The World Council of Churches (WCC) Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration (PCCC) convened at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey from 27-30 April. This was the final meeting of the PCCC for this term. A new PCCC will be appointed at the next meeting of the Central Committee in June.
Marking 10 years since the kidnapping of archbishops of Aleppo Paul Yazigi and John Ibrahim, the Middle East Council of Churches held an “Ecumenical Day for the Abducted and the Forcibly Absented” on 24 April.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order is convening for the last time with its current composition before a new commission takes its place.
I am writing this report just after the celebration of Easter in the West, and I have both a sense of rejoicing that Christ is risen, defeating death and treading down evil, but also a pang of sorrow that we are not yet united in celebrating Easter together.
I remember hearing about “Faith and Order” for the first time. I was a freshman in theology reading Fr Georges Florovsky’s biography, and the phrase stuck in my mind.
“It was with sadness that we received the news of the passing of Prof. Dr Julio Hector de Santa Ana, a reference of ecumenical theology in a liberating perspective,” said Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC). De Santa Ana passed away in Geneva, Switzerland, on 17 April.
Each year, ecumenical partners in a different region are asked to prepare the materials for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year, Christians from Minnesota developed the resources with input from an international group representing the Roman Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches (WCC) Faith and Order Commission. The resources include an ecumenical opening prayer service, biblical reflections and prayers for eight days, and other elements of worship.
In his first address after his election on 19 April 2005, Pope Benedict XVI pledged to work for the full and visible unity of all of Christ’s followers, Dr Stephen G. Brown, editor of the World Council of Churches journal The Ecumenical Review, has recalled in an address to a symposium in Dublin.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order will convene for the last time with its current composition before the new commission takes its place.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Faith and Order will convene for the last time with its current composition before the new commission takes its place.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has offered input for the articulation of the UN’s “New Agenda for Peace," a process intended to update the world body’s approach to peace and security in the current global context. In its submission – which is inspired to a significant extent by the WCC 11th Assembly statement on “The Things That Make For Peace”– the WCC focused especially on the need for greater financial and practical support for peacebuilding at national and local levels, rather than for division and military confrontation.
In a visit to Rome, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation met with organizations that, as WCC general secretary Jerry Pillay said, “keep the fire of ecumenism burning.”
A delegation from the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) to exchange ideas and insights that will strengthen collaboration.
During a visit with Pope Francis in Rome on 23 March, a World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation and the Roman Catholic Church committed to walking, praying. and working together for justice, reconciliation, and unity.
World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay visited the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey on 12 March. His Beatitude, Archbishop Sahak Mashalyan, the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, welcomed the WCC general secretary and congratulated him on his election, wishing him successful years in his service to the worldwide churches.
On 23 February 2023, at a special event at the University of Fribourg honoring his work, former acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, delivered a lecture exploring the question: “What future for the ecumenical movement?”
Rev. Dr Kuzipa Nalwamba, World Council of Churches programme director for Unity and Mission, reflects below on mission, theology, and the making of a better world.