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To strengthen relationships and support churches in Latin America in their struggles for justice and peace, a pilgrimage of church leaders organized by the WCC will visit Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia from 24 August to 7 September.

Leaders of churches and ecumenical organizations have expressed respect and appreciation following the beatification of Archbishop Óscar Romero on Sunday 24 May. In the Roman Catholic Church, beatification is a significant step in the process leading to canonization as a saint. Romero was murdered while presiding at Mass in San Salvador on 24 March 1980. He had been archbishop of the capital of El Salvador for three years.

The WCC mourns the death of Leopoldo J. Niilus, former director of the WCC’s Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), renowned lawyer, peace negotiator and author of several writings on human rights and international affairs.

In significant events last week, the Evangelical Church of the River Plate and the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, two member churches of the WCC, held leadership elections while reflecting on issues of diversity, communion and challenges posed by the emerging contexts of urban life in the region.

The theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace” has triggered robust discussions on furthering cooperation among Christian communication organizations in a seminar sponsored by the WCC. The seminar was held at the biannual assembly of the Latin American and Caribbean Agency of Communication in Argentina.

Indigenous peoples have a role to play in the struggle against climate change, indigenous faith leaders said during a panel at the Interfaith Summit on Climate Change held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City.

A former WCC official, Rev. Charles Harper, has been honoured with the Order Comendador de Mayo, a high decoration of the Argentine government for his emblematic legacy of struggles for human rights in the ecumenical movement.

New forms of ecumenical formation, as well as ways of enhancing ecumenical contributions from young people in churches and societies, were discussed by fifteen young theologians in a meeting convened by the WCC.

An emphasis on establishing societies that offer opportunities for fulfillment and development to all was endorsed by participants in a meeting at Bogota, Colombia. Such societies, they said, would especially benefit people with disabilities in Latin America, a region where prevalence of disability is high, as reported by the Economic Commission for Latin America.

After searching for more than 35 years, the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina have finally found the grandson of one of their founders, Estela de Carlotto.

Sponsored by the WCC, young theologians will engage in dialogue on the coming shape of ecumenical formation and how it can ensure a viable future for the ecumenical movement.

People have the right of access to archives of public bodies, argued Trudy Huskamp Peterson, an archivist from the United States, in her recent talk organized by the WCC Archives in Geneva, Switzerland. She said public access to information is particularly relevant for archives documenting human rights violations.

In a talk organized by the Archives of the WCC, Elisabeth Baumgartner, a Swiss lawyer and head of the project “Dealing with the Past” at the Swiss Peace Foundation (swisspeace), stressed the importance of archives and documentation in dealing with the past, which she said is pertinent to the institutional and informal mechanisms seeking justice, reconciliation and conflict resolution.

The WCC is working toward the revival of “Thursdays in Black”, a campaign against sexual and gender-based violence. The emphasis is pertinent to the theme of the WCC’s upcoming assembly: “God of life, lead us to justice and peace”.

A book launched in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last month reinforced debate on the theme of eco-theology in Latin America with a direct contribution from the WCC.

Youth representing ecumenical networks have been vocal in addressing social, economic and environmental issues at the World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic Church event, which gathered more than a million participants in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.