As part of his three-day-visit to the World Council of Churches (WCC), the primate of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens, visited the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey on 29 May 2006, and announced the establishment of a new scholarship fund to support studies in ecumenism at the Institute.
At its first meeting since its appointment in February 2006, the WCC's executive committee has approved new programmatic directions for the Council and has endorsed a framework for activities in the coming years.
Leaders of the World Council of Churches (WCC) issued an appeal today for the churches and international community to urgently refocus efforts to safeguard the fragile peace process in Sudan, and warned of the risks of an "ominous humanitarian crisis of gigantic proportion" if those responsible for crimes against humanity in the Darfur province are not brought to justice.
On the day of Pentecost described in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit transformed a diverse gathering of people - many of them drawn from distant lands (Acts 2:5-11). In February of this year, thousands of Christians from every region of the world had a similar experience - a Pentecost experience - while participating in the Assembly of the World Council of Churches held in southern Brazil.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee today said that the new UN Human Rights Council needs to avoid "policies and practices of double standards, en-bloc voting and politicization of the human rights agenda that were so prevalent at the UN Commission on Human Rights" that they "virtually paralyzed" it before its "ignominious end".
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee called today on the government of Iran for a moratorium on its uranium enrichment programme, to recognize the state of Israel, and to support international efforts to end terrorism. Other countries should also contribute to global security, the committee said.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee meets at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute outside Geneva from 16-19 May 2006 at its first session since its election at the Council's 9th Assembly in Brazil earlier this year.
The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, called upon churches and ecumenical partners to take action to stop "terminator technology". "Applying technology to design sterile seeds turns life, which is a gift from God, into a commodity. Preventing farmers from re-planting saved seed will increase economic injustice all over the world and add to the burdens of those already living in hardship," stated Kobia.
Just published, a booklet on the WCC's 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil reviews, in words and images, an event that gathered over 4000 people from churches throughout the world. An event that, in the words of the WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, "heralded a new era in ecumenical history, to be marked by increasing attention to the spiritual strength of ecumenism along with the institutional concerns of the ecumenical movement".
