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Many ecumenical pioneers, including former WCC general secretary Philip Potter, were in a sense a product of the Sunday School movement. Ulrich Becker tells a story that seems to be in danger of being forgotten.

At WCC’s ecumenical workcamps in the late 1950s, a young Govaert Chr.Kok of the Netherlands would learn lessons for life – and encounter a very special person.

A conversation on the way home to Chile from the WCC 4th Assembly planted an ecumenical seed that grew into a wonderful experience of Christian unity – the partnership agreement between the Pentecostal Church of Chile and the United Church of Christ.

A trip to Cuba in 2005 with a WCC delegation was undoubtedly a high point of German retired Bishop Rolf Koppe’s ecumenical career.

Local and international youth are gathered together in the Netherlands, preparing for the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Whether as individual believers or as a community, it is our collective task to advocate for Christian unity, says Melanio L. Aoanan from the Philippines. A clear vision for religious and ecumenical theological education is needed that is relevant in the 21st century.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, told the new Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council meeting that its stated theme—“Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8)—not only “points to the most significant contribution of the Lutheran tradition” to the ecumenical movement but also “goes to the heart of our shared mission as churches.”

In a powerful symbol of unity, Christians from North and South Korea sang together yesterday during celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The Koreans linked arms to sing the 600-year-old folk song Arirang that is the unofficial anthem of Korea – the united Korea that existed until civil war divided the country in the 1950s.

For Dame Mary Tanner it was the challenge of the Community Study that dramatically enlarged her understanding of the unity which is God’s gift and our calling. The years of reflection on experience and envisioning the church as a community of women and men offered a chance to change.

The visit to China will begin the celebration of the World Council of Churches (WCC) 70th anniversary. In Beijing on 7 January, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit preached in Chongwenmen Church, one of the oldest Protestant churches in China, on the theme “Jesus Christ, the Joy of the World.”