Reinforcing the traditional role of faith communities in offering sanctuary and, indeed hospitality to refugees, 90 faith-based leaders today committed to offering their continued and additional support to refugees, including children, on their journey to safety, including in reception and admission, meeting protection or service delivery needs and supporting communities to find solutions such as private sponsorship or scholarship programmes.
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.
Direct contact in courses was the old way; going online is for some delving into the unknown, but students thrived in their recent Online Course in Ecumenical Studies at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey and found a new way.
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.