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After four years as general secretary of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), Dr Jørgen Skov Sørensen has returned home to Denmark, filled with confidence in the future of CEC and its growing influence on European affairs. With a clear mandate to sharpen CEC’s purpose and profile fulfilled, and strategic directions for the future affirmed at last year’s general assembly in Estonia, he now continues an extraordinary ecumenical journey, a journey where the search for his own Christian identity has played a significant role.

No holidays for William Temple, Archbishop of York, early in August 1937. The ecumenical movement for the social responsibility of the churches, known as “Life and Work,” had just held its world conference in Oxford, 12-26 July, with the church struggle against emerging totalitarian states at the heart of its theme and work. Temple had drafted the final message of the conference, known for the motto “let the Church be the Church.”   

«Le Pacifique est une grande région océanique, mais d’un petit poids, ce que nous percevons comme une force et non comme une faiblesse. Si nos îles sont vulnérables aux changements climatiques, à la géopolitique et au néocolonialisme, nous affirmons notre résilience, comme don de Dieu, enracinée dans la sagesse autochtone et célébrée comme spiritualité de l’abondance et de l’hospitalité»; c’est le message partagé au nom de la région Pacifique par Iemaima Vaai, représentante de l’Église méthodiste de Samoa et conseillère pour la jeuneuse auprès du Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE), lors du Comité central.

“The Pacific is a large ocean region, and we see the smallness of our region as a strength not a weakness. Amidst the vulnerability our islands experience to climate change, geopolitical and neo-colonialism, we affirm our resilience as a gift of God, rooted in our Indigenous wisdom and celebrated as spirituality of abundance and hospitality,” said Iemaima Vaai, representing the Methodist Church of Samoa and youth advisor to the World Council of Churches (WCC) in her shared message to the central committee, on behalf of the Pacific region.