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The annual review records many of the WCC’s activities undertaken in 2023 and continuing into 2024.

The year 2023 was one of new beginnings: the WCC central committee met in person for the first time since the WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe in September 2022, the WCC commissions newly convened, and implementation of the WCC Strategic Plan for 2023- 2030 started. The WCC Annual Review includes a special visual section commemorating the WCC’s 75th anniversary and highlighting an unprecedented number of exhibitions that graced the Ecumenical Centre.

The Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will take place from 24 to 28 October 2025 near Alexandria, Egypt, around the theme “Where now for visible unity?” The conference will be the centrepiece of the WCC’s activities to mark the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a key moment in the history of Christian faith and for the ecumenical journey today.
This booklet provides the context for and overview of the proposed conference.

This is the second of the two-volume set Towards a Global Vision of the Church, which forms part of the work done by the ecclesiology study group of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order between 2015 and 2022 to broadening the table of ecclesiological dialogue by going into more and wider conversations with ecclesiological perspectives from various regions (especially Asia, Africa, and Latin America), denominational families (such as Evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and independent churches), and forms of being church (such as ecclesial movements, new forms of monasticism, and online churches), “which have not always been clearly or strongly part of discussions on the way to TCTCV, and whose understandings of ecclesiology we want to discover and to enter into dialogue with.”

The first volume in this set included 24 chapters written from the perspectives of theologians from the global South. In this second volume, nearly all of the chapters have come from commissioners who have worked on ecclesiological issues during this past term.

This book is a must for academics, pastors, or mission practitioners interested in how Christianity expanded in the 20th century through mission work, how this has transformed into World (or Global) Christianity, and what mission looks like in the 2020s and beyond.

The first part answers two questions through nine regional reports. These reports came from an international study process led by the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches for the centenary of the commission’s predecessor, the International Missionary Council, focussing on two questions: What is the understanding of Christians in the Global South mission in today’s world in crisis, and what will it be in the years to come? What hope can the good news of Jesus Christ give to those who are most vulnerable and often wounded through conditions that threaten their existence?

The second part of the book contains five studies of transnational mission networks. Transnational mission networks offer a huge potential for churches and mission actors in their work in a world that is facing many unexpected and overwhelming challenges. How can these networks foster mission, justice, reconciliation, and unity?

 As a part of the reception process of the convergence document The Church: Towards a Common Vision (TCTCV), the ecclesiology study group of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order undertook a wide range of conversations on global Christianity and ecclesiology. This  included perspectives from various regions (especially Asia, Africa, and Latin America), denominational families (such as evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, and independent churches), and forms of being church (such as ecclesial movements, new forms of monasticism, and online churches) which have not always been clearly or strongly represented in the discussions on the way to TCTCV. 

This first of two volumes offers a taste of the insights, contributions, lively dialogue, diverse perspectives, and mutual exchange of ecumenical gifts between the members of the commission and theologians from  around the world, which took place through a series of international consultations between 2015-22.

The fruit of this work is offered with the hope that it will contribute towards a clearer, global vision of the Church in the 21st century.

The second edition of this publication gives suggestions of how churches and other organizations around the world can respond to the climate emergency through investment decisions that are crucial to protect children from global warming. Contains updated tables and reports.

The third edition was published in August 2022 and is available here

With its sister volume, this book is a must for anyone, academic, pastor, or mission practitioner, interested in knowing how Christianity was considerably expanded in the 20th century, through churches’ mission and missionary work, and was transformed into World (or Global) Christianity.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part contains the introduction—background reading for the reports of the study process produced by the IMC Centenary Study process. The second part of the book includes 13 regional reports. Contributions from all over the world analyse and evaluate the impact—or the absence thereof—of the IMC and the CWME from 1921 until today.

What is so important in the International Missionary Council (IMC) and its historical successor, the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, that they will have their own centennial volume?

By reading this book, the reader will gain a better understanding of how important and crucial they have been in the development of the ecumenical movement and of what today is often called World Christianity.

This volume aims to highlight how, in the course of the past century, structured efforts to foster unity in mission cooperation have shaped not only Christianity but even the world.

The WCC, the Protestant Church in Germany and the United Evangelical Mission, initiated a two-year process of ecumenical study and reflection on the relationship between human dignity and human rights from biblical, theological, and victims’ perspectives, culminating in a Conference on Christian Perspectives on Human Dignity and Humans Rights held in Wuppertal (Germany) and online from 9–12 April 2022.

This publication consists of papers received from theologians, people with different academic backgrounds, experts in ethics and human rights, and human rights defenders—together with the joint message of the conference participants.

This assembly Resource Book, a documentary collection published in four separate language editions, is meant to orient assembly delegates and participants to the assembly process, convey documents and reports upon which the assembly will act, and also link participants to a variety of important background documents about the many substantive matters that will engage the gathered fellowship there.

To that end, the Resource Book will function as a ready documentary reference and resource for assembly delegates as well as other participants.

Translations to follow.

