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Applications are now open for YATRA (Youth in Asia Training for Religious Amity) 2018, 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.

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.

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, will participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos from 24-26 January, 2018. If you are interested in more information or in arranging an interview with Dr Tveit, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Rising populism, racism and xenophobia - how can churches act against this tide?

Practitioners, ecumenical officers, and representatives of mission and church-based humanitarian agencies came together in Geneva from 1-3 September to formulate an answer.

To witness and attempt to understand contrasting narratives of foreign investment-linked development and socio-economic injustice, participants of the Ecumenical School on Governance, Economics and Management for an Economy of Life (GEM School) visited a mining company on 22 August.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, met with church leaders and politicians in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand last week. The meeting occurred almost one year after his latest visit to the region. On request of the church leaders a meeting took place with political leaders to discuss follow-up on the Paris Agreement, peace in the Middle East and on the Korean Peninsula, and the challenges the region is facing.

The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), on 11-12 July, held an international consultation on “Towards Revitalising the Ecumenical Movement in Asia.” The gathering of 60 church and ecumenical leaders was organised by the CCA at its headquarters in Chiang Mai, Thailand as a prelude to its Diamond Jubilee celebration.

Expressing its deep disappointment at US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement the WCC has urged renewed commitment by churches and praised local communities and governments for their reaffirmation of climate commitments.

As the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute 2017 (GETI’17) drew to a close in Berlin on 31 May, participants rejoiced in a sense of renewed ecumenical energy, and of fellowship across traditions, as they prepare to return to their home contexts.

The Ecumenical Patriarch, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, delivered a public address at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 24 April as part of his official visit to Switzerland on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his enthronement as Ecumenical Patriarch and the 50th anniversary of the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy.

An upcoming Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) in Berlin, Germany, has participants like Shahriar Ashrafkhorasani, from the Church of England, looking forward to an experience that will go beyond informative into transforming.

The 54th meeting of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) began today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, marking its yearly regional focus on Africa. During the meeting CCIA members are discussing the commission’s previous work and its outcomes focusing on Middle East, as well as setting strategic directions for activities until 2021.

Thirty-five international students from the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, are embarking on a future of ecumenism, dialogue and unity that began with months of intense study and fellowship.

As another academic term is coming to an end at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute, 35 international students and faculty have visited the Vatican in Rome, to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, engage in ecumenical dialogue, and to learn more about a variety of churches’ work towards Christian unity.

Speaking at a peace vigil on the evening of 16 January in support of International Bridges for Justice, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit described the life-giving environment of justice, and its role in faith.

He earned the title “Green Patriarch” as a religious leader addressing alarming environmental issues over at least two decades. In 2008, Time Magazine named His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as one of 100 Most Influential People in the World, for “defining environmentalism as spiritual responsibility”.

The Ecumenical Institute at Château de Bossey is observing its 70th anniversary with notable speakers, creative worship, prayer services and a book launch, over the weekend of 30 September - 2 October.

The Association Internationale pour l’ Education Sociale Chretienne (AIESC), or International Association for Social Christian Teaching, held its 30th anniversary meeting at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece from 2-3 September.