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World Council of Churches leaders spoke on the theme “Hospitality: On a Pilgrim’s Way of Justice and Peace" at a symposium on 23 August at the Protestant Theological University Amsterdam.

Heads of churches in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories have reacted with dismay and concern to the Israeli Knesset’s adoption on 19 July 2018 of a new Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which specifies that “The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”

Originally, they were made of pieces of broken glass from the rubble an Israeli tank left behind it when it slammed into the giftshop at the International Centre of Bethlehem (ICB) in 2002. Today the glass angels of peace are made of used bottles and have emerged into a small business enterprise employing around 50 people in the Bethlehem area. Since the tank-incident, thousands of angels have been produced and sold worldwide.

Most South Africans know of Brigalia Bam as chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), where she served from 1999 to 2011. Previously secretary general of the South African Council of Churches, and already an IEC commissioner, she was chosen by then-President Nelson Mandela from the list of parliamentary nominees for this critical role. In a country that had recently been on the brink of racial civil war, she guided South Africans with humour, tolerance and impartiality along the path of inclusive democracy.

“Where is God?” Evoking the desperate cry of a South Sudanese girl stranded in a refugee camp far from home, WCC moderator Dr Agnes Abuom opened the Central Committee’s biennial meeting on 15 June with a stirring yet clear-eyed cry for deeper engagement by the WCC and its member churches to counter the world’s most intractable problems through nurturing hope and empowerment.

The WACC-SIGNIS Human Rights Award 2016 has gone to the documentary film Cahier africain directed by Heidi Specogna, who was recognized at an awards ceremony on 19 February in Berlin.

"I think it is wonderful that ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, we really need this when we see what today’s superpowers are doing. We all want peace on earth!"

Amid continuing tension and conflict on the Korean Peninsula that threatens peace and the security of the Korean people, the World Council of Churches (WCC) called its member churches to participate in “A Light of Peace” campaign during Advent.

"Since 1983 Argentina is enjoying the longest period of democracy in our history – it is a great achievement and that is why we need to take care of it." Pride in the peaceful change from military dictatorship to democracy 35 years ago and concern over recent developments in her country was the message that Estela Barnes de Carlotto brought with her to a meeting in Geneva reinvigorating the friendship between the WCC and the Association of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, of which she is the president.

By unveiling the engaging Reformation truck in the Plaine de Plainpalais park in Geneva, events marking the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation have been launched. Being regarded as a peace city, Geneva has been chosen as the first of 67 stops for the storymobile, full of testimonies and interactive experiences related to the Reformation.

With less than a week before hotly contested local elections, church leaders in South Africa have appealed for calm and asked political leaders of all political parties to help contain dissent. The run-up to the elections on 3 August has been marred by recurrent bouts of violence, intimidation and even political assassinations.

Forty years after the Soweto uprising, leaders of churches in conflict-torn countries gathered in South Africa to study the ways of peace and reconciliation.

Forty years after pupils in South Africa’s largest black township, Soweto, took to the streets to protest an inferior education system and set in motion the demise of apartheid, the release of Nelson Mandela and democracy, disillusion has replaced hope.

“The time has come for healing of memories,” said Fr Michael Lapsley, director of the Institute for Healing of Memories, South Africa, during an event held at the UN headquarters in New York, on 26 April. “This generation will not complete this task, but the next generation will be thankful for the effort.”

In an age of religious pluralism and of religious justification of all manner of atrocities, how do religious communities contribute authentically to the public good?

Hopes and aspirations for peace were expressed on 20 September at the Peace Palace in the Netherlands, site of a “Walk of Peace” held on the second day of the International Week of Peace. The event was organized by the Council of Churches in the Netherlands and PAX, a Dutch peace organization, in cooperation with local churches in The Hague.

WCC support for churches’ struggles during the years of dictatorship in Argentina was praised by Aldo M. Etchegoyen, bishop emeritus of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Argentina.

To strengthen relationships and support churches in Latin America in their struggles for justice and peace, a pilgrimage of church leaders organized by the WCC will visit Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia from 24 August to 7 September.

A three-day WCC consultation has featured diverse perspectives from Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe on the politicization of religion and how this phenomenon contributes to discrimination and persecution of religious minorities around the world.