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WCC leadership delegation meets with churches in Ukraine

Against the background of the Russian invasion and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, a high-level WCC leadership delegation visiting Ukraine undertook an intensive series of consultations in Kyiv on 11 May 2023, with church leaders, Ukrainian government officials, and others.

WCC central committee statement on war in Ukraine: “war, with the killing and all the other miserable consequences it entails, is incompatible with God’s very nature”

Deploring the illegal and unjustifiable war inflicted on the people and sovereign state of Ukraine” the World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee lamented the awful and continuing toll of deaths, destruction and displacement, of destroyed relationships and ever more deeply entrenched antagonism between the people of the region, of escalating confrontation globally, of increased famine risk in food insecure regions of the world, of economic hardship and heightened social and political instability in many countries.”

Fr Ioan Sauca: “God is on the side of those who are suffering”

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has, since the first day of the war in Ukraine and even in the months before, been working and praying earnestly for peace in this conflict and throughout the world. From the beginning, the WCC has called for an immediate end to armed hostilities, to stop the war and has appealed also for an immediate end to indiscriminate attacks with an escalating impact on civilians in Ukraine. WCC News met online with the WCC acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca to get the latest update on the work of the WCC.

Brother Alois: Faith in Christ means strengthening unity

The Taizé community is well-known in the churches around the world for its encouraging accompaniment of young people on their faith journey. How has the pandemic challenged the community located in Southern France, and what do the young people thirst for in the time when most of our interactions take place online? WCC Communications learned more on these topics from Brother Alois, prior of the Taizé community, who was visiting the WCC in the beginning of December.

Celebrating Charta Oecumenica, heed Paul's words, European churches’ head urges

If the historic ecumenical document, the Charta Oecumenica, signed 20 years ago, is to hold its relevance for another two decades and beyond, Christians need to continue heeding Paul's letter to the Galatians (3:28). That is the opinion of Dr Jørgen Skov Sørensen, general secretary of the Conference of European Churches, who was teaching in an ecumenical community in Birmingham, UK, at the now-disbanded Selly Oak Colleges, at the United College of the Ascension when the charter was signed in 2001.

In pictures: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Prayers for unity took on a different look and feel this year, but they weren’t stopped by widespread restrictions on face-to-face gatherings. From prayer cards to personal reflections, online gatherings to new connections, the images worldwide convey the spiritual richness of an ecumenical family that came together in prayer.

Churches in France encourage ecological conversion

The Council of Christian Churches in France (CÉCEF) is encouraging local churches to support a recently created Green Church environmental certification label, asking that offerings made at ecumenical services during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity go to help finance the initiative.

Youth gather in Basel for Taizé pilgrimage

Young adults from more than 60 countries gathered in Basel for the 40th annual Taizé European Meeting of Young Adults from 28 December - 1 January. As part of a new stage of the Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth, the meeting took place for the first time in a tri-national region (Switzerland, Germany, France).

The ecumenical Geneva welcomes the Ecumenical Patriarch

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will participate in the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the enthronement of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, organized by the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, 22-24 April 2017. His All Holiness Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople, will be delivering a public lecture at the WCC on 24 April, at 12:00. H.A.H. Bartholomew will address issues concerning the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church -that was held last year in Crete, Greece-, the contemporary environmental challenges and the protection of children rights.