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The Report of the WCC 11th Assembly is an important element of a wider collection of resources that offers a flavour of what took place at the assembly in Karlsruhe in 2022, which gathered more than 4500 people, including 659 official delegates from the WCC’s 352 member churches around the theme “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”

This report includes an overview of the assembly, the message and unity statement, various reflections, an overview of the spiritual life of the assembly, reports of the work since the previous assembly, an overview of thematic plenaries and ecumenical conversations, reports of assembly committees, statements and minutes, messages from pre-assemblies, greetings to the assembly and various appendices.

This book is a collection of all the reports of 23 ecumenical conversations addressing different issues pertinent to the unity of churches and their common witness and service to the world that took place at the WCC's 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe. It presents the deliberations and the ensuing affirmations and challenges that the participants saw as imperatives for the work of the WCC and the wider ecumenical movement in the 2023-2030 strategic period until the 12th Assembly takes place. 

The report from each conversation contains an abstract, short notes on the proceedings, and a list of key affirmations and challenges to guide the fellowship in reflecting and acting on the issues identified.

 As a part of the reception process of the convergence document The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV), the ecclesiology study group of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order undertook a wide range of conversations on global Christianity and ecclesiology. This  included perspectives from various regions (especially Asia, Africa, and Latin America), denominational families (such as evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and independent churches), and forms of being church (such as ecclesial movements, new forms of monasticism, and online churches) which have not always been clearly or strongly represented in the discussions on the way to TCTCV. 

This first of two volumes offers a taste of the insights, contributions, lively dialogue, diverse perspectives, and mutual exchange of ecumenical gifts between the members of the commission and theologians from  around the world, which took place through a series of international consultations between 2015-22.

The fruit of this work is offered with the hope that it will contribute towards a clearer, global vision of the Church in the 21st century.

This multilingual volume will guide the opening prayer of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches on 31 August. In addition to the order of service it includes the text of the homily to be presented by John X Patriarch of Antioch and all the East and the youth testimony Ms Ann Jacob, United Methodist Church, USA.

The spiritual life during GETI 2022 embodies the WCC ethos of holding spirituality and critical reflection together as parts of an integrated whole. In that regard, this Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) is envisioned as a holistic process encompassing formative and informative dimensions of learning. This prayer booklet contributes to holistic learning. It is a resource for spiritual life, a formative dimension of the GETI 2022 experience and learning. It illuminates the theme “Christ’s Love (Re)Moves Borders” liturgically. This, therefore, serves as a resource for (spi)ritual and prayerful reflection for all during the residential phase of the study process that was also anticipated during the online phase.

 

When He Saw the Crowds - Bible Studies 

Und da er das Volk sah - Bibelstudien 

Voyant les foules - Études bibliques 

Al ver las multitudes - Estudios bíblicos

The plenary Bible studies are an important aspect of the work of the assembly. They give participants an opportunity to meet daily around a Bible passage to reflect on the theme and the experience of the assembly. Participants can discern together God’s purposes for themselves and the ecumenical movement. They meet in groups which are small enough to allow everyone to contribute and large enough to give a range of perspectives. The Bible study sessions provide an opportunity for participants to explore the assembly theme together in the light of the biblical texts, knowledge, and experience. To be involved in group Bible study is to be open to one another, to the Bible passage and to the Holy Spirit. It is not to win an argument or to persuade others to a particular point of view. These sessions should be a place where the participants can integrate all they have heard and done in the assembly and discover together the possibilities of transformation that God offers us.

Oase des Friedens: Gottesdienstbuch

Oasis de paix: Ressources pour la vie spirituelle

Oasis de Paz: Recursos para la vida espiritual

This multilingual volume of spiritual life resources is meant to inspire the collective prayer and praise of participants at the WCC’s 11th Assembly, taking place in Karlsruhe, Germany, from 31 August to 8 September 2022, where Christians from around the world, the whole oikoumene, are uniting to rejoice in the love of God in Christ.

This assembly Resource Book, a documentary collection published in four separate language editions, is meant to orient assembly delegates and participants to the assembly process, convey documents and reports upon which the assembly will act, and also link participants to a variety of important background documents about the many substantive matters that will engage the gathered fellowship there.

To that end, the Resource Book will function as a ready documentary reference and resource for assembly delegates as well as other participants.

Faith and Order Paper No. 235

The study document “Churches and Moral Discernment: Facilitating Dialogue to Build Koinonia,” harvests the fruits of the study process on moral discernment which began in 2015. In its analysis, the document describes patterns in the complex negotiations between continuity and change as churches respond to moral challenges. At its core, the study document invites the churches to more deeply understand the significance of “the conscience of the church” in moral discernment processes and points to its ecumenical potential. The document offers a tool to analyse core elements in the conscience of the church that shape moral discernment.

Faith and Order Paper No. 228

The volume features 14 self-descriptions of different traditions regard­ing moral discernment: their sources, the interplay of sources, and the processes of ecclesial deliberation. The different self-descriptions are presented to enable reflection on and provide awareness of how processes of moral discernment are envisioned by the respective traditions. They invite the reader, as well as churches, to study them, reflect on the moral discernment of their own tradition, and learn how others engage in moral discernment.

Faith and Order Paper No. 229

Many of the tensions between and among churches can be traced to the different positions they take on important ethical issues that face the churches and society. Yet, even within traditions positions change. In this second volume examining moral discernment in church traditions, the authors imagine changes in position on issues such as usury, slavery, marriage, suicide, as well as freedom of religion, apartheid, and involvement in war and peace.