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Book Launch: Biography of Emilio Castro

28 September 2018

This public event presents the new WCC publication "Emilio Castro: A Legacy of Passionate Ecumenism," a biography of the first Latin American to serve as the fellowship’s general secretary.

Visser’ t Hooft Hall, Ecumenical Centre, 150 route de Ferney, Geneva

Preaching in Toronto about the Pope’s visit to Geneva

When I was asked to preach recently, it seemed obvious that I would speak about the visit of Pope Francis to Geneva in June at the invitation of the World Council of Churches. This would give me the opportunity to talk about ecumenism with people who might not be familiar with either the word or the concept. It would also be the chance to draw attention to the 70-year quest by the WCC for practical ecumenism, that is to say an ecumenism that is about Christians working together to love their neighbour and care for creation.

20 years since the Ecumenical Decade in Solidarity with Women

01 - 06 October 2018

In the context of the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches, the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace and the 2030 sustainable development agenda, an international consultation will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the WCC’s Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women (1988-1998). The consultation will reflect on the achievements and challenges in building a just community of women and men and to strengthen ecumenical collaboration in reading the signs of our times in order to map the future direction of our work.

Kingston, Jamaica

WCC 70th anniversary in Amsterdam

23 August 2018

During a 23 August service in the Netherlands in the Nieuwe Kerk, a 15th-century church in Amsterdam, World Council of Churches leaders will celebrate the WCC’s 70th anniversary at the very spot in which the organization was founded.  A “Walk of Peace” through Amsterdam, and a symposium under the theme “Hospitality on a pilgrim's way to peace and justice”, at the Vrije Universiteit, will also be held on the same day.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

World conference on xenophobia, racism, and populist nationalism in the context of global migration

18 - 20 September 2018

Convinced of the pivotal role that the churches can play in the task of promoting a just and peaceful human society, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the World Council of Churches in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, undertake to host a world conference that brings together governmental, intergovernmental, civil society, academic, religious, and ecumenical leaders and actors from around the globe to reflect and together seek cohesive and realistic responses to the phenomenon of increasing xenophobia [xénos/stranger+phóbos/fear], racism, and populist nationalism in political and social responses to migrants and refugees. The conference is committed to inclusive participation and to hearing the voices of migrants and refugees themselves.

Ergife Palace Hotel, via Aurelia 619, Rome, Italy

70th anniversary prayer service

17 June 2018

WCC Central Committee members will join local church leaders, partners and friends of the council, as well as staff and former staff living in and near Geneva for a 10-11 a.m. prayer service, followed by a welcome drink offered by the local parish in the courtyard of the cathedral. Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I has kindly accepted to give the homily.

Geneva, Switzerland

World Conference on Religions, Creeds and Value Systems

25 June 2018

The first World Conference on “Religions, Creeds and Value Systems: Joining Forces to Enhance Equal Citizenship Rights” will be held on 25 June 2018 under the Patronage of His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan.

Room XVI Palais des Nations, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

Press conference on programme of Pope Francis' Ecumenical Pilgrimage to WCC

15 May 2018

Press Conference I: 15 May at 12:00 CET on the programme of the Pope’s visit with Fr. Andrzej Choromański of the Roman Catholic Church, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches; Rev. Dr Charles Morerod, Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ecumenical Centre, Geneva

WCC, Chiara Lubich and the Focolari

18 April 2018

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of Chiara Lubich's passing, the Focolare movement and the WCC want to reflect on their common path and work for unity.

Geneva, Switzerland / online

April 4, 2018 - 50 years after the assassination of Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr

One of the most well known and remarkable personalities in the history of the ecumenical movement is Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. His name is forever carved into world history and into the history of the churches’ witness in the world. Today, 50 years after his assassination, he is honoured, and he is inspiring the churches worldwide to continue the work he was leading. His message should be both guiding us and disturbing us.

Different but one in Christ

From the face value, the above African proverb “A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn,” means that it actually takes a collection of sticks to have a burning fire since a single stick can only produce a thread of wispy smoke. The same is actually true with regards to our life. It is common to hear statements like ‘let us keep the fire burning’ when initiatives are started, but, most times it is just that, statements because individualism often supersedes collectivism. Little is done to fan the fire and add wood to it to ensure that it actually keeps burning.

Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity

07 - 20 July 2018

YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity) is an inter-religious training programme of the WCC. The intensive training course, held annually since 2014, seeks to enable young Christian leaders from Asian churches to contribute towards the building up of just, harmonious and peaceable communities by equipping them for ministries of justice and peace from an inter-religious perspective.

Hong Kong

Archbishop of Canterbury visits WCC

16 February 2018

As part of the celebrations of its 70th anniversary year, the World Council of Churches welcomes the official visit and public lecture by The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury on 16 February 2018.

Geneva, Switzerland / online

Worlds come together in prayer

A thousand associations come to my mind when the theme is prayer: My Lutheran parents prayed for me and with me when I was a child, and my uncle who was a Baptist minister began dinners with long free prayers. In church and at home we sang Danish hymns with wordings such as: “All good gifts come from above” and “Now we all give thanks to God”.

Faith on public trial

Last weekend, as I watched the terrible scenes from Charlottesville, Va., my heart was deeply troubled, often full of anger, and distraught at what I was seeing. Sunday morning our choir performed Brandon Boyd’s arrangement of “Jacob’s Ladder.” We were privileged to have Brandon Boyd, a young, gifted African-American composer, with us accompanying the choir. His version includes a moving solo with the words, “Is there anybody here who loves my Jesus?” I reflected that those words are what many African Americans were asking in Charlottesville—words their ancestors had sung since they arrived in slave ships.

Echoes from Namibia: an ecumenical spring

I was sitting in the space reserved for media, in the back of the plenary hall, when Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, of the Roman Catholic Church, brought greetings from Pope Francis to the 12th Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation in Windhoek, Namibia.

The Reformation and us

It has often been questioned whether it is possible for Christians of different traditions to jointly commemorate historical events that have marked and traumatized the collective memory of Christianity over the centuries. The Reformation is certainly one of those events that not only changed the course of world Christianity in a dramatic way but that also ceaselessly redefines the basic concepts of Christian theology and life in ways that affect even those who do not embrace its positions.