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What is God calling Christians and the Christian Church to do today? Whose and what voices are we listening to?” asked Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in his sermon at the ecumenical worship of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) on 30 April, in Charlotte, North Carolina (US). 

Sermon by the WCC moderator Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm during at the International Meeting for Peace / St. Egidio community on 12 September in Berlin, Germany.

Applications are open for a Young Adults Training for Religious Amity program (YATRA) to be held in October.

As Rev. Dr Martin Junge ends his tenure as the head of the Lutheran World Federation, World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca expressed thanksgiving for Junge’s gifts and his many years of service.

Bishop Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, Church of Norway offered this reflection during the online morning prayer for Ecumenical Centre staff. This week in the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, we pray with the people and churches of Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Sr Svenja Wichmann, from the Community of Grandchamp, delivered this reflection during the online morning prayer for staff of the WCC and sister organizations based at the Ecumenical Centre, on the first day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2021.

A reflection based on the book of 1 Kings 17, for morning prayers on 11 December 2020 for staff of the World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance and sister organizations.

A reflection based on the book of Numbers 27:1-11, for morning prayers on 10 December 2020 for staff of the World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance and sister organizations.

A reflection based on the Genesis 34, for morning prayers on 9 December 2020 for staff of the World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance and sister organizations.

A reflection by Rev. Lusmarina Campos Garcia, ACT Forum, Brazil for morning prayers on 8 December 2020 for staff of the World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance and sister organizations.

A reflection for morning prayers on 2 December 2020 for staff of the World Council of Churches and sister organizations.

A reflection for Monday morning prayers on 30 November 2020 for staff of the World Council of Churches and sister organizations.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) released a joint document, “Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond.” Its purpose is to encourage churches and Christian organizations to reflect on the importance of interreligious solidarity in a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. The document offers a Christian basis for interreligious solidarity that can inspire and confirm the impulse to serve a world wounded not only by COVID-19 but also by many other wounds.

This meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman shows Jesus going beyond conventional rules and talking to a Samaritan woman, which astonishes the disciples when they see him (v. 27). 

In the kitchen is a half drunk plastic bottle of water - left over from my last train journey. A large internationally-recognized label brands the bottle and adds value (at least for the shareholders in the company) to the humble yet life-essential contents.

The seventh and last reflection of the seven weeks for water 2020 of the WCC’s Ecumenical Water Network is written jointly  by Ms Frances Namoumou, Programmes Manager, and Mr Netani Rika, Communications Specialist, Pacific Conference of Churches.  In the following reflection they have analysed the water scarcity situation in the Pacific that is getting worsened by climate change with a justice perspective from the narratives of the persistent widow of the bible. They challenge us not to give up our “thirst for justice” under any circumstances.

The 6^th reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2020 is by Athena Peralta and Dr Manoj Kurian, programme executives of the World Council of Churches Economic and Ecological Justice programme and Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, respectively. In this reflection, they are focusing on the perils of cash crops such as sugarcane, produced primarily for exporting, threatening to impact the freshwater levels of Fiji. Over-dependency on food import for its sustenance is not a sustainable practice.

The fifth reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2020 is by Dinesh Suna, coordinator of Ecumenical Water Network, World Council of Churches. He is a Lutheran and comes from India. In the following reflection, he explores the importance of “hand-washing” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while this basic facility is not available to millions of people, particularly to children. He dedicates this reflection to World Water Day which is being observed on 22 March with the theme “Water and Climate Change.”

The fourth reflection of the seven weeks for water 2020 of the WCC’s Ecumenical Water Network is by Rev. Dr. Donald Bruce Yeates, a minister of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church of Suva, Fiji and a consultant chaplain at The University of the South Pacific. Bruce has been active in the Pacific since 1975 as an academic in social work, community development and social policy having served at the University of Papua New Guinea and The University of the South Pacific. In the following  reflection he underlines the importance of human right to water and the onslaught of privatisation in the backdrop of  world’s most famous bottled water which comes from his home country, the “Fiji waters”.

The third reflection of the seven weeks for water 2020 of the WCC’s Ecumenical Water Network is by Adi Mariana Waqa, the Child Protection Coordinator of the Pacific Conference of Churches with contributions from Frances Namoumou Programmes Manager, PCC  and Mereani Nawadra (Project Officer for Gender Equality Theology,  Methodist Women’s Fellowship. In the following reflection they critique Abraham’s decision to send off Hagar into the wilderness with a child with very little water. They draw comparisons that Hagar then and women of today take on the responsibility of securing water needs of the family at the cost of their own safety and wellbeing. This reflection is to commemorate International Women’s day in the context of right to water.