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As its 12th General Assembly in Kanaky (New Caledonia) concluded, the Pacific Conference of Churches, in an outcome statement, expressed a vision for leading change through transformation. 

Religious leaders in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are welcoming the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, even as Japan's Christian council “regrets” that the government has not supported or ratified the treaty.

Who on earth decided in June 1920 in a conference held in Crans, near Geneva, that the following year at Lake Mohonk, New York, an International Missionary Council would be established and give an enormous institutional impulse to the emerging ecumenical movement?

Twenty-seven indigenous and ecumenical youths gathered together for a five-day World Council of Churches (WCC) event this week in Japan’s third-largest, western city of Osaka. Participants gathered under the theme, “WCC Continuing Formation on Youth and Racism Awareness in Asia & Indigenous Youth Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.”

An interreligious consultation on “Voices of Hope for a New Era” has called for enhanced collaboration between Buddhists and Christians in a spirit of humility and honesty and in service of a shared humanity.

“We had heard that racism continues to be an issue in the United States,” said Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee. “But we did not expect to find it so deep, so wide and so pervasive.”

The Racial Justice Accompaniment Visit to the USA is a continuation of the WCC’s long history of racial justice work. As part of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, the WCC wishes to listen to and express support for people and churches in the USA, and to encourage the efforts of member churches and ecumenical partners in the US, as well as other justice-seeking movements on these issues.

The nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 revealed the brutality and dangerous logic of war, money and power, according to an Indigenous Anglican bishop from Canada.

“It is time to abandon all support for retaining nuclear weapons. It is time to refuse to accept that the mass destruction of other people can be a legitimate form of protection of ourselves,” said Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at the Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima.

Church leaders from seven countries currently making historic choices for or against outlawing nuclear weapons will embark on a pilgrimage in early August to the two Japanese cities that were decimated by atomic bombs 70 years ago.

In early August, WCC representatives will embark on an unusual pilgrimage. A group of church leaders will travel to two cities devastated by the deadliest of weapons 70 years ago, then visit governments still willing to destroy thousands of cities in similar fashion today.

“Churches in Japan are true witnesses of Jesus Christ through their words and deeds. Their strength even in a minority situation is impressive. Their voices in critical times are significant for Japan, paving a way towards justice and peace,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC during his visit to member churches of the WCC in Japan.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has recognized the dynamic growth of Christianity in Korea and Asia, and has appealed to Asian churches to take new responsibility in the global ecumenical movement. But he also warns against a "superficial Christianity" which does not respond to the spiritual yearning of people in the modern world.

cf. WCC Press Release, PR-02-21, of 31 July 2002

The US-declared war on terrorism, still widely popular in the United States but subject to increasing scepticism elsewhere in the world, will be the focus of an international ecumenical meeting in Washington, D.C., 5-6 August.