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Feature story
Outdoor worship service in Stockholm's Sergels Square

Uppsala 1968: The times, they were a’changing

By rights, it should have been Africa. The World Council of Churches’ (WCC) First Assembly had been held in Europe (Amsterdam), the second in North America (Evanston, USA), the third in Asia (New Delhi). Hopes were raised that Africa would be the next continent to host the council. But questions arose concerning acts of violence and military conflicts in Africa throughout the 1960s, from the Biafran region in Nigeria to Zanzibar and Eritrea, from Algeria to Mozambique and Rhodesia. And so the Fourth Assembly returned to the “safety” of Europe, to Uppsala in Sweden. In one of history’s ironies, Soviet tanks would roll into Prague one month after the assembly’s close.

06 September 2022
News
WCC acting general secretary meeting the president of Malawi outside the Ecumenical centre

President of the Republic of Malawi visits WCC with hope for Africa

His Excellency Rev. Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, president of the Republic of Malawi, and First Lady Monica Chakwera and a delegation visited the Ecumenical Centre on 21 February, meeting with World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, the WCC staff leadership group and programme executives.

24 February 2022
Interview
African man wearing a black medical face mask stands in front of a poster at a museum.

Rev. Frank Chikane: “You can’t do unity at the expense of justice”

When Rev. Frank Chikane was leading the South African Council of Churches in calling out injustices of the apartheid system, their work did not stop even after the council’s office building was bombed to the ground in 1980s. Moderating the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs of the World Council of Churches (WCC) since 2016, Rev. Chikane has been engaged in addressing injustices in many parts of the world. WCC Communication asked Rev. Chikane to look back at his term at the commission and the ongoing calling of churches to address injustices in the world today.

13 January 2022
News
View over Johannesburg, South Africa, with jacarandas blooming.

Engagement in international affairs has enabled churches to take a firm stand against injustices

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) has facilitated churches’ engagement in a wide range of critical issues of the world since the last WCC Assembly in Busan, concluded the 58th meeting of the WCC CCIA, gathering church representatives in Johannesburg and online in the 75th anniversary year of the Commission’s creation.

15 November 2021
Document
Liturgical text
God our Father, Creator of all people, teach us to see your image and likeness in all our neighbours of every race and religion, to desire peace and justice for them as for ourselves, to discern opportunities to work with them for the healing of your world, to learn humbly from one another, and to rejoice in the gifts you give us through them.

Morning Prayer for Monday, 1 February 2021

God of compassion and solidarity, we come together as people with open hearts...

This week in the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, we are praying with the people and churches of  Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Western Sahara, Tunisia.

This order of service for the World Interfaith Harmony Week makes use of material from the document Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond, jointly produced by the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Prayers were prepared in cooperation with the Lutheran World Federation.

01 February 2021
Ecumenical movement
News
Masai congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania.

Christians in Africa face increasing violent attacks, repression

An intervention on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) made by Peter Prove, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, in a recent conference on “The Situation of Christians in Africa” lifted up the concern that, alongside the extraordinary demographic growth of Christians on the continent, churches and Christians in Africa are experiencing an increasing number of violent attacks and other forms of repression.

23 December 2020