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Easter at home: celebrations still bring joy thanks to creative delivery

As Christians across the world prepare to celebrate Easter shuttered in their homes, they will still find the joy of the day and feel closer to each other, thanks to creative thinking by church leaders.

From including photos of church members within webcast worship services, to placing written greetings at doorways, Easter celebrations can still safely connect people who want to celebrate the resurrection of their common Lord.

“Pray at home” an ecumenical call in Brazil

In a time when Brazil has been the arena of somehow conflicting narratives on how to face the COVID-19 pandemic, World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches have been active in supporting health authorities such as the World Health Organization in their efforts to advise people to be away from agglomerations that could increase transmission of the virus.

“It was prophetic for the WCC to focus on climate change already in 1990”

Closing worship in the evening of 12 March 1990: Participants from all continents and their hosts from the churches in the Republic of Korea are celebrating the results of the weeklong World Convocation on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation in Seoul. They gather around a cross and a big globe representing planet Earth, the vulnerable home of humanity. They put their hands on the globe as a sign of reconciliation, healing and blessing, keeping it together in a fragile balance.

Young songwriters invited to shine for WCC 11th Assembly

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) 11th Assembly preparations progress, the Assembly Worship Planning Committee together with the WCC Youth Engagement programme are presenting a creative opportunity to young people between the ages of 18 and 35 who attend a WCC member church, inviting them to enter a song writing competition. This is part of efforts and initiatives involving and engaging young people in the planning and delivery of the assembly; they can be a part of the ecumenical movement with their young voices through music.

CCIA meets in Brisbane with focus on Pacific regional priorities

Impacts of the climate change and the lingering health and environmental effects of nuclear testing on the countries in the Pacific region are among the issues to be discussed at the meeting of the WCC’s Commission of Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), convened from 19 to 21 February in Brisbane, Australia.

Greenland’s grand Gospel preacher

Although she loves what she is doing, there are times when bishop Sofie Petersen feels a strong desire to be someplace else than inside her cosy diocesan office in Nuuk, Greenland. Preferably outdoors, inhaling crisp, arctic air in a stunningly beautiful landscape where mighty polar bears roam and huge whales gently plough their way through the ice-scattered waters along the coastline.

WCC mourns the passing of Rev. Pablo Sosa

“It was with great sadness that we received the news of the passing of Rev. Pablo Sosa, one of the grandfathers of global ecumenical spirituality,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC. The Argentinian Methodist pastor passed away on 11 January, in Buenos Aires, at the age of 85.

WCC Assembly Planning Committee meets in Karlsruhe with focus on youth, spiritual life

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Assembly Planning Committee is meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany from 2-9 December, marking the committee’s third preparatory meeting and its first meeting with the local host committee in Germany. The planning this week has a special focus on youth participation and spiritual life in the 11th WCC Assembly, to be held in September 2021.

"Everything is about theology and the God of life", says Martin Robra after 25 years at the WCC

Rev. Dr Martin Robra has been a key contributor to the ecumenical movement for the last 25 years, working for the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Robra is a theologian and ordained pastor who served as programme executive for the WCC for Ecumenical Continuing Formation, Roman Catholic relations, the joint inter-faith project with the International Labour Organisation Advancing Peace through social justice and support for the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace.

WCC Communication asked Robra to reflect on his years of service to the WCC fellowship.

Tveit “Continue to be the light and the salt in this society”

Interview in written form with Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. On the occasion of his farewell visit during the Fall Assembly of Delegates the general secretary of the World Council of Churches WCC, pastor Olav Fykse Tveit, gave the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches FSPC an exclusive and elaborate interview regarding the current ecumenical movement and its future prospects

For Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Thursdays in Black maps path to long-sought justice

Through adoption of a resolution in support of the Thursdays in Black campaign in August, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly has publicly affirmed the church’s commitment to fostering gender justice. The action is a significant official step that now formally “calls upon all people across all expressions of the church to participate in the #ThursdaysinBlack campaign by wearing black on Thursdays and actively participating in the various reflection and action items.”

2019 Sunday Prayer Worship for Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula

August 15 is celebrated as Liberation Day in Korea, the day that signifies Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonization.
In 2013, the WCC 10th General Assembly meeting in Busan, Korea passed a resolution that the churches of the world will annually observe each Sunday prior to August 15 as a “Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula.”
The Reconciliation and Reunification Committee of the NCCK drafted this liturgy in the hopes that each church could apply it with reference to their own situation.
The Joint Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula was prepared by both the NCCK (South) and the Korean Christian Federation (North) together.
In 2018 the two leaders from North and South Korea met and adopted the Panmunjom Declaration and the Pyongyang Declaration. Korean people together with the whole world celebrated and affirmed the two declarations as they pave a new way to peace, prosperity, and unification of the divided Korea. The NCCK together with the global ecumenical community will consolidate all its effort to actualize the spirit of the two declarations.

Echos - Commission on youth in the ecumenical movement