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Speech of the Pope Francis during the Ecumenical meeting at the WCC Ecumenical Centre, 21 June 2018

The Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace is dedicated to the accompaniment of persons as they move along their journey, regardless of what their current circumstance might be. At times persons may be so overwhelmed by their past and present that they are incapable to grasp the help which is at hand. Pilgrims often need a patient, listening ear before they can draw the strength to carry on with their physical and spiritual pilgrimages.

Plenary presentation delivered by Prof. Isabel Apawo Phiri at the 11th All Africa Conference of Churches Assembly Kigali, Rwanda

Reflection on Famine & Hunger for the Global Day of Prayer in End Famine 2018

There are all sorts of pilgrimages for which one plans and prepares, looks forward to and anticipates with excitement. This story in Luke 24:13-35 is nothing like that. This is a story about a walk that comes from grief and trauma, from profound disappointment and sorrow. It is a story that starts with the slow steps of the depressed and cast down. But it ends with the excited running of the redeemed, and the joy of finding life transformed.

The fifth reflection of the of the "Seven Weeks for Water", of World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Water Network, is by Veronica Flachier, a journalist and theologian from Ecuador. In the following reflection she turns a leaf from the Ecuadorian Constitution and its national plan for gender equality and poverty eradication, which  puts drinking water and sanitation at its center.  She further adds that Ecuador recognises Good Living or Sumak Kawsay as an alternative to the so-called “development” and promotes living in harmony and in balance with the cycles of Mother Earth and “mother water”.

The fourth reflection of the of the "Seven Weeks for Water", of World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Water Network, is by Rev. Adelaida Jiménez Cortes, a pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia.  She has a master’s degree in Theological Studies and currently she is a doctoral candidate in Education with a specialty in Pedagogical Mediation. In the following reflection she draws a parallel between the situation of Hagar, who had the challenge to survive and keep her son Ishmael alive in a desert without water, to a village in the northern region of Colombia where women have the socially entrusted “responsibility” to fetch water for their families amidst water scarcity.

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.

A prayer written by Rev. Martin Hoegger, Reformed Church of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, for the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches.