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Opening an online international seminar commemorating the life of  Dr Paulose Mar Gregorios, World Council of Churches (WCC) deputy general secretary Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri shared thoughts on his ecumenical contributions.

Healing the World: Bible Studies for the Pandemic Era, by David Marshall

Tribulation” is certainly an appropriate description for the previously unimaginable scale of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has affected almost everyone around the world, whether through the direct impacts on our health or the health of our loved ones, the sudden restrictions on all our movements, or the fear of the virus arriving in our lives.

Healing the World: Sorrow without Fear, Bible study in times of Covid-19 on Psalms 42 and 43 by Benjamin Simon

Following Jesus requires consistency between the proclamation of our faith, liturgy and prayer, and the practice of justice that we develop, since the peace of God is a fruit of that justice. This gospel passage allows us to ask ourselves whether we are followers of Jesus.

Justice is a topic widely discussed in different disciplines, and it nearly always includes an adjective that accompanies or complements it and helps us make sense of the type of justice under discussion. Some examples include retributive justice, punitive justice, restorative justice, transitional justice, etc. But beyond this theoretical discussion, what does it mean to act in a just way in daily life? In our path as Christian women and men, what does it mean to be just?

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. 2 He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother.

The several climatic events in the Book of Jonah present all environmental concerns: the sea calming down (1:15), making a plant grow (4:6), and the sending of a worm (4:7), and all play a particular role in God’s plan. They are used in the text as divine emissaries, human begin is the only one to oppose God’s will in these dramatic scenes. The ecological problem and the attributes associated with the creatures remain a fundamental issue from Jonah to our current daily reality. The worm, a lowly creature, is elevated as well as the ephemeral plant. Accordingly, Jonah has to learn that the plant is appointed by God. The ecological reading on the Book of Jonah invites us to the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace in relation to the ecological justice.

The story of Jonah is about the compassionate God whose mercy has no geographical, cultural, political, and economic frontier. The dialogue between God and Jonah (Jonah 4:1-11), which is considered the climax of the Book of Jonah, is an invitation to overcome intolerance and to cultivate compassion. The dialogue consists of two main parts: the anger of Jonah (v. 1-5) and the compassion of God (v. 6-11). In the dialogue, Jonah becomes angry, but God responds to him with two questions: “Is it good for you to be angry?” (v. 4) and “Is it good for you to be angry about the plant?” (v. 9) which indicate the limitless and universal mercy of God. In this way, the story of Jonah invites us to the pilgrimage of tolerance and compassion.

The journey of the disciples to Emmaus in Luke 24 is not a pilgrimage toward Jerusalem but leaving it disillusionment. It is a journey of finding our hearts burning as the disciples of Emmaus’s hearts were burning at the moment of sharing a meal. The text invites us to find our own Emmaus where our heart to be kindled. Each of us meets unknown pilgrims who hide an unknown Jesus, but especially meets and encounters him- or herself, discovers that that he or she has a heart that hopes, eyes to see and ears to listen, and finds him- or herself in full solidarity with every human being. The story speaks about three places in which we meet the Risen Christ: scripture, eucharist, and community. It is a pilgrimage of hope and of expectation by listening to the Word, breaking the bread, and hearing the voice of the other because everyone is created in God’s image.

Resources and tools available for the implementation of Churches’ Commitments to Children

The migration of Ruth to Bethlehem can be understood as a kind of pilgrimage because she chose to immigrate as a form of solidarity with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Her journey of migration changes Ruth’s beliefs, values, and path of life. The text speaks about two stories of immigration—the first one is caused by scarcity of basic provisions, and the second one is propelled by solidarity. We can see similarities between pilgrimage and immigration. There are shared elements of journey, importance, unpredictability, encounters, conversion, solidarity, openness, closeness, and divine providence. The story of Ruth and Naomi provides a biblical understanding of pilgrimage of justice and peace in relation to immigration.

Keynote address by Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC deputy general secretary, at the Consultative meeting towards developing the Ecumenical Health Strategy, 27 February 2017, Maseru, Lesotho.

Keynote address by Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC deputy general secretary, at the Consultative meeting towards developing the Ecumenical Health Strategy, 27 February 2017, Maseru, Lesotho.

Keynote address by Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, WCC deputy general secretary, at the Consultative meeting towards developing the Ecumenical Health Strategy, 27 February 2017, Maseru, Lesotho.

Abram’s journey in Genesis 12 as a response to God’s guidance becomes a pilgrimage of blessings. The unnamed destination of his pilgrimage is encountering people and their land. Abram will become a a kind of “platform” of blessings among other peoples and nations, rather than an exemplar of the exercise of power and control over those peoples and their land. As God commissioned Abram to go forth as a source of blessings, God calls us to go in the pilgrimage of blessings.

Statement of the Participants in the Consultation on “Voices of Hope in a New Era”, Yangon, Myanmar, 16-20 January, 2017.

by Hans Ucko

This biblical reflection by Tiffany Tao and Ruthi Hoffman Hanchett (World Vision Child Development and Rights) examines child rights from a Christian perspective, using the Exodus story of God’s people in Egypt.

Living Together in the Household of God:
Isabel Phiri's speech at CCA in Jakarta
A Theological Reflection
14th GENERAL ASSEMBLY CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE OF ASIA
D. T. NILES MEMORIAL LECTURE
Friday, May 22, 2015
20- 27 May 2015, Jakarta- Indonesia