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As Pope Francis travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo, then with Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, and Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, to South Sudan on 3- 5 February, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay said he welcomes and supports the visits.

Erhard Hermansen is general secretary of the Christian Council of Norway, which has been collaborating closely with churches in Sudan and South Sudan for nearly 30 years. Hermansen attended the South Sudan Council of Churches 2019 Assembly in late August, and shares his reflections and hopes below.

On 26-29 August, the South Sudan Council of Churches held its 2019 Assembly, and delegates issued resolutions related to the governance of the organization, and to the path forward for peace and justice.

The South Sudan Council of Churches, an ecumenical body of seven members and associate members, held its first General Assembly since the independence of the largely Christian and animist country in 2011.

Church and related organizations’ response to food crises globally may need to be strengthened following the findings of a new report which projects millions of people will be without food due climate change, conflict and insecurity.

Rev. Martina V. Kopecká of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church represented the World Council of Churches at a Synod of Bishops (XV Ordinary General Assembly) which met in Rome under the theme “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.”

“Where is God?” Evoking the desperate cry of a South Sudanese girl stranded in a refugee camp far from home, WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom opened the Central Committee’s biennial meeting on 15 June with a stirring yet clear-eyed cry for deeper engagement by the WCC and its member churches to counter the world’s most intractable problems through nurturing hope and empowerment.

A plenary discussion on support by religious communities for the rights of children, and a first draft of the statement of “principles for child-friendly churches,” captured the imagination of the Central Committee of the WCC on 27 June. The document will now undergo further revision and be resubmitted at the next WCC executive committee meeting.

Churches continue to play their role in peace building for South Sudan despite the dashed hopes of many in the world’s newest nation, the moderator of the WCC said at a regional meeting.

The South Sudan Council of Churches has encouraged all parties to the conflict to sign the “Proposed Compromise Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan.”

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan’s diocese of Wau has developed a course titled “Reconcile - Moving Forward in Peace”, inviting people to be peace-builders this Lenten season.

The “pilgrimage is both a way to continue working for the one ecumenical movement and a way to move forward in our times that offer new dimensions, opportunities and practices,” said the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.

At the Central Committee meeting of the WCC, leadership of the Council’s consultative bodies was announced. These bodies will steer through the work of the WCC in accomplishing the call from its 10th Assembly to engage in a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”. The WCC assembly was held in the Republic of Korea in 2013.

Inspired by the theme “pilgrimage of justice and peace”, the Central Committee of the WCC, a chief governing body of the Council, has set directions for the work of the Council from 2014 to 2017.

Situations of conflict, social fragmentation and political tensions in South Sudan, South Korea and Nigeria, as well as struggles of the churches in these countries seeking justice, peace and stability for all people and communities, formed the focus of a session on 3 July at the WCC Central Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.