on behalf of the Pacific region.

Seeking to join efforts with those committed to ensure a just and sustainable future for the continent, representatives from World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches in Latin America gathered at the WCC central committee in June to identify common concerns.

As members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee and stewards visited the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, they came away newly inspired about the next generation of the ecumenical movement.

“We carry the cross with dignity and hope.” These were the opening words as Middle East Christians stood to bear witness at the World Council of Churches central committee meeting, to the burdens and challenges – but also the resilience – that they live on a daily basis in the land where Christianity was born. 

By far the largest region, both in terms of population and geographical size, the Asia region faces an array of pertinent issues for the churches to address and engage in. Stretching from Iran in the west to Japan in the east and from Nepal in the north to New Zealand in the south, the region encompasses a wide range of cultures and religions.

Hope and commitment were central in the report that the Africa region presented to the WCC central committee on 26 June. As is customary during these meetings, central committee members, advisors, stewards, and staff from each region met for prayer and sharing and to identify issues affecting the life and witness of the churches in their region.

At any big World Council of Churches (WCC) meeting, stewards work like the oil in a machine, helpings gathering such as the central committee to function seamlessly, but it is also a learning experience for the young ecumenical workers.

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) celebrated its 75 anniversary, the voices of young people rang out with hope, joy—and some pointed messages for their ecumenical family.

At a WCC central committee meeting,  members spend hours in plenary dealing with dozens of reports, developing documents, deliberating, discussing, and sometimes differing from each other. But there are also moments during breaks and on their way through the foyer where they enter another part of the life of the WCC.

“Hospitality is one of our main values,” said president of the Protestant Church in Switzerland Rev. Rita Famos as she welcomed members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee to a reception at the Ecumenical Centre on 23 June.

These words described the dreams of the kind of woman a young woman aspires to be, illustrated by moving images of women’s involvement in the history of the ecumenical movement. This performance poem was just part of an inspiring meeting of the women of the ecumenical movement that were present at the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee meeting on 22 June.