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During the second week of Advent, staff members of the World Council of Churches and other organizations at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva gathered with their families for the prayer service and celebration of the upcoming Christmas.

The pastor of a Protestant congregation in Geneva is excited that Pope Francis has accepted the invitation to join in celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches.

“This is a pope who is open, inclusive, and engaged and speaks about things that are important to Christians and all humanity. His visit encourages and supports unity in the body of Christ,” says Rev. Andy Willis, pastor of the English-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church of Geneva. “I am personally profoundly excited by what he represents.”

The experience of his father’s fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 and then living alien and stateless in Sweden provides biblical theologian Hans Ucko with the touchstone of his writing about stateless persons.

Bonfires on the mountains and joyous celebrations along Norwegian coastlines herald the midsummer holiday known in recent centuries as Jonsok (John’s wake), Sankthansaften (St John’s eve or St Hans’s festival), or the eve of the feast-day of St John the Baptist.

Almost forty years after the advent of HIV and AIDS, people around the world living with HIV still endure assaults on their dignity and basic human rights—from stigma and discrimination to denial of legal protection and even medical care.

Hope is both an inspiration and a criterion for advocacy, reflected Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in a keynote lecture offered at the General Nordic Conference on Systematic Theology in Helsinki. The conference took place from 7 to 10 January.

Azad is a refugee from the north of Aleppo, Syria and is currently in The Jungle camp in Calais, France. “It’s hard here” says Azad, and then falls quiet. “People are hungry, cold, afraid and we can’t do anything”. He’s sitting cross-legged on the floor of a small shelter.

A coalition of Protestant and Catholic organizations has reached an agreement with the Italian government to provide travel and integration services for refugees from North Africa and the Middle East.

“Church leaders and other leaders of faith communities played a vital role in Paris,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, in an interview during the week following the COP21 UN conference on climate change.

In a meditation at the Saint Egidio evening prayer in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome on 14 December, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit celebrated love and hope this Advent season, particularly in the context of the plight of thousands of refugees and varied reactions to the climate talks in Paris.

A WCC delegation visited Ireland from 28 November to 1 December to explore how the international ecumenical community may best support churches in the global fellowship and work together on the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

“The momentum towards change has come, and it might be stronger than we understand”, wrote Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches in an Advent message on the eve of the climate talks in Paris.