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In a visit to Cuba from 17-19 December, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay met with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel at the Palacio de las Convenciones in Havana. “I was deeply impressed with our heart-to-heart meeting with the president of Cuba,” expressed Pillay.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) supports a UN resolution, passed on 12 December 2023, demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay received Rev. Dr Munther Isaac, moderator of the Global Kairos for Justice Coalition, and Mr Rifat Odeh Kassis, in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 12 April, to discuss the continued and escalating crisis in Palestine in the light of the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel and the ever-increasing security measures restricting the freedom of Palestinian people.

Sanctions should not harm the support for the most vulnerable, says a report on the impact of sanctions on humanitarian work presented at a side-event of 52nd session at the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in Geneva on 10 March.

The Jamaica Baptist Union, at its 173rd General Assembly, elected and appointed Rev. Merlyn Hyde-Riley as its new general secretary. Hyde-Riley is the first woman to be appointed to this post.

Hyde-Riley is currently one of two vice-moderators for the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) completed its annual meeting from 21-26 November, and also commemorated its 20th anniversary.

A thanksgiving service for the work and the life of Theophilos III of Jerusalem was held on 22 November in the Holy Sepulchre Church, commemorating the patriarch’s 17th election enthronement.

Under the leadership of World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, the WCC Jerusalem Liaison Advisory Committee held its first meeting in Jerusalem, during which it mapped future plans. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof Dr Ioan Sauca, in a letter to Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel, expressed support and admiration for a resolution passed in the United Nations General Assembly that ends the blockade which harms the Cuban people.

H.E. Mor Boutros Kassis, who has been serving the community for the last seven years as a temporary bishop, was installed as archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo on 15 October.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation led by WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca visited Jerusalem and the West Bank from 14-17 July, meeting with patriarchs and heads of Christian communities as well as local clergy and laity.

As Patriarch John X headed the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Cross church in Damascus in Syria, World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca shared a message on behalf of a WCC-led delegation visiting the country for the first time since 2008.

In a bridge-building visit to member churches in Lebanon, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation visited Beirut on 7 July, meeting with church leaders as well as the Middle East Council of Churches to hear and carry a message for the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly, to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August-8 September.