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The World Council of Churches (WCC), with the Laudato Si’ Movement and other partners, will cohost a seminar in Assisi, Italy, on 15-16 March. Entitled "The Feast of Creation and the Mystery of Creation: Ecumenism, Theology, Liturgy, and Signs of the Times in Dialogue,” the event aims to deepen the collective understanding and appreciation of the Feast of Creation, observed on 1 September.

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.”

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 acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca shared joyful greetings to the Taizé European Youth Encounter as young people self-reflected, prayed, met each other, and together faced the needs of our times.

In the lead-up to the UN climate change conference (COP26), to be held 1-12 November in Scotland, churches are strengthening their collective calls for climate action and justice.

The Protestant Church in Germany and Palermo (Italy) Mayor Leoluca Orlando have issued a joint declaration calling for a European distribution mechanism for boat refugees.

Currently there is no Europe-wide distribution mechanism to accommodate refugees rescued in the Mediterranean in the European Union. The declaration calls for a political emergency solution this summer, and urges a group of European Union member states to act as a “coalition of the willing” and develop a sustainable migration policy.

Pilgrims coming from Germany, Italy and Norway ended their journeys for climate justice on 7 December upon arrival at the St Stephen’s Church in Katowice, Poland, where the United Nations (UN) climate conference is underway. They were warmly welcomed by the delegations of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) that are attending the 24th Conference of Parties of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24).

WCC News spoke to Rev. Henrik Grape, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Working Group on Climate Justice. He was on his way home after attending an ecumenical gathering in Assisi.

From 13 to 17 September 2016, members of the Joint Working Group overseen by leaders of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches will meet at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland. Part of the focus for the meeting, is to review relations between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church.

Receiving the news that Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Peter Turkson as president of the newly created dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the WCC expressed expectation to cooperation with the new structure, as it relates to several dimensions of work and cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.

“Church leaders and other leaders of faith communities played a vital role in Paris,” said Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, in an interview during the week following the COP21 UN conference on climate change.

During the past two years, Italy has experienced massive migration flows from North Africa as hundreds of thousands of people try to cross the Mediterranean to escape persecution, war and mass killings.

"In COP21 we decide whether the glass is half full or half empty, but the glass must be transparent", tweeted climate activist Yeb Saño at the end of a day full of activities engaging leadership and staff members of the WCC, the Lutheran World Federation and ACT Alliance, at the Ecumenical Centre, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Participants in the 2015 Agape International Political Camp have explored the concept of security and issued a call for a “pedagogy of and for peace” founded on justice.

The World Council of Churches welcomed Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si'”, released on June 18, which highlights what churches and ecumenical organizations have been doing for decades on caring for the earth and climate justice issues.