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At an Anglican Church in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, rhymes, children’s songs, and noises in a school are constant reminder of Dr Agnes Regina Murei Abuom, the global ecumenist and peacemaker who died on 31 May at age 73.

After postponing their unique ecumenical pilgrimage of peace to South Sudan, world Christian leaders will travel to the world’s youngest nation in February.

In South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the peace and reconciliation work of pastors, priests and lay Christians remains critical for the people, as the global church and ecumenical groups amplify their concerns over the complex but separate conflicts in the two African countries.

Damaris, a Nigerian woman, described her experience of 2020: “We’ve gone through hell.”

Damaris and her sisters were kidnapped in March 2020 and threatened with death as their kidnappers demanded money. Her father had to sell everything and beg on the streets to meet their demands. “We are just a common people in Nigeria,” she said. “We don’t know what we did.”

Recent calls for increased action against hunger by church leaders, faith-based humanitarian agencies and development leaders are finding significance as a new report warns of serious levels of under-nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya on 17 February launched a programme that seeks to empower men to actively participate in the global journey towards an AIDS-free generation.

The South Sudan Council of Churches in its Christmas message calls for peace among communities in South Sudan and respect towards the ethnic differences. Christmastime is a time for justice, peace, healing and reconciliation, the message reflects.

While lighting candles at a gathering of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Nairobi, church leaders, members of the civil society and youth on Monday launched Thursdays in Black, the global movement calling for resistance to attitudes and practices that permit rape and violence.

Unveiling the campaign, Archbishop Timothy Ndambuki, an African Brotherhood Church leader who is the chairman of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, urged churches to hear and give compassion to women suffering violence without asking questions.

On 5 April, the South Sudan Council of Churches officially presented its new website through a slideshow featuring photos from the site reflecting the idea of embracing peace. Several heads of churches attended to express their support for the council and its latest mode of strengthening communication with its members and with peace supporters across the globe.

The voices of young people will ring through the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva on 21 November as part of global celebrations for World Children’s Day linked to other events involving the World Council of Churches (WCC) in different places.

On 23 February Pope Francis has called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for South Sudan and The Democratic Republic of Congo; two countries plagued by conflict, unrest and famine. The call is heeded by the World Council of Churches and all are encouraged to join in the prayer.

As part of a Call to Action issued just before an annual meeting of the leaders of the world’s largest economies, the WCC, ACT Alliance and All Africa Conference of Churches urged G20 leaders to take action to overcome hunger and sustain justice and peace in the Horn of Africa.

Marching through the streets of Nairobi on the Day of the African Child 2017, religious leaders from a range of faith communities in Kenya spoke up publicly for the rights of children and adolescents living with HIV, accompanied by hundreds of people, among them school children from six Nairobi-based schools, as well as dozens of youth volunteers.

More than 600 people are scheduled to gather in Nairobi, Kenya on 16 June, the Day of the African Child, with the goal of speaking out for ending the AIDS epidemic among children, adolescents and young women by 2020.

The South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC) is calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a halt to atrocities being committed in the world’s youngest nation while calling on the international community to speak as one for a peaceful resolution to the conflict tearing their country apart.