This assembly Resource Book, a documentary collection published in four separate language editions, is meant to orient assembly delegates and participants to the assembly process, convey documents and reports upon which the assembly will act, and also link participants to a variety of important background documents about the many substantive matters that will engage the gathered fellowship there.

To that end, the Resource Book will function as a ready documentary reference and resource for assembly delegates as well as other participants.

This second publication of biblical reflections on statelessness presents new perspectives, including indigenous voices and reflections on the meaning of land. These texts can be valuable tools for discussion and reflection during Bible studies in congregations and communities around the world.

First published as Συνύπαρξη, this collection of reflections suggests that coexistence has been an essential component of the life of humanity, however, it is frequently undermined and even poisoned. 

The book shows how violence has taken new uncontrollable forms which culminate in polymorphous terrorism. Human aggression expands to exploitation and even to the contempt of creation, with painful consequences for both the natural environment and for human life itself.

The author views, through a theological and religious point of view, peace in ecumenical dimensions as well as in a specific country; the human being and the environment; poverty; terrorism; and universal moral values.

Συνύπαρξη was awarded the 2016 Free Thought Essay Award in memory of Panagiotis Foteas in Greece. It has been published in Greek, Italian, and Albanian, is awaiting publication in French by Apostolia Publishing House, and the German translation will follow soon.

Campaign guide for churches concerned about autonomous weapons systems, also known as “killer robots".

The guide is designed to introduce churches to the issue of killer robots, and help raise awareness of the need for Christians to act to ensure decision-makers agree on a pre-emptive ban on the future development of such weapons.

Campaign guide for churches concerned about autonomous weapons systems, also known as “killer robots".

The guide is designed to introduce churches to the issue of killer robots, and help raise awareness of the need for Christians to act to ensure decision-makers agree on a pre-emptive ban on the future development of such weapons.

Campaign guide for churches concerned about autonomous weapons systems, also known as “killer robots".

The guide is designed to introduce churches to the issue of killer robots, and help raise awareness of the need for Christians to act to ensure decision-makers agree on a pre-emptive ban on the future development of such weapons.

Churches now agree more than they disagree on many characteristics of the Church and its faith, mission, and life: the responses to the convergence statement The Church: Towards a Common Vision make this clear. Within this growth in agreement, key themes come to the fore, calling for greater understanding, study, and common conversation: visible unity, communion, mission, the role of the people of God in ministry and decision-making, sin and the church, and more. 

This volume presents essays on sixteen of these key themes. Each essay was written by a member of the subgroup of the WCC Commission on Faith and Order that focused on reading and analyzing the responses. The essays were then discussed by the group and revised in light of the discussions. Some of the themes have been prominent since the 1982 convergence statement Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. Others have emerged more recently. 

Together with the report What are the Churches Saying about the Church?, the essays illuminate the many ways in which the vision of unity has inspired and changed the churches, as well as critical areas where future work is needed.

Campaign guide for churches concerned about autonomous weapons systems, also known as “killer robots".

The guide is designed to introduce churches to the issue of killer robots, and help raise awareness of the need for Christians to act to ensure decision-makers agree on a pre-emptive ban on the future development of such weapons.

Call to Discipleship: Mission in the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace is a collection of study documents of the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism 2018-2021. They give an overview of the state of the missiological thinking and practice of the ecumenical movement at the end of the 2010s and beginning of the 2020s. Each study document is preceded by a short introduction.

Studie der Kommission für Glauben und Kirchenverfassung Nr. 235

Gegenwärtige Spannungen innerhalb und zwischen Kirchen sind oft das Ergebnis von Uneinigkeit in moralisch-ethischen Fragen. Angesichts der Dringlichkeit der Angelegenheit hat es sich die Kommission für Glauben und Kirchenverfassung des Ökumenischen Rates der Kirchen zur Aufgabe gemacht, die Kirchen bei der Suche nach einem Weg, das gegenseitige Verstehen zu vertiefen, zu unterstützen. Aufbauend aus den Lernerfahrungen aus den moralisch-ethischen Urteilsbildungsprozessen verschiedener kirchlicher Traditionen und einer Reihe von historischen Beispielen schlägt dieses Studiendokument ein Analyseinstrument vor, um das Wissen über die Prozesse zu vertiefen, zu erkennen, wie und warum Unterschiede auftreten können, gemeinsame Überzeugungen zu bekräftigen und auf diese Weise Koinonia zu stärken. Anstatt sich nur auf die Ergebnisse eines Urteilsbildungsprozesses zu konzentrieren, kann das Verständnis des Prozesses zu einem neuen Weg für den Dialog führen. Das Studiendokument schlägt die Vorstellung des Gewissens der Kirche vor. Wo anerkannt wird, dass Kirchen danach streben, Gottes Willen zu erkennen und zu tun, um dem Evangelium treu zu bleiben, kann ein Dialog mit der Annahme beginnen, dass der Partner aufrichtig ist, ohne dabei notwendigerweise das Ergebnis seines Urteilsbildungsprozesses zu akzeptieren.